英文阅读：Between the law and morality
There are many ways to interpret the sex photo scandal of Hong Kong popstars. But the core of the matter, as I see it, is the wrangling between the law
and morality.
On the legal side, it is not hard to pinpoint who broke the law. If you
take your notebook computer to a repair shop and the repairman makes a copy of
your hard drive without your permission, that is stealing, pure and simple. For
those netizens who disagree, let me give an analogy: Say you call a cable
repairman to your home to fix the line, and he gets curious about the contents
of your closet and removes something, that would be against any rule of ethics
or law. There is no way you can explain it away by saying you stumbled upon it
or the item you took could be incriminating evidence against the customer.
If the repairman happened to notice Edison Chen's photos - the actor at the
center of the scandal - which he felt were immoral or illegal, he should have
called the authorities instead of snooping around other people's private
lives.
What Chen did with his lovers was not illegal if (a) the women were not
coerced, (b) they were not underage when the photos were taken, or (c) he did
not intend to publicize the photos. From what we know now, it seems to be the
case. So, from a legal perspective, Chen and the starlets were victims.
Yet, when you search and research online, the predominant reaction is
against Chen, and not the one who filched his digital files. That is because the
digital thief did not seem to have any commercial or malicious intention. He
just shared his loot with some friends, and one of them could not resist the
temptation to share it with the vast online populace.
It is obviously inappropriate to spread photos of such a private nature,
but one cannot equate the human weakness of curiosity with the deliberate
violation of the law. If anyone who has looked at the images has broken the law,
there would not be a prison large enough to hold all the offenders.
The Hong Kong police belatedly tried to draw a fine line between those who
share with friends and those who transmit indiscriminately, but it only turned
the incident into an endless stream of titillation.
Moreover, by actively prosecuting the case, the Hong Kong police caused a
backlash from netizens who accused the police of selective enforcement of the
law: Why do you go after a few net users while everything was initiated by the
star? They argued.
True, Chen and his bedfellows should help the police in their
investigations, but what they did falls mostly into the moral realm. The
licentiousness may have caught many by surprise. That is because ordinary people
were duped by the giant machine of the entertainment industry, which excels at
fabricating the public personas of pop idols.
Chen is portrayed as a nice, wholesome boy and Gillian Chung, one half of
the singing duo, The Twins, as an innocent girl who believes in chastity before
marriage. Those who believe this are simply fools. Wake up! What you see is just
a role they play.
You would be disillusioned if you see them as role models. Many are not,
except for their good looks. I do not sympathize with them because when they get
into the business of being an idol, they implicitly follow the rules and play
their roles, agreed or thrust upon them. If they play fast and loose, they must
be held responsible for the occupational hazards that may ensue.
The age of innocence has long gone. This scandal only makes it clearer.
E-mail: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
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