Food Scandal.
Last week there were a couple of major scandals that hit Asia.
Let’s start with Taiwan.
Little shockwaves of #metoo movement were happening in Taiwan, from politicians to B-grade sitcom actors, leading to the shake-up and attempted suicide of famous host Mickey Huang (黄子佼）.
I watched Huang on TV (mainly ‘Super Sunday’) growing up so that stopped my doom scrolling.
Here’s an excerpt and translation from a mum living in France via FB:
What happened later made me hope, until today, that “if only I hadn’t gone to visit him that day.”
That day, he came to Tiger City in Taichung to host an event.
I said I so happened to be nearby and could visit the set, and even bought pineapple tarts as a gift.
I don’t remember if the event had started or ended, he told me to go to his room at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel.
At first, everything was normal until he said he wanted to hold an art exhibition.
He asked me to take off my top so he could take pictures and repeatedly emphasized to me that it was for the sake of art. It wouldn’t be seen as nudity, nor be perceived as pornography.
I was so young and his image was so positive, so I did as he said.
A week later, Huang turned #metoo into #youtoo, recording a video, kettle calling black by spilling a full list of other celebrities that were also ‘doing the same thing as I did’, before attempting to commit suicide, failed, and checked in and out of the hospital.
There’s now an army of fans pushing back - why did she go if she didn’t feel safe? Why did she destroy a man’s life after all these years?
I have no interest in actually knowing the truth. I’m really sorry to say this, but just like school shootings in the States, everything became predictable.
Kids, it’s 2023.
Doesn’t matter if you’re female, male, or in-between… never ever visit anyone’s room alone in a hotel. Also, if you’re smart enough never ever invite anyone to your room alone in a hotel, they might be carrying a recorder.
That’s all I have to say.
My biggest question is, why did she have to mention bringing pineapple tarts?
I can only imagine the whole industry going ‘What did we do? Why hast thou drag and forsaken us into the water?’
Second scandal, Japan.
When I was in high school, even all the way in South East Asia, I knew Ryoko Hirosue1 as the ‘innocent’ actress that moved a whole generation.
If you’re not Asian, you might’ve seen her in Luc Besson's movie Wasabi or the Academy-award-winning Departures.
The rest of you, come on, you know who she is.
She’s married twice, with three kids, and was reported to be having an affair with a Michelin-starred chef.
Not any chef, Michelin-starred chef.
A week later, their love letters were made public.
Once again, female fans were supporting her, saying she must’ve been trapped in a loveless relationship, and good on her for maintaining her innocence and longing for true love.
I can only imagine restaurant kitchens in Japan are now filled with chefs chopping onions at hyperspeed going ‘IF I GET A MICHELIN STAR I HAVE A CHANCE WITH A CELEBRITY LIKE RYOKO!’
Kids, lemme tell you something.
I have lived through and experienced some ‘celebrity scandals’ (as a consumer.)
The Hilton scandal, the Kardarshan scandal, the Edison scandal.
These aren’t news. These are gossip.
Gossips do nothing but distract.
From what?
A quick search on Taiwanese news last week lead me to this
On the Japanese front, I didn’t need to go far:
I can be open-minded and say it’s all a coincidence.
Or maybe Ryoko Hirosue’s scandal caused the decline of Yen.
But you know, it’s all a smoke screen.
And I’m really annoyed because the non-news were doused with culinary crumbs. As if, dropping pineapple tarts humanises a story, or emphasizing Michelin-star chef makes the affair even more ‘gourmet’.
No, adults made mistakes. Move on, nothing to see here.
I got caught.
Don’t be me.
Unless you’re going to Japan anytime soon, then be like me.
Buy bucket loads of yen.
My wife said she’s often compared to Hirosue since young. If she’s right, then I married a stunning woman; at the very least a very confident woman with an acute sense of humour. Win-win.
I totally share your food-filter when it comes to reading about news (today, I was extra intrigued by story about Apple and its trademark battles, of all things, simply because its targets included a 111-year-old fruit farmers' union in Switzerland)!
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic about the hotel room comment (which you totally could be!), but I have a different point of view because I've done quite a few interviews in hotel rooms – mainly because when non-Sydney people come to town, they are likely to an interview in their hotel room. It's quieter than a cafe and it's the closest thing they have to an office.
So there are a lot of legitimate reasons to visit someone's hotel room and also you should have the right to feel safe in those cases!
So many examples from the Harvey Weinstein case were women who thought they were going to his hotel room for professional/business reasons. I don't think they should be disqualified from feeling safe because they met him there and he took advantage of his circumstances.
Sure, I'm not naive, I've definitely wondered before going into certain rooms – will I be OK, is this safe? But the crappy thing is that the onus is on women to worry about this and not for society to actually get its shit together and make things safe for women/anyone.
It's a similar thing to the idea that women shouldn't be outside at night after a certain time. But unfortunately (over your lifetime) you read about women being attacked at different times, in different scenarios and often in the place they think would be safest (their home).
Anyway, this is probably not the response you expected when you wrote that and perhaps you meant the comment dryly or sarcastically or with a degree of humour that signalled meant it wasn't to be taken seriously!
Anyway, my hope is that things do get better and your daughter doesn't have to think about these things so much when she's older.
Or at least, if she ever has to do an interview in a hotel room, it at least has a nice view!