Different public attitudes allow tarnished star to shine again

A VIDEO CLIP of Edison Chen’s speech at the US-China Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development Forum, in which he shared his experiences of starting a business, went viral online. China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Chen impressed the audience with his inspiring speech in which he expressed the hope young people in China will work hard to promote “Made in China”. On domestic social media he was praised for being “patriotic” and “hard-working”.

For the past nine years, his name has been associated with a sex scandal in early 2008, when explicit photos of him having sex with various female movie stars were posted online. Under public pressure, he apologized and withdrew from the entertainment circle in Hong Kong.

It remains debatable whether he has totally mended his public image, but one thing is certain: He won more appreciation than ever this time.

That is in accordance with the changes in people’s attitudes toward celebrities. In 2008, people still worshipped stars as their idols and expected them to live up to their public image.

However, with social networks having flourished in China for so many years, people’s attitudes toward stars have changed. Today, the majority of the people understand that celebrities are just ordinary people. Similar incidents nowadays fail to generate the same outrage.

Reflecting the changes in attitude, several female stars followed a trend of posting their photos without any makeup on micro blogs and joking about themselves, which many fans welcomed.

As Chen said in his speech, “fame is fickle, popularity is nothing but a mirage.”