Thursday, November 7, 2024

A New Perspective on the Moon Lee scandal 20 years later

Dennis & Alyssa Law Nov. 6th, 2024

As an assistant Producer working for the Dennis Law Center for Arts & Technology in Denver, USA, I have had the great pleasure of helping to produce and promote the Action-Musicals directed and produced by Dr. Law in the United States.  My familiarity with his monumental works of musical theater as well as his person and his character gave rise to my curiosity when I discovered much continuing interest among the Chinese and in their digital media in a subject matter so long ago involving the sex scandal of his ex-wife, a well-known Hong Kong action actress Moon Lee (Li Saifeng).    Baidu.com and other online media platforms still show reveal a writer and reader obsession with details behind the divorce involving Dr. Law and Li Sai Feng nearly twenty years ago.

It is utterly incredible to me as a Chinese resident of the United States that such a true story sexual misconduct by a Hong Kong movie star would still garner so much interest today.  As sordid details get retold in a different light each time, the abnormal obsession with Li Sai Feng’s sexual perversion seem to reveal a wishful hope for her innocence.  As a Chinese citizen working in America and familiar with US laws and customary behavior, the truth behind the scandal should be obvious to any objective person.  Moon Lee’s old declarations of innocence were clearly lies if one would allow logic to take over emotion.  Yet some internet postings have stated that Li Sai Feng surfaced in recent years to restate her old false allegations.  A badly written and ungrammatical article in English I read in yahoo.com made assertions that were blatantly factually false; it again promoted that their divorce was caused by the emergence of a “third person” in the form of the present Mrs. Law, Wang Xiaoli.  It is disappointing that so many Chinese would ignore the obvious and intentionally ignore the facts only to cover up the guilt of their idol.  Are these the concerted actions of her close friends and relatives trying to whitewash her tale of sexual perversion, or are they the mere manifestation of a wildly ignorant fan base? 

The very notion that Dr. Law made up the story of Moon Lee’s scandal to benefit him in the divorce of Li Sai Feng is blatantly absurd on its very face.  In most states of America, no spouse gains any advantage in divorce by bringing up “faults” or “sins” by the other spouse.  One glaring misstatement by current writers is to declare that Dr. Law paid US$14,000 each month as alimony to Li.  This would imply that Dr. Law was the guilty party in the divorce because he had to compensate his ex-wife.  Little do Chinese people understand that many states use “No-Fault” laws in divorces; that is alimony and property settlement is totally unrelated to “fault”.  US laws allow divorce if only one spouse petitions for it without consent of the other.  If either Dr. Law or Li Sai Feng were the devil incarnated, it would not change the economics of the divorce.  As a matter of fact, the final Court order ending the marriage actually gave Moon no alimony going forward, and only provided her a total sum of US$36,000 as expense reimbursement to move back to Hong Kong.  Those court orders were not because the Court believed that Moon Lee had an awkward extra-marital affair; it was strictly because Dr. Law and Moon during their marriage did not earn any money of significance because they were only engaged in non-profit work of promoting Chinese performing arts to America.  In other words, the marriage did not produce any net income, so there was no legal reason to share any with Moon Lee.  A husband’s or wife’s pre-existing wealth plays no part in divorce settlements.

I studied the official legal documents in order to clarify another untruth that has been circulated online.  At some time, the current Mrs. Alyssa Wang Law, (the former Wang Xiaoli) did file suit in a court in Beijng alleging defamation for proclaiming her as the “third person” in the divorce.  Claiming in any public forum that Wang Xiaoli lost that lawsuit is blatantly false and a flat outlie --- Wang Xiaoli did not win that lawsuit because the Chinese court decided it had no legal standing to render the verdict Wang was seeking because they seem totally unknowledgeable about defamation laws with which China had become a party to by signing an international treaty.  That court did demand that Li Sai Feng send a letter of apology to Wang Xiaoli and for Li to warrant that she would refrain to make such statements in the future.  That was actually a silly “win” for Wang Xiaoli, but one that would have been impossible to enforce.  As it turned out, Li Sai Feng wrote and published a wandering and meaningless letter in accordance to the court order.  Wang chose not to waste her time to relitigate the issue in later years because instead of being damaged by Li Sai Feng, she became a huge financial beneficiary of her scandalous and incestual extra-marital affair. 

Dennis and Alyssa Law, as long as I have known them and worked with them, never talk about this ugly part of their lives; neither Li Saifeng’s bizarre sexual misconduct or her lies about Wang Xiaoli (Alyssa) being the “third person” causing her divorce.  They are a successful and loving couple with a grown-up daughter that is now a remarkable and successful software engineer.  When I showed them what I found online, they just laughed; they seem grateful for that obscene and ugly history that actually gave them their today!

As I read the book, Two Faces of the Moon, (available easily online via bookbaby.com or everand.com), it clarified a lot of queries.  All of Dr. Law’s actions were totally understandable because, as an American, Dr. Law would not make up a wicked story to punish Li Sai Feng.  He felt the need to assert the truth, often on the record, because Moon Lee was always telling lies to hide her guilt.  Some commentators have asserted that Dr. Law was mean and ungentlemanly to his ex-wife; and I have never seen that side of him.  I believe it was total fair play to repetitively declare the truth when the offending party continues to tell lies.  It has always been an impossible task to battle an adoring Chinese media and an army of ignorant fans of any Chinese celebrity.

Despite nearly two decades of unending interest loaded with inaccuracies and lies in Chinese cyberspace, the life and career of Dennis Law (Luo Qiren) merely blossomed to great heights after the divorce.  I am responsible for the construction of Dr. Law’s websites so anyone can seek further information on www.dennislawcompanies.com and www.drdennislaw.com.  For one last time, he has given me permission to use whatever information and photographs I have in a pubic forum.  From this time onwards, he wants the scandal to be put to rest.  And I thank Dr. Dennis Law (Luo Qiren) for giving me the opportunity to be his final arbiter of the truth in this matter.   

For Dr. Dennis Law and his family now, the old and now forgotten tragedy has created one of the best love stories ever told!!! 

Cindy Zhang

Associate Producer,

Dennis Law Center of Arts & Technology,





Denver, Colorado, USA 

Email:  cindyzhang0828denver@gmail.com