Edison Chen Scandal

Edison Chen is a lucky bastard. Well, until his sex photos leaked, anyway. He gets to bang Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan, Maggie Q and Cecilia Cheung, for starters. It’s just unfortunate for all of them that the photos of their bedroom play have leaked out into the public.

The Edison Chen sex photo scandal has been called “the equivalent of the 9/11 disaster” for the Hong Kong entertainment industry. The sexually explicit pictures taken by Cantopop icon Edison Chen portray female singers and actresses during their most intimate bedroom activities. These pictures were not meant for public viewing, obviously, but were reportedly stolen from Edison Chen’s laptop when he took it to a computer shop for repairs. The images have been spreading like wildfire around Asia over the past few weeks.

In a business that carefully grooms starlets with innocent, virginal images, the scandal is threatening to destroy the victims’ careers and fortunes. The affair has proved to be a shocking revelation of the private lives of a new generation of celebrities, many of whom have been portrayed by PR agents as models for today’s youth.

More than 1,000 stolen pictures are circulating of the 27-year-old Chen and eight well-known women, including Maggie Q, Bobo Chan, Cecilia Cheung and Gillian Chung of the Twins singing duo.

The stars’ loss of dignity has been a big gain for entrepreneurial Chinese. Illegal downloads of the pictures are being sold on the streets in mainland China for prices ranging from 10 yuan ($1.40) to 30 yuan ($4.20). A lingerie producer on the island of Hainan has rung up roaring sales of knockoffs of the lacy underthings worn by Maggie Q in the pictures, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis newspaper.

The scandal has also been gold for Hong Kong newspapers and magazines, which have printed examples of the pictures with the naughty parts obscured, sending their circulation soaring.