SOMETHING HAPPEN!!

Hong Kong singer Gillian Chung makes a statement to the press saying she was "naive and silly" after racy photos (bottom, left) that showed her partially nude with singer Edison Chen (inset, left) were widely circulated on the internet.
Photo: AP And Reuters

What started out as a cautionary tale about storing lurid digital photos of past lovers on the computer has become one of Asia's biggest internet celebrity sex scandals and a focal point for censorship in Hong Kong.

Hundreds of photos featuring what appears to be at least five of Hong Kong's best-known entertainers have been uploaded to the internet after being copied from the laptop of Edison Chen, 27, a singer and actor.

Hong Kong police have now arrested nine people for uploading the images, which are being constantly posted and then deleted from message-boards across the region. The pictures have also been posted to file-sharing networks with new images being uploaded daily.

The photo scandal has been front-page news across Hong Kong tabloids for weeks and has led to users almost overwhelming various Hong Kong discussion forums.

In mainland China the images are being reposted to message boards as soon as they are removed by moderators, The Guardian reported.

A single discussion threat in the Tianya message-board about the pictures has attracted 25.8 million page views, with posters sharing tips on where to download the images.

This week the Catholic bishop of Hong Kong, John Tong, was moved enough to ask people to delete the photos.

"It is also biblical teaching that we should speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil," he told the South China Morning Post.

"It is important that we should keep our mind decent and perhaps, needless to say, we should not post or circulate pictures."

Photos show sex scenes

The files were copied from the customised pink MacBook belonging to Chen when he took his computer in for repairs, Hong Kong police said.

The dozens of photos show Chen in separate scenes, some featuring sex, with at least six women, including Canto-pop singers Gillian Chung, 27, Cecilia Cheung, 27 and Bobo Chan, 28. The former two are also actors.

The pictures began surfacing on the internet late last month where they immediately caused a frenzy in celebrity-obsessed Hong Kong.

Representatives of the pop stars at first said the images were faked, message-boards lit up with hundreds of thousands of comments and Chen reportedly went into hiding.

Despite the initial denial about the authenticity of the photos, Chung, one of the country's most popular singers and part of a duo called The Twins, held a news conference on Monday at which she said she had been "naive and very silly" in her youth, The New York Times reported.



Chung, who features heavily in the advertising for Hong Kong Disneyland, refused to confirm or deny that she is featured in the material.

Cheung and Chan have not made any further public comment on the photos.

In a video statement, the Canadian-born Chen asked for the public to delete any copies of the photos.

"The lives of many innocent people have been affected by this malicious and criminal conduct, and in this regard I am filled with pain, hurt and frustration," Chen said.

"I hereby use this opportunity to apologise to anyone who has been affected by this strange, strange ordeal."

A Government mouthpiece, The Beijing Youth Daily, has taken a moralistic tone, calling Chen's behaviour "vulgar" in an editorial today.

"It is vulgar for him to develop the habit of taking nude photos or videos of others," the daily said.

"If the women stars were willing to have their photos taken, then they are also leading a dissolute life.

"If not, Chen is simply a scoundrel.

"In view of this, it is time for fans to reflect upon their infatuation with pop stars.

"Obviously these stars do not live up to their public image. So it is worthless for fans to believe blindly in their idols and regard them as spiritual beacons."

Hong Kong tabloids are now running reports that there are plans by gangsters to "teach a lesson" to Chen, the Times reported, noting organised crime was a key element in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

Edison Chen, a popular singer, actor and TV host in Asia, was hoping American audiences would discover him when Christopher Nolan's newest installment in the Batman series, "The Dark Knight" is released in the United States sometime later this year.


Getty Images
Actor Edison Chen seen here in Oct. 2006.
Instead, Americans are getting their first taste of this young Hong Kong actor via one of the largest sex scandals to hit the Hong Kong/Chinese film scene in recent memory.

The scandal, now known as the "Edison Chen Incident," exploded when digital photographs showing Chen apparently performing sexual acts with other Hong Kong celebrities, Bobo Chan and Gillian Chung, turned up on prominent Hong Kong Internet bulletin boards systems (BBS) and celebrity blogs.

The episode not only raises important questions about privacy and censorship, it is arguably the former British colony's biggest scandal in years and has secured a place on newspaper front pages every day since it broke a couple of weeks ago.

Laptop repair gone wrong
In the days after the release of the photos, Hong Kong police investigating the case tracked the source of the photos to a computer service center where Chen had taken his laptop for repairs. Police arrested eight employees of the service center in connection with the photo release since the discovery, and announced that they believed over 1,300 racy photos of celebrities had been stolen.

In places like Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, where the hunger for celebrity news is ravenous and invasive, the daily leak of new images has kept the story on the tabloids’ front pages, alongside breathless updates on the stars and ongoing legal proceedings.

