The following is one entire chapter from my book,
The Two Faces of the Moon, which details the total factual account of her scandalous extra-marital affair that ended our marriage. It is lengthy and complete and offered here ONLY for the express purpose of putting it on the record. It is only intended for the rare curious reader who has the special interest to understand the complete factual account. No one in the world, including Moon Lee, can show that any of the following account is inaccurate. As a matter of fact, even to this day, I have many eye-witnesses that will swear that this account is complete and accurate.
Chapter:
2004 – THE FALL OF AN ANGEL
For Moon Lee, the spring of 2004 was the defining moment for her life.
At that time, I was still her caring and loving husband and she was very much the picture perfect wife. With two adorable children, the Dennis Law family seemed flawlessly happy. No one could have guessed that forces were already set in motion to change that forever. Moon had started on a treacherous journey in 2004 from which there would be no return.
This is an uncompromisingly true account of Moon Lee’s fall from grace. Even as her ex-husband, I will show why there was no reason at any time for me to convey to the world anything but the whole truth. As an educated and recognized professional with a successful track record in countless endeavors throughout life, I would have no motive whatsoever to concoct a crazy story about forbidden love involving my celebrity wife. In Colorado where “no-fault” divorce laws are in effect, I could have obtained a divorce for any reason with essentially the same impact on my finances. As unbelievable and unconscionable as it might seem, the following is the real story devoid of any embellishment or exaggeration.
I know for certain that truth sets me free. I hope Moon will one day learn that lesson too. This truth will also help people who are interested gain a better appreciation of the facts and circumstances. It will also hurt certain people and for that I make no apologies. These are the facts of life. Embrace them and you will be wiser for it. Deny them and you will just prove that you have been blindfolded by the devil herself.
This love story with a tragic ending began in June of 1996. I guess that the real beginning was when I first set eyes on Moon Lee. I am not implying that there was love at first sight. That would be gross exaggeration and not factual at all. Yet it is theoretically accurate that the beginning of the fatal attraction was the very first encounter.
Our courtship, marriage and early years have been covered in the chapter Before the Storm, under the section My Life. But in telling the true story behind the downfall of this “angel”, I sincerely believe that it began with my entry into the area of producing and directing musical theater. Moon Lee’s many triumphs in her career involved her love of dance, but it turned out that it was the same love of dance that contributed to the downfall of this celebrity giant. It was this incredible love of an art form that afforded her the opportunity to reveal her weakness --- in the setting of something she adored and worshipped, Moon Lee was unable to control her emotions when it really counted.
Let this angel’s descent from heaven to hell began with the production of the world’s first Action-Musical Of Heaven & Earth in 2002. In this first work, I was the writer, producer and director and Moon was a co-producer. After the script was completed to my satisfaction, I sought advice from a Beijing film producer who in turn introduced me to Tim Yip to use as art director for the new show. I flew to Taipei to meet Tim Yip for the first time and he was then just about to embark on the art direction of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Tim liked the idea behind this concept of Action-Musical and agreed to do the project. My next mission was to appoint a composer to write the original score while Moon took to the task of finding a suitable choreographer. I remembered that it took several attempts to finally come up with a choreographer who would comply with my requirements and conditions. I was determined to produce something so non-traditional by Chinese standards that it was not easy to find the talent who would be willing to cooperate. After all, I was financing the whole production too and so the end result must be something I believed the western marketplace would like, not what some local choreographer could like himself. Choosing the suitable composer was also a new and different challenge. I recall that even after I had decided on one, based on gut feeling more than anything else, it was quite an arduous task to force him to follow a whole new set of non-traditional instructions. At the end, I had to add another young composer to finish the task because the first composer ran into some kind of a “mental block” and would not have finished the project in time for rehearsals. Moon assisted with all this production coordination but her real asset was helping me communicate effectively with all the non English-speaking participants.
Of Heaven & Earth world-premiered in Beijing in August of 2002 with three performances at the Poly Theater. As it was my first work of this nature, I was careful enough to surround myself with enough professionals (even some brought in from Hong Kong) so that the show came off without glitches that an audience would notice. All in all, I was astonished by entertainment value of this mixture of action elements especially if they could all be placed together on the same stage. The combination of dance, acrobatics, martial arts and Beijing opera all in the same “dance drama” had been unprecedented. Some newspapers accused me of mixing elements and making “chop sue”. But I soon noticed that since the launching Of Heaven & Earth, all subsequent dance dramas in Beijing contain other movement elements to provide for a change of pace. Many other conventional dance dramas started to include segments of acrobatics. I eventually satisfied myself that imitation was the best form of flattery and busied myself with the work finding a way to reproduce the show to test the response from a North American audience.
In working side by side with Moon in launching this new genre and new production, I actually believed that the cooperation was gratifying and successful. It was my original idea to create such a production for North American audiences and I was using funds afforded by the Law family. Therefore, although I clearly listened and paid attention to all of Moon’s suggestions, the final decision had to be mine to make. I was more attuned to the taste of western audiences and my script had to be executed in a way that worked for them. When the three performances of Of Heaven & Earth were over, I was shocked when Moon revealed to me one morning in bed as we awoke that we had a relationship crisis because she felt that “I had never listened to her.” I realized she must have been used to getting her way with everything so I patiently explained to her that in developing new businesses and in producing something that was my original idea and funded by Law family money, it was natural that I must have final control. I tried to convince her that even though she had an intense personal interest in the field of Chinese dance, she did not have enough experience in business management and execution to have the final say. I was willing to compromise and agreed that we will try to define areas of responsibilities in the future so we could avoid conflict. Clearly there were areas that her skills and her womanly instincts with a dance background would be advantageous.
In the following few months, I went around North America inquiring about how to launch a new Broadway-type show. A business friend revealed to me while I was researching in Toronto that the former Ford Centre in Vancouver had been closed for three years and might be for sale for a very low price. I flew to Vancouver to investigate this theater as a real estate investment opportunity for the Law family. After some lengthy and complex analysis by our own real estate company in Denver, the Law family purchased this theater for $7,500,000 Canadian dollars as an investment opportunity because this transaction price was a mere fraction of the building’s replacement cost. My research had revealed that this was one of the finest Broadway theaters ever built and was also designed as a monument building by Canada’s most famous international architect. Therefore, media reports that the purchase of The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts was a gift to Moon Lee was de facto an absolute error. In fact, not only did Moon have nothing to do with the decision to purchase the theater, but also she did not even have any involvement in the theater’s subsequent management. She only had occasions to be a visiting co-producer when my shows were playing at The Centre. My family’s business did provide her with office space to use there because she was the wife of the president of the production company Sight, Sound & Action.
However, the truth of the matter was that The Centre in Vancouver was not even purchased for launching my Action-Musicals. The acquisition was made because it seemed like an interesting real estate investment opportunity. Its presence as part of the Law family real estate portfolio just afforded me the opportunity to use it if the programming made business sense. On that basis, Of Heaven & Earth opened in Vancouver and ran for three weeks with twenty-eight performances in May of 2003. The audience reception was great and the box-office exceeded 1.2 million dollars for the short run. On account of the extremely high running cost due to Tim Yip’s impractical scenic design and scenic execution, the run of the show was not profitable. However, it did reveal that there could truly be a market for the new genre of Action-Musicals. During the execution of those productions of Of Heaven & Earth in Vancouver, I do not recall having any dispute with Moon. Quite to the contrary, I continued to believe that this was a match made in heaven and the entire family was blessed.
After the initial success of the North American premiere of Of Heaven & Earth as the world’s first Action-Musical, the production company of Sight, Sound & Action was considered formally launched. On account of Moon’s history as a Hong Kong celebrity, her involvement in the show received a great deal of publicity. The amount of publicity was actually way out of proportion to her actual contribution to the show or to the company. There was no question that Moon’s personality and attitude made her a media darling. The Chinese press gravitated towards Moon and regarded her as the primary producer of the show and the force behind the production company. In truth, the marketing materials for all the shows had always granted me credit as writer, producer and director and Moon Lee as only a producer. Yet I did not mind having her in the limelight. After all, she was my wife and a seemingly dedicated assistant. Any publicity was good publicity for the show and the company.
Almost immediately after the Vancouver run of Of Heaven & Earth, I went to work writing the script for Terracotta Warriors. I believed that this would be an attractive Chinese topic to turn into an entertaining Action-Musical for international audiences. As usual, after the script was finished to my satisfaction, I did my work as director by making important decisions about the nature of the music, the art direction and the type of movement and dance. As all these creative elements were put into motion, my Beijing office and I made a deal with the China Song and Dance Company in Beijing to provide the dancers for the show. As one of the largest central government owned performing arts troupes in Beijing, they were to provide nearly fifty corps de ballet dancers and all the principal dancers for the production. Our company filled out the roster with martial artists and acrobats invited from other entities to provide a cast of nearly ninety people to tour the biggest Chinese show ever in North America in the summer of 2004.
As rehearsals began for Terracotta Warriors in early 2004, positions were still open for the principal role of the comedic eunuch Zhao Gao. This role was not one that required virtuosity in dance skills but rather one that required the artist to be willing to be uncommonly comical and to play it like a Chinese drag queen. I personally handpicked then eighteen-year old Zong Tianyi out of the crowd of corps de ballet dancers to test him in this role because I saw in him certain qualities that might make him suitable for the kind of comedy I was striving for. The managers of the China Song & Dance Company objected to my choice because they claimed that Zong was their lowest rated dancer and therefore not qualified. Since I was the director and the investor, my firm decision prevailed. From that time onwards, the previously unknown and lowly rated Zong Tianyi became one of the principal dancers of my company. Even at that early time of the company’s history, I had anticipated that all my productions would have comedic roles to provide comic relief for the audience. To his credit, Zong worked very hard at all times and certainly showed promise during the entire rehearsal period. After all, what I was giving him was an opportunity of a lifetime.
When Terracotta Warriors opened as a world premiere in Vancouver for twenty-six performances, Zong Tianyi was in a rotation as one of three eunuchs. He surprised me with his acting skills in executing this role although his dance skills were certainly inferior to the other two accomplished dancers playing the same role. So even to become the “third string” Zhao Gao was quite an honor for such a young performer. The performances of Terracotta Warriors were well received and the box office results were gratifying. Yet the company knew it would be facing some serious challenges. Even before we started rehearsals in Beijing, the two dance troupe managers for the China Song and Dance Company had asked for under the table bribe outside the scope of the contract. Their request was denied and this created a great deal of animosity that was initially suppressed. By the time the troupe had commenced performing in the North American tour, it was clear that there would be constant sabotage. Rebellious and uncooperative behavior of the dancers was clearly encouraged by their own manager. Only several dancers stood along side my company and one of them was Zong Tianyi. He stood out as a leader in helping to suppress the rebellion by his fellow troupe mates. Terracotta Warriors accomplished a seventy-two performances tour of Vancouver, Toronto, and Denver. Although the performances were successful and received great audience acclaim, the management of the company was immensely difficult.
Upon returning to Beijing, our company’s general manager Jason Wang complained to the directors of the China Song & Dance Company about the behavior of the large proportion of their dancers and their accompanying manager. Curiously, while the directors of the government-owned troupe admitted misconduct and agreed to discipline their artists accordingly, they also returned with an accusation that they heard my wife Moon Lee was having an affair with Zong Tianyi. At the same time, Jason Wang also informed me he had heard the same rumor from the associate choreographer who was traveling with the troupe. This choreographer claimed he overheard what seemed like a lovers’ quarrel between Moon and Zong behind closed doors at one of the theaters. Both Moon and I felt the accusations were absurd and we dismissed it as just intentional insults because Moon had been just too strict of a disciplinarian and had incurred the wrath of many in the company. Moon actually wrote a letter to the Director of the China Song & Dance Company and complained about the insulting rumors (Exhibit 2). At that time, I had absolutely no reason to suspect any foul play. Moon seemed to be an exemplary wife on all fronts. I really could not detect any suspicious behavior of any kind and nothing seemed to be lacking in our marriage. From any angle, Zong was a laughably absurd choice as the target of her special affection. Our children were attractive, intelligent, and well mannered and they adored their parents. Married life could not have been any better.
During all this time, Zong Tianyi communicated with us often and continued to be supportive of my company and me and helped devise strategy to use against his own troupe. I felt that he was loyal and hard working and because he sided with us, I thought he became the target for teasing that was just in bad taste. Feeling that both Moon and Zong were both victims, I was the one who suggested that we make Zong our adoptive son to take some pressure off the gossip. I thought that would legitimize why he was always around us. After it was all decided, Zong’s parents were invited to Beijing from his small hometown and we all had a ceremonious dinner together.
On account of the dissatisfaction of working with government troupes, our company made the decision to form our own permanent troupe of performing artists. We rented a part of a university and recruited and audition artists feverishly. Soon, Law Brothers Chinese Performing Arts International became an informal yet privately owned song and dance group in Da Xing, a suburb of Beijing. During this process, our adoptive son Zong was very helpful as a hard working “runner”. He was not making management or administrative decisions of importance, but his experience as a prior salaried dancer for a large government owned troupe helped us gain insight into personnel difficulties while setting up our own company. By spring of 2005, the company was in full rehearsals at our own facility in Da Xing for the upcoming tour of two new shows, Senses and Heartbeat.
The two shows Senses and Heartbeat toured Canada in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto from May through October of 2005 and together accomplished more than one hundred and twenty performances that summer. Zong continued to act as troupe leader and principal dancer. On account of his being our adoptive son and also a troupe leader on management’s side, I asked him to join us for dinner almost on a daily basis as long as I was with the troupe and not away on business. As for Moon, the division of labor I had arranged with her seemed to be working out well. I acted as the originator and investor of the shows and made the major creative decisions regarding music, art direction, and style of costume and choreography as the director. I also had to oversee marketing and the actual production once we moved into the theaters. Moon always had much better attention to details, so she took over the personnel management of the troupe, the scheduling of daily rehearsals, and also assumed control over makeup, wigs, hairpieces, dance shoes, and costumes and their associated inventory. I thought things were going smoothly both in my personal life as well as the life of the troupe and production company. There was no conflict or dissatisfaction of significance in my personal life at all. But this division of labor meant that I left Moon and Zong alone together frequently to manage the show in one city because I had to travel to prepare for the show and marketing decisions in another location.
Upon returning to Beijing after the 2005 tour, plans were initiated immediately to create the company’s fifth Action-Musical Tang Concubines. Moon and I traveled back and forth from China frequently as usual, but each stay in China averaged about two weeks in duration. With full rehearsals not yet in progress, we did not stay in Beijing for extended periods because we did not want to leave the children with the nanny for too long at a time. At the end of December of 2005, Moon made an unexpected request of me that resulted in a moderate confrontation. Over the years Moon had the habit of nagging at me and complaining about the way I do things. I believed that even the best relationships could be burdened with various ups and downs. So I always assumed that this was her “big sister” personality at work and I never allowed this to bother me. Since the issues she was complaining about were not relationship threatening ones, I never worried too much about her casual moaning. But on this occasion, her request and her subsequent fury at my refusal to comply was way out of the ordinary. Moon made a sudden and unexpected request of me to give her US$300,000 to produce a movie in Hong Kong based on a story that she said was closely tied to Buddhism. I also found out that this film would be made with Moon paying her friend (someone she referred to as “Ah Wing”) to act as a first time director. I had met Wing briefly on two occasions before and I knew him as a martial arts choreographer that Moon had worked with many times before. I also recognized that Wing has acquired a recent profound interest in both Buddhism and in natural health remedies. I have read repeated e-mails from him to Moon advocating Buddhist philosophy as well as attacking modern medicine in favor of homeopathic treatment of many illnesses. Without even debating the merits of Wing’s thought processes, it should be clear that a person of my background in both the fields of medicine and entertainment would certainly find this investment opportunity ludicrous. This project seemed doomed from the start and if I supported Moon in this endeavor, it would make her look ridiculous in the eyes of the Law family. She complained vehemently that I did not trust her and her business acumen. It was true that I did not believe she had sound knowledge of the movie industry. Actors are usually hired to act and rarely get involved in the financial implications of moviemaking. In this endeavor, Moon would be risking her reputation and money on a person without proven talent, credibility or track record. She insisted she wanted to learn to be independent and I was not giving her a chance. She had always claimed that she hated to be dependent on men. I did not know then why she felt she had a sudden need to be more independent. With my refusal to get her the money immediately, she became so angry that she did not talk to me at all for at least a week. During that ensuing week, even though we lived in the same house and in the same bedroom, she never even acknowledged my existence. Later as we returned to speaking terms, she told me she had decided to sell her last small apartment in Hong Kong to finance the project herself.
