Chu Mei-feng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chu Mei-feng, (璩美鳳 pinyin: Qú Měifèng b. August 5, 1966), is a Taiwanese TV journalist, former Taipei City councilwoman and the former director of Hsinchu City's Bureau of Cultural Affairs. However she is best known for her sex tape scandal late in 2001, in which she was covertly filmed alongside Tseng Chung-ming, a married Taiwanese businessperson.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Education and political career
Chu was born to a mainland veteran family in Wanhua District, Taipei City and graduated from the prestigious Taipei First Girls' High School and later National Chengchi University with a bachelor's degree in Chinese literature. After leaving school, Chu worked as a TV journalist for several years before she was elected to the Taipei City Council in December 1994 under the New Party (NP).
Chu gained publicity as the youngest elected Taipei City Councilor in the 1994 vote and has long been noted for her outspokenness, sharp-wittedness, and beauty. In 1995 she donated a Republic of China National Flag to then Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian during a Council meeting, challenging Chen as to "whether Mayor Chen admits the existence of Republic of China or not".
In October 1996 Chu held a press conference where she claimed Frank Hsieh, who just lost the 1996 ROC presidential election, and his wife received NT$ 20 million in donations from notorious local psychic Sung Chi-li(宋七力) and spiritually followed him for long time. Although Hsieh finally won in the coming lawsuits, this event still harmed Hsieh greatly (later in 2001 when Chu was involved in a sex scandal, some Pan-Green supporters considered this scandal as karma catching up to Chu).
Before Chu's four-year tenure as Councilor ended in summer 1998, she sought re-election but NP did not nominate her due to her controversial image. Chu's boyfriend at that time was then Hsinchu Mayor Tsai Jen-chien(蔡仁堅). He offered her a post at Hsinchu City Government until summer 2001 when they broke up. Meantime Chu also briefly returned back to TV journalist career. In the beginning of 2001 Chu campaigned under NP for election to the Legislative Yuan's Taichung City electoral district and was seen as a threat to incumbent Shen Chih-hui(沈智慧) even with Chu's shortcomings. Chu was involved with a string of high-profile relationships with Tsai Jen-chien, who was 15 years older, divorced with 2 teenaged daughters, and a member of the rival Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). The October 25 2001 issue of local paparazzi magazine Next Magazine reported Chu's alleged promiscuity and hinted the existence of a sex tape in their possession. Chu strongly denied these rumors, but lost in the December 1, 2001 vote.
[edit] Sex tape scandal
Shortly after this defeat, on December 17, 2001, another local paparazzi magazine Scoop Weekly (獨家報導) published a lengthy story about Chu's alleged promiscuity and attached the exact issue with a 47-minute video CD secretly taken with a pinhole camera, purportedly showing Chu having sex with a man who was later confirmed as married Tseng Chung-ming. This video caused an immediate sensation and was quickly spread via the Internet globally(search engine Lycos reported her name was among the most searched terms in January 2002), despite local authorities' immediate effort to pull all the magazines in question from the market. Chu sued Scoop Weekly for libel, invasion of privacy, and distribution of obscenity on December 31, 2001, despite the fact that such action would mean Chu admitted her prior sexual intercourse with Tseng Chung-ming, and Tseng's wife would be eligible to sue Chu for adultery. Incidentally, a 1999 local survey listed Chu among the three Taiwanese female politicians (along with Sisy Chen and Chiu I-Ying(邱議瑩)) who Taiwanese males most wanted to see nude.
This pinhole camera was later confirmed to be installed by Kuo Yu-ling (郭玉鈴), a friend of Chu's, who was a jobless divorced middle-aged mother with a teenaged daughter. In January 2000 Chu got acquainted with Kuo in a local avatar religious group where Kuo served as a "spiritual advisor". Kuo would never let other people know her real situation; instead, she pretended to be a celebrity[citation needed]. Kuo was able to gain Chu's confidence while also getting acquainted with Tsai Jen-Chien.
In July 2001 when Chu traveled to the United States for two weeks, Chu asked Kuo to take care of her Tamsui condominium; being poor and knowing Chu's promiscuity, Kuo then took this opportunity to install a pinhole video camera inside a stereo set in Chu's bedroom so as to possibly threaten or blackmail Chu at a later date[citation needed]. Tsai Jen-chien also played a role in this event; Tsai was reportedly angered after his separation with Chu, and was seeking revenge (Tsai later claimed he gave Chu more than NT$ 20 million in cash and gifts between 1998 and 2001, including buying her a Hsinchu condominium, but when he asked Chu to return them back after they parted, Chu refused and sold this Hsinchu condominium instead[citation needed]). Local prosecutors later confirmed that Tsai helped Kuo acquire the camera, as well as participated in planning and the post-production of the tape, although it was Kuo alone that installed the camera and sold the tape. Kuo also took this opportunity to pocket NT$ 0.59 million from Chu's bank account, and Kuo's daughter Kao Chun-chun (高淳淳) assisted her mother in these illegal activities[citation needed].
