RELEASE OF PICTURES OF HONG KONG STARS IN THE NUDE IN VARIOUS COMPROMISING SITUATIONS SETS TONGUES WAGGING ACROSS ASIA

WARNING: Images after the jump are NOT safe for work (unless you happen to be a blogger working from home)

Hong Kong celebrities Edison Chen (陈冠希), Bobo Chan (陈文媛), Gillian Chung (钟欣桐) and Cecilia Cheung (张柏芝) are currently embroiled in an embarrassing sex photo scandal that has whipped up a storm in the territory and the rest of the Chinese-speaking world. It all started on 27 January when various photographs of people resembling the above-named celebrities were all posted one after the other including the Hong Kong Discussion Forum and free.photo.girls.hk. The photos in question included:

• A girl resembling Gillian Chung (from the squeaky-clean group Twins) with breasts peeking out from her bikini and her legs spread apart. In another picture, a man resembling Edison Chen performs cunnilingus on her.
• A girl resembling Bobo Chan (Edison Chen's ex girlfriend) performing fellatio on him, with his love lollipop in full glory.
• A dazed-looking Cecilia Cheung posing in uniform in one picture, and nude in a bathroom in another.

As ESWN points out, the pictures were released in a phased rollout, leaving eager netizens "waiting all night and all day at the various bulletin board systems in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China". Chung's company, Emperor Entertainment, soon declared the pictures to be photoshopped fakes and Ming Pao Daily News, Apple Daily, Oriental Daily News and The Sun took that position in their front page stories subsequently. But as more and more photos were released into public domain, the newspapers soon changed their tune.

Netizens say the bathroom the Cecilia Cheung lookalike was photographed in looks like that of Edison Chen's as seen in his blog. She also sports the same belly ring, earring and tattoos as the real Cecilia Cheung. Various photography experts have also told the media that the pictures do not seem modified. Even the Hong Kong cops soon conceded that the pictures appear real.

Obviously, Shanghaiist is a respectable blog, and there is NO WAY we're telling you how to get a hold of those pics. (We've been told if you Google or Baidu hard enough, you will get what you want. Be careful of the viruses lurking out there when downloading stuff though!) Let's just say that after getting hold of the whole set of pics (including some high resolution ones), we found it hard to believe that the pics were doctored.

Our journalist friends (around the region) also tell us of how their colleagues have been gathering around computer monitors perving analysing the entire range of pictures together. Most of them appear to have made up their own minds. Among the exclamations frequently heard in offices and at lunch across Asia this week: "OMG! Cecilia is so hairy! She could use a shave!" and "Oh dear! He is so small!"

Edison Chen, currently in Boston, took a while to break the silence on his blog:

yes i have been silent and everyone thinks i am hiding but today there will be a press release and i hope u can all read from that and report the TRUTH and do some homework before trying to ruin someone’s life, cuz that is exactly whut u are all doing to me putting false statements on the FRONT PAGE sex photo scandal ever of newspapers and to others as well

That, unfortunately, may have come too little, too late. Reports are now saying that Gillian has attempted suicide following the scandal. And Cecilia's husband Nicholas Tse 谢霆锋 (who used to date Faye Wong 王菲), has threatened divorce, although his father Patrick Tse 谢贤 has since denied those rumours.

In the meanwhile, police have raided a computer store in Hong Kong and nabbed eight people in all, four of which are currently out on bail. How did these people get hold of the pictures you ask? Sing Pao has the answers [Translation by ESWN]:

According to an informed source close to the person who was the source of the photographs, several months ago Edison Chen sent his pink Apple Powerbook laptop to a Central computer shop for repairs. The technician made the accidental discovery that there were several hundred photographs and videos of Edison Chen and/pr more than a dozen celebrities/artistes (many of whom were listed by the media and netizens as prime suspects after the first photographs of Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan and Cecilia Cheung appeared), and he downloaded them onto his own computer.

The informed source said that the technician only intended to keep the material for his own enjoyment. Then one day he invited some friends over to his Ma On Shan apartment to play mahjong and he casually mentioned that he had some "good" stuff to show them. When his friends saw the material, they were astonished and lobbied him to post to the Internet. He did not want to do so himself, because he knew that Edison Chen has his contact information. So finally a female friend agreed to undertake the task of posting onto the Internet. That was how it happened.

Note: Shanghaiist has not publicised any pictures apart from those that are already in the public domain through the mainstream media.

UPDATE: The Edison Chen sex scandal rages on with more pictures released by mystery man!!!
UPDATE 2: Jolin Tsai, Maggie Q, Vincey Yeung sucked into Edison Chen scandal; Gillian Chung admits involvement
UPDATE 3: Edison Chen sex scandal: Witchhunt hits China
UPDATE 4: Edison Chen stuns Hong Kong by quitting showbiz
UPDATE 5: Someday, China may look back at the Edison Chen scandal and thank the man for its privacy laws

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