In February of 2006, we were both in Beijing prepping the show Tang Concubines. I was in town at the office working during the day and called her at our dormitory apartment in the suburb of Da Xing one afternoon to join me in the city that evening to see a new martial arts musical. I remembered that she said she wanted to bring Zong along but later called to say Zong could not make it. After the show, we returned to our suburban apartment located at the troupe’s campus. Claiming she was unusually tired that evening, Moon had just gotten into bed a few minutes before me. A little later, as I got in bed and rolled towards the edge on my side, I was shocked to find a used condom on the carpeted floor. I questioned Moon about it but she moaned a little and acted as if she was already asleep and did not give me much of an answer. But she reacted enough for me to know that she had heard me for certain. (In retrospect, her then subdued response to such a shocking finding next to our bed should have been revealing. We all now know why she did not sit straight up in shock. This would have been a much more normal reaction under those circumstances.) We had just arrived in Beijing two days ago and I initially suspected that the dancers might have gained access to my apartment for a secret rendezvous. I just thought that I had not noticed the condom’s presence the day before. That was a plausible scenario because my side of the bed was less than a foot away from the wall so it left only an unusable narrow gap. I would never get into bed from that side usually because there was no walking room at all. I only found the condom because I just happened to roll towards the edge of the bed and look down the narrow space. I recalled being quite sleepless that night and upon awakening in the morning I questioned Moon again about the matter. Since Zong Tianyi had the only other key to our apartment, I wanted him called over immediately. Upon arrival at about 8.40am, I questioned our adoptive son behind closed doors with Moon left in the adjoining room. Zong immediately claimed that he was sorry because he borrowed our bed to visit with an old girlfriend the evening before when we were out at the show. I also recall that I instructed my general manager Ms. Li the next day to be especially vigilant in supervising the use of my apartment by other people in my absence.
In April 2006, Moon, the kids and I went on a great spring break vacation to Cabos San Lucas in Mexico. Family life appeared happy and normal and I actually purchased two weeks of time-share condominium use at a fabulous resort. Because of our adoptive son’s devotion and help, I also bought him an attractive silver belt buckle with the Harley Davidson logo because he owned a motorcycle. In the following month of May, Zong Tianyi was invited by Moon to go to Hong Kong to give a guest performance at her annual students’ dance concert. He was a guest at my parent’s house and was hosted to many superb Hong Kong meals. On account of his helpfulness there, I also bought him more motorcycle accessories.
For the rest of May and June, Moon and I were back in Beijing for the final rehearsals of Tang Concubines. In the middle of June, I received unexpected notification that my show Heartbeat had received three nominations for the prestigious Toronto Dora Award for musical theater. This was history-making recognition for a Chinese show competing against so many well-known Broadway productions. Since I was nominated for Best Director, I decided to leave Beijing earlier than scheduled to attend the awards ceremony. That year, the twenty-eight million dollar production Lord of the Rings won the Dora Award in almost all the categories for which it was nominated. Even though we did not win in any category that year, it was nevertheless a real honor to be included. I then flew from Toronto to Vancouver on July 1st to await arrival of my cast for the world premiere of Tang Concubines at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts. Moon flew from Beijing to Vancouver with our two children arriving on the July 2nd 2006.