While the tabloid buzz has currently settled on the stars already exposed in the photos, much of the discussion on Chinese and Hong Kong blogs has been speculation over which other actresses and musicians will be implicated. Rumors of a tawdry video showing Chen’s onetime girlfriend, Maggie Q., who Americans may know from Mission Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard, has kept hundreds of thousands of Chinese netizens glued to online forums and chat sites waiting for updates.


AP
Hong Kong singer Gillian Chung, left, told the press she was "naive and silly" after racy photos that showed her partially nude with Edison Chen were widely circulated on the Internet.

Police handling and privacy rights
Outside of the realm of the gossip reporting, an interesting debate over Internet rights and the Hong Kong police's handling of the scandal has emerged. Concerns over the police's ability to deal with cyber crimes first arose when they were forced to make an embarrassing retraction after new photos mysteriously appeared on Feb. 7 – a day after the police had confidently announced that the probable source of the leak had been caught.

Furthermore, the police have been under fire from both Hong Kong civil liberties groups and legislators after Commissioner of Police Tang King-Shing declared, incorrectly, that even the mere possession of the tawdry photos could be illegal and grounds for arrest.

Shing’s words proved to be inflammatory as netizens nervously wondered whether the police would indeed arrest or punish the tens of thousands of people who had already downloaded or seen the images.

Shing’s interview even sparked an angry protest led by prominent Hong Kong lawmaker and activist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-Hung outside of police headquarters in Wan Chai. The protestors accused the police commissioner of fear-mongering and demanded he clarify his statements.

The seeming ham-handed handling of the case has left the police on the defensive as they now find themselves having to allay public fears about privacy and a perception of selectiveness in investigating high-profile Internet pornography cases more rigorously than others.

The latter problem can be fixed in the short-term through a recommitment to investigating and prosecuting cyber crimes. However, concerns over privacy and government regulation of the Internet will certainly, for better or for worse, draw eerie comparisons to the regulations that currently rule just across the border in mainland China.

Star’s image battered
Meanwhile, Chen, who had developed a large teenage girl fan base in Asia through his singing and acting roles, now finds himself at the center of a nasty public backlash against his carefully cultivated image.

There has been a growing public perception both in the local blogs and many public forums that whether or not these images were made consensually, Chen took advantage of the girls he appeared with.

While he has since issued a public statement via a YouTube video posted on his website (Chen has been in Canada since the scandal broke), it would seem that the damage has already been done. Since the images were leaked, Chen has been dumped from what was to be a soon to be released Stephen Chow (Kung-Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer) film.

While the Hong Kong glitterati have had their fair share of sex scandals, none of them compare in terms of the speed and voraciousness of coverage. It will be interesting to see if Chen can ride out the negative publicity engulfing him, and whether he can parlay it to jumpstart an ailing career, a la U.S. celebrities Paris Hilton and Tommie Lee who were caught in similarly compromising positions.

The Edison Chen photo scandal is a media scandal in early 2008 involving Hong Kong actor Edison Chen Kwoon-hei and various actresses, including Gillian Chung Yan-tung, Bobo Chan Man-woon, and Cecilia Cheung Pak-zhi.[1]

Beginning in late January 2008, racy photographs of the aforementioned actor and actresses were circulated on the internet, through sites such as forums. As of 12 February 2008, nine people were arrested in connection with the distribution of the photographs.[2] The scandal has continuously made the front page of the local newspapers for over two weeks,[3] and has made international news.

Despite enlisting the assistance of Interpol, the Hong Kong police have not been able to stem the spread of the photographs.[4] Their crackdown has instead caused concern over violations of privacy and free speech.[5] The manner in which actors, their management, and the police have handled the scandal, in turn, made those arrested into heroes and martyrs.[6]

Omg i feel so bad for Gillian & her reputation right now! First of all, why in the heck do u take photos of you & another person before u go sleep together, Edison?! Very unclever thing to do....i wonder if he purposely "forgot" to take those photos out and gave it for the repairer to fix so that it would ruin people's rep...

This is might ruin Cecilia Cheung's marriage with Nicholas Tse ....but maybe they have a chance cause i'm guessing the photos were taken a long time ago when she first dated edison...

Wow...Edison is really in a lot of trouble right now....

this is all i can say..

Edison SCREWED everyone (whoever involved in this incident) OVER....>.>

HATE him 4eva....

damn that edison!!!!
Let's see if he want his nude pics from us!
And we'll torture him and making him up into a garbage man!

Lols! At least Edison said sorry and left...

OMG....why?
Plus, that's gross. What is Chen's problem?

omg what is wrong with him now twins may break up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha... it's all happen by fate... nobody's right or wrong... things just happen like a flash... wish them all good luck cause there no way turning back

well it's surprise me....