Kuo sold the tape to local tabloids in October 2001. Next magazine and Scoop Weekly finally took it, and were believed to have paid Kuo an undisclosed amount of money. The Supreme Court finally ruled after long time:
| Verdict Time | Defendant | Identity in Dec 2001 | Imprisonment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2006 | Kuo Yu-ling | Chu's friend | 4 years and 8 months |
| Jan 2007 | Cheryl Shen(沈嶸) | Scoop Weekly's CEO | 2 years |
| Jan 2007 | Wei An(韋安) | Cheryl Shen's special assistant | 1 year and 6 months |
| Jan 2007 | Lin Chia-nan(林家男) | Scoop Weekly's editor-in-chief | 10 months, with 3-year probation |
A list of people were originally prosecuted but not finally sentenced. Chu later revoked her accusation toward Tsai Jen-chien because "I don't want to see Tsai's person any more"[citation needed]. Kao Chun-chun was found not guilty due to the fact that she simply obeyed her mother, and her young age at the time of the crime. Shen Yeh(沈野), Cheryl Shen's father and Scoop Weekly's then chairman, was found not guilty because he had no idea about what his daughter was going to do before the exact issue rolled out (although many people doubted its truthfulness and thought Cheryl Shen simply took up all the responsibility during trial). Several Scoop Weekly's employees and the CD copy factory were found not guilty because they simply obeyed Cheryl Shen.
Besides Tseng Chung-ming, it was rumoured that Kuo still held another two unreleased "lights-off version" video CDs, separately showing Chu having sex with Kuomintang official Chou Chih-wei (周志偉, who is also Chu's elementary school classmate) and independent Legislator Tsai Hao (蔡豪)[citation needed]. The single Chou kept silent while the married Tsai strongly denied the rumor.[1]
[edit] Post-scandal
After this scandal, Chu described herself as "a woman with no face at all". Right after the scandal Chu published a book entitled The Confessions of Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳懺情錄) trying to explain her complicated relationships with all the gentlemen above, but it was poorly sold. Most time in 2002 Chu secluded herself to Singapore and China. She was rumored to have been engaged with a Shanghai man in summer 2002 but they soon broke up, during this time her application to Fudan University's PhD program was also rejected. Since 2003 Chu has been staying in the United Kingdom and almost cut off all relationships with Taiwan, rumored to be studying at University of Liverpool but unconfirmed. In March 2006 Apple Daily (Taiwan) reported that Chu had married a young Chinese man in the United Kingdom, was several months pregnant, and was planning to move to her husband's hometown Shenyang after graduation. Chu's family in Taiwan refused to confirm this.
Tsai Jen-chien was also defeated in his re-election for Hsinchu Mayor on the December 1, 2001 vote. He has since retired from public affairs and is currently rumored to be teaching at a university in Fujian Province, the People's Republic of China.
Kuo Yu-ling and Kao Chun-chun immediately gained nation-wide notoriety after this scandal, and they dared not show up publicly ever since. Kao attempted suicide in May 2002 and her education was ceased. This mother-daughter pair were later rumored to have been expelled by their avatar religious group, and changed their belief to christianity since late 2003, being highly pious, and made their living by serving at the church.
In April 2006, after Kuo Yu-ling's lawsuits were finally settled, Chu's lawyer in Taiwan told local media that Chu may revoke her accusation toward Kuo as long as Kuo could immediately pay Chu NT$3 million as compensation. Kuo did not respond and was imprisoned on May 29, 2006.
Shortly after Kuo's imprisonment, on June 9, 2006, Taipei Municipal Court passed a verdict that Kuo needed to compensate Chu 2.59 million NT$: 2 million for the tape, and 0.59 million for the appropriation. Kuo's parents in Yilan told local media that they had not got in touch with their daughter for very long time, and their family had no money for the compensation. Chu's lawyer said that Chu was not considering appeal due to the fact that Kuo was already imprisoned; he also confirmed Chu's married status, but refused to release further details.
Cheryl Shen, Wei An and Lin Chia-nan all left Scoop weekly right after the scandal. Cheryl Shen later became a tarot reading fortune teller and gained some popularity by hosting talk show programs and maintaining her fortune-telling business. She also had a short-lived marriage which only lasted for 4 months during 2006. Throughout the trial, she repeatedly expressed her disappointment about the results, but after the Supreme Court's final verdict rolled out she simply addressed "I am ready for jail" and was imprisoned on March 9, 2007. Wei An and Lin Chia-nan live a low-profile life after the scandal, but are believed to be still working in local magazine industry. Shen Yeh retired from Scoop weekly's chair during the lawsuits. Currently Cheryl Shen's brother Shen Cheng(沈崢) manages Scoop weekly.
The October 25 2006 issue of Taiwanese Next Magazine reported that Chu currently ran a coffee shop with her husband in Soho, London, and she was neither pregnant nor having children.
In January 2007 Chu publicly showed up in Taiwan for the first time after her sex tape scandal. During her one-week stay she maintained high-profile, attended nearly 20 talk show TV programs, and was rumored to receive attendance stipends amounting to NT$0.8 million.
On March 20, 2007 Chu accepted the TV anchor post from the Macao Asia Satellite TV(MASTV) and was reportedly paid HK$ 5 million annually.
[edit] Influence
In 2002 many Taiwanese lingerie manufacturers reported a significant growth in the sales of white thong panties, which is the exact underwear Chu wore in the video.
In February 2005 Taiwan's Legislative Yuan modified the Republic of China Criminal Code, Chapter XXVIII Article 315, which significantly raises the penalty for covertly recording other person's privacy without legal reason. This Article 315 is nicknamed "Chu Mei-feng's Article".
A Hong Kong film, The Peeping (偷窺無罪, 2002) reiterates Chu and Tseng's stories.