As a family, we happily greeted the cast of over eighty artists as they arrived on the late morning of July 3rd via China Eastern Airlines. The famous Tang Jiali was a principal dancer for the show only by special invitation because she was not a regularly employed artist of the company. As she greeted me upon arrival, she indicated that she had something important to discuss with me as soon as I had a free moment. Both Moon and I got busy immediately helping to shuttle all of the artists already divided into different groups to the theater or to their respective lodging. Just prior to four o’clock in the afternoon, I left the theater by car and headed back to the apartment to retrieve some documents I needed. While driving and less than five minutes from the apartment, I decided to call Moon on my cell phone to check on how she was progressing. She said she was still busy moving the dancers into apartments with the help of our adoptive son Zong. Her tone indicated that they were still hard at work both making room assignments and moving luggage. As I pulled into the underground parking lot, I immediately noticed that the rented blue van being used by Moon was parked in our designated parking spot in the underground garage. I thought it was very strange because it meant she had just lied about what she was doing. As I rode up the elevator, I felt both curious and uncertain. I felt unusually apprehensive because I knew Moon had just plainly lied five minutes earlier. As I try to recall even now, I remembered that I was baffled but not suspicious of anything specific. As I unlocked the front door, I found the living room, dining room and kitchen empty. All of a sudden, Moon came out of the bedroom and then closed the door behind her. The latter action was strange and abnormal and she immediately told me to leave with her to go see “something” quite non-specific. I really cannot now recall what that “something” was because by that time my heart was racing and my mind was getting foggy. Clearly, very suspicious behavior was being revealed before my very eyes. I insisted that I was not going anywhere and for now needed to use the toilet. The bedroom was empty as I rushed in. The bed was not made, but when we were busy, it was common not to tidy up the bed upon awakening. I walked into the bathroom next and found that empty too but the shower curtain was closed. While I was urinating, I used my right hand to draw aside the shower curtain, and there was nothing there either. During this short time, Moon waited for me in the bedroom. As I walked out of the bathroom, the small bedroom closet was on my right. In passing, I used my right hand to slide open the closet door, not expecting to find anything there because of its small size. At eye level, all I could see was clothing on hangers at this close distance. I do not know what urged me to gaze downward, but as my eyes drifted there, lo and behold, I recognized the two feet sticking out from under the clothing. I had known our adoptive son well enough to recognize his characteristically unattractive feet anywhere. I ordered Zong to emerge and the first words out of his mouth were (in Mandarin): “Adoptive-Dad! Adoptive-Mom was taking me to buy some underwear.” With those bizarre words, if the moment had not been so darn tragic, I could have really cracked up hysterically. He was wearing warm up pants but was naked from waist up. I told him he was ridiculous and Moon took over and said immediately (in Cantonese): “ Don’t blame Tianyi. This is all my doing.” I said something akin to “What the shit is this and how long has it been going on” in Cantonese. Zong then asked if I wanted him to turn back immediately and return to Beijing. Beyond the first few memorable exchanges, the details of the subsequent conversation in that room became blurry because the emotional shock actually became more profound. Perhaps I could remember the first few sentences because the content was indeed memorable and shock had not yet set in. Unknown minutes ticked by and I remembered that Moon and I realized that we had to drive Zong to his designated apartment because he would not have found it by himself and we were also unable to verbalize directions. I could not have just left him standing half-naked in my bedroom. I also recalled that the entire trip to the front door of Zong’s designated apartment building was in total silence. I was pensive rather than ranting and raving. I then drove back and deposited Moon at the front door of our apartment building. I felt I needed to be alone at that moment and certainly not with Moon. So I drove the car around aimlessly for about twenty minutes. Then with the feeling of having no place to go, I headed for the hotel where a sizeable proportion of our dancers were staying. I felt lost and totally drained and did not know what to say to the dancers that I ran into. Suddenly, I felt the urge to ask Tang Jiali what was so important that she needed to talk to me about. I found her room number through reception and as she greeted me, she noticed that I was distraught about something. She asked me what was wrong but I insisted that she tell me first what she wanted to say. She then began a long tale about what she had heard from my company artists while they waited for visas at the American Embassy a few days ago. After she finished, I then told her I had just personally proved those rumors because I had just dug a half-naked Zong Tianyi out of my closet. Ms. Tang then continued to tell me that she sought advice from the company’s thirty-year old manager Ms. Li who did not make the trip because she was terminally ill in the hospital with a malignant lymphoma. Ms. Tang said manager Li told her that it was proper for her to tell me the rumors because she was not an employee and had nothing to lose. The two of them discussed the fact that a lot of the dancers in the troupe had known about the long affair. In addition, the ill manager also told Ms. Tang about the condom incident in February, and that she already knew then in February it was related to the Moon’s affair with Zong.
The momentous discovery created an emotional turmoil that was unbearable. Tang Concubines was moving onto the stage at The Centre the following day and my parents and brothers were arriving as well from thousands of miles away to celebrate the show’s world premiere with me. Despite the pain, a sudden announcement about my discovery seemed so untimely. The children of course were left in the dark intentionally. Moon still repeatedly insisted that the affair with Zong started at the time of the condom incident four months ago. Zong was an important principal in the show and the media was rapidly descending on us because of the approaching grand opening. I also had the gut feeling that if the truth were made known then and there, the company would collapse immediately on account of the emotional devastation caused by the circus environment. So I agreed that we would keep this embarrassing discovery under cover for the time being, a decision that I would end up regretting for the rest of my life.
