Public perfection, private perfidy

Singer Faye Wong announced her divorce from her second husband Li Yapeng via her weibo account in September. Li replied within an hour, saying that the marriage had broken down because of irreconcilable differences. "What I want is a family, but you are destined to be a legend," he wrote.

When the Hong Kong pop star Cecilia Cheung divorced her husband, Nicholas Tse, in 2012, many observers blamed Tse's friend, the singer Edison Chen, who was at the center of a scandal in 2008 when nude photos of himself and Cheung were discovered on the hard drive of his computer when he took it to be repaired. Chen refuted the claims, saying he had played no part in the demise of the marriage.

Chinese rock star Wang Feng spoke openly about his love for the film actress Zhang Ziyi during a concert in Shanghai in November. Although Wang's public declaration of love was made in the form of a song written for Zhang, netizens were convinced that song was really dedicated to Wang's ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend.