Friday, January 3, 2014

The Moon Lee Scandal – the notorious “Closet Affair”

Even though countless happy life-changing things have occurred since my final divorce from Moon Lee, her momentous scandal that ended the marriage still haunts my entire family and me on a recurrent basis.  Not that it was to hard to forget the absurd qualities of her extra-marital affair or her bottomless greed and monumental lies during the lengthy divorce, but her story still fascinates unendingly so many Chinese people.  As a result, the Moon Lee “closet affair” remains a fixture on Chinese social media and cyberspace.  Her unique history-making scandal also often becomes a comical and spirited topic of inquiry and conversation when we meet new friends in China and Hong Kong.

Of course, the open disclosures about the Moon Lee scandal were forced upon me by the very nature of her high profile celebrity status.  Even though the entire matter should have stayed a private and confidential family matter, Moon Lee’s ill-deserved fame among Chinese common folks and her need to blame me for her tragic mistake in life necessitated a candid declaration of the truth whenever possible.  That was why the fairytale life of a darling movie star plunging into sudden darkness became an unavoidable and unending matter of interest.  Human behavior that starts with the sinful and implausible and ultimately becoming silly and absurd really appeals to the imagination of the masses in Chinese culture.  Remember that this is a culture that has no equal in the whole world in given rise to gossip and fascination over sexual indiscretions.

The truth about her incredible extra-marital affair will remain without equal for a very long time.  That is why I have accepted the fate of having my name dragged into the mud in cyberspace with her for eternity.  Even my wife and daughter have accepted that inevitability in good spirits.  And it is particularly because our current life is great that allows us the sanity to treat the Moon Lee scandal as comic relief. 

Nevertheless, it intrigues us every now and then to imagine how life has changed for this one-time beloved and respected superstar.  Sure enough, she still maintains an ignorant yet sizeable blog-fan base.  Seven years have elapsed since the disclosure of her “closet affair” and of course the public persona of Moon Lee has changed drastically.  During the marriage, she was revered as a movie celebrity that made the successful change from actress to an admired advocate for Chinese art and culture worldwide.  Even though she had no experience with musical and dance theater, I allowed her to share the production platform so that she could realize her dream to be culturally and artistically relevant.  But she gave all that up over an uncontrollable incestuous affair with a teenage male dancer, a series of actions that almost decimated the production company that she proudly called her own.


Since Moon Lee’s dismissal from that company, we have all given it a facelift of immense proportions.  What was in old times a performance troupe has now become a successful production company of great promise.  What we will produce in 2014 will shape the history of Chinese performing arts for many years to come.  When the time is ripe, I will make announcements about those projects.  As much as Moon Lee is still ridiculed for her foolish action and choices, sometimes we almost pity her for what she has become.  We wonder what has happened to and what has become of her son who was indeed an innocent victim of two marital disruptions of his early youth.  We only know that for the last seven years, all we know about the once famous and admired Moon Lee is what she is willing to tangentially disclose in her frequent blog essays ---- while never telling about her whereabouts, her career or professional endeavors or her family situation, she only writes about her cooking and her travels.  Alas, she has become a free travel guide and an amateur chef on the Chinese web!    

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