The show opened successfully even though I had to act in the capacities of director, producer and lighting designer despite being haunted with an overwhelming burden. Having to face Moon and Zong on a daily basis under these circumstances was in retrospect absurd and unimaginable. However, once the path of maintaining secrecy was decided and moving forward with momentum, it felt like it would be more unbearable for me to change my mind all of a sudden and make a shameful and earth-shattering disclosure at that time. I was crushed already and I felt like another blow would just finish me off.
On the morning of July 8th, my good friend Tony Wong came to my office at The Centre and showed me an e-mail sent to Moon that was misdirected to his wife Lucy Wong’s computer. A copy of this is reproduced as Exhibit 3. Judging from its content, it was clear that it was a love letter from Zong to Moon. There simply could not have been another explanation. I told Moon by telephone that afternoon about the discovery by Tony and Lucy. By six in the evening, Moon showed up at The Centre and had a three-hour conversation and confession session with Lucy. The two of them emerged teary-eyed and both families went out for a quick bite since the children had been waiting patiently for hours in the lounge just outside Moon’s office. From that fateful day onwards, Tony and Lucy Wong became the first two people outside the company who also officially knew about this unbelievable extra-marital affair. During the entire month of July 2006, Tony and Lucy’s relationship with my family, Moon and me was clearly and unequivocally predicated on the fact that they knew the truth about this matter. On account of their relationship with the dance troupe, they spent time with the artists and us on a daily basis. Lucy was the marketing consultant for the three shows and her husband Tony was an enthusiastic but unpaid volunteer. They had become ardent supporters of the company from its inception. So their accidental discovery of the truth had made them unwilling participants in this distasteful circumstance. The ugliness was brought into our minds and into our conversations daily. I planned and plotted strategies with them. We debated frequently about the impact of Moon’s misconduct on the large troupe of impressionable young artists. Remember that in July 2006, none of us knew the extent to which the entire troupe had known about this affair.
Months later, Lucy had told my mother and me that on that very evening, Moon openly admitted the affair and claimed that she understood she had grossly wronged her family. There was no question that caught red-handed, Moon openly confessed to Lucy Wong on July 8th, 2006, something that she would never again repeat. In addition, during the first week after the closet discovery, I twice called Zong into my office at The Centre and confronted him about the reasons for his betrayal of me. He knew I had been the person that selflessly supported him for two years. During those two meetings, he repeatedly apologized to me for his actions and asked me not to divorce his adoptive-mother. In front of me, Zong had confessed to the affair and offered me his apologies. He also admitted to the errant e-mail. To me, the truth could never have been more certain.
During that month of July, Sight, Sound & Action presented the second Annual Chinese Performing Arts Festival at The Centre consisting of Tang Concubines, Terracotta Warriors and Of Heaven & Earth. On account of her misconduct, I had immediately relieved Moon from her usual duties with the company and the productions. She showed up frequently at The Centre only to hide that she had been busted, but nothing she said really mattered anymore. Company artists would later reveal that they were clearly aware of the sudden relationship changes. But they kept quiet to avoid adding fuel to fire. At the end of the Vancouver shows, I wanted to send Zong home to Beijing but Moon objected vehemently on the basis that the sudden dismissal would raise embarrassing questions. She still insisted that no one else was aware of the affair so that an unexplained immediate termination of a principal dancer like Zong would be hard to explain. Moon and I agreed to a decision to take Zong to Toronto first and then making up an excuse about a rehearsal related injury. As soon as I told our plan to Tony and Lucy, they insisted that I was insane and their intervention convinced me that Zong must depart for Beijing the next day. They specifically said they did not care about Moon’s objection or her feelings in the matter. They did not care that the entire troupe was having a holiday outing that following day. They viewed that vacation day as a real opportunity. They insisted that Zong must leave immediately without notification or announcement. I told them that Moon did not want him to go so quickly and without a convincing excuse. They insisted that they would speak to Moon themselves and arrange the appropriate course of action. Since Lucy Wong was the marketing consultant and helped to arrange the airline sponsor, she took it upon herself to make the immediate change in the airplane ticket for Zong. By late that afternoon when I ran into Moon at her office at The Centre, she was tearful because she knew that it was a foregone conclusion that her young lover would depart early the next day. Tony and Lucy Wong had confronted her with their recommendation, one that she really could not oppose. I remembered clearly that she tearfully requested that I allow her to meet with Zong privately that evening to say goodbye, but it was a request that I quickly denied. Later on, I drove over in my car with Moon as a passenger to hand the newly changed airline ticket to Zong. They did not exchange words in person that evening that I knew of, but of course I could not have known about any telephone contact later in the evening. Early the next morning, Tony Wong drove Zong to the airport personally, reporting to me later that the entire journey was undertaken without one word being exchanged. Later on that evening at a party for the whole cast celebrating the end of the Vancouver run, no one ever brought up Zong’s sudden and unexplained departure. As a matter of fact, for the rest of the tour, no one ever brought up the subject of Zong’s sudden departure with any management personnel. Without any words, the reason was imminently clear to everyone. In addition, no one ever asked why the famous Moon Lee left Vancouver suddenly in late July never to return to assume her role as producer and manager.
