Public Response to Gillian Chung's Press Conference

Source: MingPao

For the first time since the Edison Chen photographs appeared on the Internet, Gillian Chung made a public appearance before the press. She made a statement but did not take any questions.

Gillian Chung began by saying Happy New Year to those present. She said that this incident has caused great distress and hurt to herself and those around her. She admitted to being very naïve and very stupid before, but she has now grown up. She expressed her gratitude towards the company, her family and her friends for their concern and support. She apologized for the effect of the affair on society at large. In the future, she will continue to work hard and live actively. Finally, she thanked the media for their concern and the fans who never abandoned her.

Did anyone coach her on the script? How can she say that she had been "very naïve, very stupid" (很天真,很傻) before? This phrase is likely to become the second Internet pop phrase of the year. She can use any other words to express the same idea, but not with two "very's." This is because the first Internet pop phrase of the year was the now famous "Very Yellow, Very Violent". How can anyone fail to draw that analogy?

The Internet forum response has been quite negative. Throughout her statement, there was no description of what the affair was about. The netizens did not take kindly towards her description of being "very naïve, very stupid." People pointed to the KY jelly in the background of one of her photographs and asked: "If she had been 'very naïve, very stupid' at the time when she was using KY jelly in a hotel room, then what is she doing now that she has grown up?"

Why is the Internet forum public so hostile towards Gillian Chung this time? When photographs of her changing in the dressing room appeared in EasyFinder magazine in August 2006, the public was overwhelmingly on her side. But the tide appeared to have swung the other way around. One reason was that her company Emperor Entertainment Group had claimed initially that the photographs were computer modifications. When more photographs appeared, EEG went silent and refused to comment on the grounds that there was an ongoing police investigation. Even at today's press conference, EEG stated that the company and all its artistes will decline comment in the future in the interest of not causing more social harm. The Internet forum users consider Gillian Chung and EEG evasive.

The more significant reason is captured in this comment by the Those Were The Days blogger:

The privacy of an artiste is clearly different from that of a public servant. The private life of a public servant may affect his job performance. For example, when a politician cheats on his wife, the public may begin to doubt his character. Therefore, the public and the media have cause to be concerned about the private lives of public figures. Meanwhile, the artistes only have to be concerned about their singing and acting, because their private lives do not affect their job performance. The public and the media should not be exposing and judging the private lives of artistes.

That might be correct in general, but things are different in Hong Kong. European and American artistes are selling their singing/acting abilities and not their moral conduct and character. I have not seen any European and American artistes who would leverage positions on pre-marital sex, chastity and multiple sex partners to package their images. European and American artistes, especially those in rock 'n roll music, are notorious for being licentious and involved in drug abuse. But they don't need to disguise that because they are selling their singing and not any saintly image.

In the Hong Kong entertainment industry, some artistes have become upholders of morality. They criticize the media for being very yellow and very violent; they preach morality; they say that this or that magazine should not have published something or the other because corrupts young people; they describe themselves as clean, self-respecting and pure beyond belief. In recent years, the government likes to appoint these artistes as their youth ambassadors on account of their influence among young people. So these artistes are happily shaking hands with Donald Tsang or participating in a national day gala festival in Beijing. Do they realize that they are longer just artistes anymore? If they want to be pure artistes, then they should not be staking out moral positions, or acting as government spokespersons, or engaging in politics. If they do so, they must be prepared to sacrifice their privacy and restrict their own private lives because they are now public figures. For example, if an American movie star supports the Republican Party, then the fact that she once had an abortion cannot be just waved away as a "private matter."

In this affair, the citizens and netizens are reacting strongly because certain artistes have been behaving as more than artistes. They are using every means to criticize any negative information and reports about them. They are setting themselves at the highest moral point in order to criticize everybody else as immoral. Why else would the citizens and netizens call the artistes (藝人) as fake people (偽人)?

A while ago, the former wife of a hairdresser wrote a book that exposed the private affair between her husband and an actress. But the media and the public showed no interest and the story could not even make the local news page. Why? Because the actress was just an artiste! Who cares about her private life? If you don't live in Hong Kong, if you don't understand popular sentiments in Hong Kong and if you don't know what has been happening before this, you cannot understand why people feel this way now about this affair.

In August 2006, EasyFinder published photographs of Gillian Chung changing her clothes in a dressing room. In the ensuing press conference, Gillian Chung spoke of wanting to die and never being able to face young people again. The photographs back then revealed nothing except her armpit. At today's press conference, Gillian Chung was beaming with confidence. The photographs now revealed just about everything of her. It is hard not to notice the incongruence.