Notes » March 2009

Tough to Stomach

In North America, a female celebrity embroiled in a sex scandal gains publicity that helps her career instead of ruining it.

In Hong Kong she goes into hiding for a year, lets the furor die down, and then comes back determined to show "new-found tough image" and that she is "prepared to live showbiz life despite criticism".

The melodrama is making me nauseous, and stems from the destruction of Gillian Chung's carefully crafted squeaky clean image that had been spoon-fed to Hong Kongers from the outset. When photographs of her having sex surfaced (Shock! Horror!) those same people were the first to download them from the web for a good look. Even if they only heard of the story via the media, general opinion was that she had let all of Hong Kong (and possibly the whole of China) down.

You've got to be incredibly naive to believe that a 27-year-old woman is going to stay chaste forever, and let's not even discuss the underlying hypocrisy of finger-pointing, because everyone in this town has skeletons in the closet.

Perhaps the difference in cultural response is because Hong Kong is a small place and it's far more difficult to live things down, which explains why the comeback is receiving a disproportionate level of attention. But Chung isn't helping herself with the attempt at a new persona; she's about as tough as a toasted marshmallow.

She, along with the rest of Hong Kong, should simply try acting her age.

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