He loves me, he loves me not

A heartthrob's sex scandal is not only a cautionary tale for celebrities and fans, but also a lesson in the changing codes of conduct in our fast-paced and highly connected society

This could have been the most trivial breaking news last month. While a movie star's sex scandal can hardly excite someone who's never viewed such public personalities as role models, the ensuing discourse is fascinating because it provides a perfect window into the changing social mores in an era when nothing seems constant.

Wu Yifan, or Kris Wu, is a 26-year-old entertainer who sings and acts in movies. But like his fellow heartthrobs, collectively known as little fresh meat in China, he is known mostly for his good looks.

On Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, he has 18 million followers, and many of them would have been going through hell these past several weeks. The torment came in the form of an accusation from a young woman (let's call her G) who hinted that Wu had dumped her.

Public feedback may shed light on the Chinese view of premarital sex. Some argue that a highly polished idol like Wu would never stoop so low. Yet many others argue that it's normal for a young, single man to engage in such behavior.

Wu's diehard fans tend to belong to the camp that believes the former.

At this point, the public had assumed that G was Wu's "girl" for just one night, a euphemism for the Chinese coinage that is decidedly more abrasive. (The Chinese language doesn't seem to have an equivalent for groupie.)

Many viewed G as an ambitious social climber who wanted to take advantage of a one-night stand. G's accusation (actually, less an accusation than a hint of her relationship with him) came with some evidence, such as snippets of a recording, but it was instantly dismissed by Wu's agency as "pure fabrication".

As if to rebuff the public assumption that she was just a groupie, G started releasing a stream of material, including hundreds of snapshots of her supposed conversations with Wu over WeChat, the instant-messaging app.

Both Chinese emigrants to Canada, G and Wu met in Vancouver. According to her, Wu initiated the affair in January and they had some wonderful times together, cuddling in Canadian hotels for weeks at a time, away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. Months later, she discovered he was cheating on her, and he simply stopped responding to her calls or messages except that, after her first exposure, he "threatened her to shut up".

G says she issued her first semi-public plea (it did not name names) to get him to give her an explanation. The surprise was that a dozen other women also came forward, saying they had similar experiences with him. Some backed them up with photos of Wu sleeping next to them.

According to Zhuo Wei, China's most famous (or infamous) paparazzo, who arranged an exclusive interview with her, G has more stronger evidence up her sleeve.

Zhuo didn't say what she wants from Wu, whether it be an apology or some form of compensation. She says only that she wanted the public to know "what kind of person he really is".

OK, Wu could be a latter-day Don Juan who had a five-month affair and failed to commit. Is he in the habit of unceremoniously ending a relationship, or was it just a fling? That, of course, is assuming everything G says is true. By the time this article went to print, Wu and his agency had not made any public response.

Had this happened 20 or 30 years ago, Wu's reputation would have been dragged through the mud. A public figure, especially one in showbiz, was by default someone on a pedestal.

In the late 1980s, the early days of China's opening-up, Chi Zhiqiang, a frequent male lead in romantic comedies, was thrown into jail for essentially the same thing. Chi tried to stage a comeback by singing "songs of regret" after his release.

Wu is lucky, as we're living in a more tolerant time. He should also thank Edison Chen for absorbing the first shock. When a hacker released Chen's sex photos online in 2008, it effectively ended his entertainment career, even though many belatedly realized he was the victim rather than the perpetrator in that case.

After G released her second wave of evidence, the public response became even more fractured. The number of those with unwavering trust in Wu dwindled, and support for her grew. It helped that she showed lots of tentativeness when Wu was hot on her, and also that her family turned out to be wealthy, making her exposure less likely an act of extortion, at least in the public's mind.

All this was expected, but I found it ironic that some women say the revelation actually had the opposite effect. Their attraction for Wu did not take off until they read his WeChat dialogue with G, in which he showed lots of "sweetness". Well, isn't that the prerequisite for being a Don Juan? Lord Byron got away with much worse behavior.

Perhaps I should not call it a growing consensus, but it seems more people are taking the line that it was OK for Wu to "have dated" this young woman, whether she's a fan or not, and whether he was serious or not. They found it distressing that he would brush her aside without giving an explanation. (He did give one, though, but it's a veiled threat that she would suffer consequences if she did not stop.) It was not "man" of him to end it that way, they charge.

Morality aside, both Wu and G could justify what they did. He could have dated her and found her unsuitable for whatever reason. She was on a tightrope fearing she would fall off his radar of affection any time. On a cynical note, he could be using her as a quick fix for his libido, and she could have been saving every little bit of evidence for the consequences.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it would be her own conclusion: "I don't believe in fairy tales anymore." The dream machine churns out fairy tales, and that includes the prettily decked-out heartthrobs with their dreamy eyes, but the machine itself is anything but a fairy tale.

Contact the writer at raymondzhou@ chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 07/02/2016 page22)