From Vancouver, the touring went on to Toronto, Mississauga, and Montreal and then followed by multiple locations in California. After Moon was terminated and sent home to Denver, she only subsequently returned for brief moments to do promotion and publicity that was expected of her in order to avoid raising suspicion that something was amiss. However, the longer the secret of Moon’s misconduct was kept, the harder it seemed to suddenly change and break the news. By late August, the children were starting school and any sudden marital disruption would certainly ruin the children schooling that semester.
From early July 2006 through to March 2007, we lived a life that seemed normal to unknowing third parties but one that was inwardly filled with incredible emotional turmoil. During the month of July when Moon remained in Vancouver, most of my interactions with her dealt essentially with the question of how could this have occurred and how long did she expect this marriage go on under these conditions of secret betrayal. Once this incestuous affair was discovered, I for one knew that I would be unable to bear the burden of this kind of a wife for the rest of my days. I was quite aware that Moon would prefer to keep the marriage intact so she promised again and again that she would never see Zong again. She even said that she could not figure out why she went astray because in many ways we were very good together. During the early weeks after my discovery, Moon always claimed that her relationship with Zong was about affection and not lust. She also insisted over and over again that the relationship involved feelings that she could not control. With responses like those, I remembered that I frequently just shook my head in disbelief. Her explanations left me repeatedly speechless. The fact that her illicit lover was our adoptive son was unfathomable.
In the subsequent months after Moon had left Vancouver, I stayed with the troupe on tour and intentionally stayed away from my home in Denver. It seemed too unbearably painful to go home and be reminded of the family and the good times. Between the two North American tours, from November through mid-December, I actually stayed with the company in Beijing to supervise the new edition of Heartbeat intended for Honolulu during the Christmas holidays. Therefore, from August 2006 to March 2007, I probably saw Moon for approximately twenty-five days including ten days in Hawaii when the children came to visit during the holidays and seven days in the Bahamas in October with my mother. During the limited times I had with her alone, we would frequently revisit the issues behind her betrayal. Never once did she deny the affair. In fact, she had repeated claimed that the affair was solely based on her lack of control. This lack of control seemed like a lame excuse. The other female dancers had told me that Zong was far from being a lady’s man. His attempts to court many of his fellow female dancers at his former government troupe were of dubious success. Was Moon really so conflicted emotionally at home that she desperately needed affection and consolation from a kid the likes of Zong? Could the truth be as titillating as Moon being merely attracted to Zong because he was a sexually inexperienced youngster? She had claimed on more than one occasion that this was the most worthy young man she has ever known. Is this a new kind of perversion with a middle-aged woman and a kid panting for each other while forsaking all principles and risking everything? When I tried to criticize Zong to test her and her reaction, it always surprised me that she would get into a rage and warned me never to criticize him again. On that basis alone, I always knew that there was not a shred of hope for this marriage. It was a matter of selecting the best way and the best time to announce that the marriage was over.
For Moon Lee, she claimed that her fate was decided by the lack of control over one choice in her life. No one, not even Moon herself, may ever know what caused this lapse of emotional control. But Moon has only herself to blame for this drastic change of fortune. Her gross misconduct was not about self-control. Moon alone made the conscious decisions and chose actions that would ultimately seal her fate!
