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Taichung City, Taiwan. Photo by Mark Ivan.

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Chu Mei-feng

Chu Mei-feng, a Taiwanese politician, rose to prominence in December 2001 after a video of her having sex with a married man was distributed on CD by Taiwan’s Scoop magazine. Chu was a Taipei city councilor and former TV journalist, and the video’s release sparked a media frenzy in Asia and (thanks to copies distributed on the Internet) around the world.

Investigators discovered that Chu’s friend, Kuo Yu-ling, had installed a hidden camera in Chu’s bedroom and sold the video to Scoop. Kuo was arrested and charged with violating privacy, stealing, and undermining public morality. Chu took advantage of the attention by publishing her autobiography, Confessions of Chu Mei-feng, in February 2002.

1. She was accused of breaching ethical standards of journalism

Chu, a TTV World News journalist, took photographs at a lesbian bar without informing the people in the photographs. This resulted in the public exposure of some lesbians and even some suicides. She also suggested that Taiwanese actress Pan Mei Chen was a lesbian. Chu was found to have violated journalistic ethics and subsequently left TTV World News.

2. Chu ventured into politics in 1994

Chu left TTV to become the news director and host of CSTV. Meanwhile, she joined the New Party and was elected to the Taipei City Council in 1994. She rose to prominence after uncovering the “Sung Chi-li event” in 1996. Sung Chi-li was a cult leader and geomancer from Taiwan who founded the Sung Chi-li Miracle Association and the Great Sun Sect. In 1996, he was embroiled in a scandal and accused of stealing $7 million from his followers.

In 1997, he was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison. His conviction was later overturned by Taiwan’s high court in 2003, citing the constitution’s protection of religious freedom. Sung claimed to have supernatural abilities such as the ability to appear anywhere at any time and divine healing powers, and he called himself Yuzhou Guangmingti, which translates as “cosmic luminous body.”

3. She once violated the civil servants’ election and recall act

Chu hosted a rally for Taipei’s mayoral election in 1998. Chu recorded a show reporting news of the New Party and Yang Tai-shun at 11:00 p.m. that night to help the New Party candidate, Yang Tai-shun, get elected, which violated the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act. This act prohibited any coverage of the rally after 10:00 p.m. on the night in question.

4. Chu served as Director of Cultural Affairs

Chu was appointed Director of the Hsinchu City Hall’s Cultural Affairs Bureau in 1998. She was rumored to be dating Hsinchu Mayor James Tsai at the time. She was nominated by the New Party to run for a legislative seat in Taichung but was not elected.

5. A sex scandal forced her to resign from public office

Lady In red lingerie. Photo by Dainis Graveris.

Chu resigned in 2001 as a result of the fallout from a sex tape released by Scoop Weekly, which showed her having sex with her married lover, businessman Tseng Chung-ming. She eventually filed a libel suit against the publication.

6. She sued the magazine behind the sex tape scandal

Magazines on rack. Photo by Charisse Kenion.

Senior Prosecutor Lin Jinn-Tsun charged 11 people in the case. The 11 are Kuo, described as a spiritual teacher and one of Chu’s closest friends, with a recommended four-year sentence. Kuo’s 19-year-old daughter, Kao; former Hsinchu mayor Tsai, with a recommended one-year sentence.

Scoop magazine President Shen Yeh, with a recommended two-year-and-two-month sentence; his daughter, who was also the magazine’s publisher, Shen Jung, with a recommended one-year. The VCD for Scoop magazine was created and duplicated by Chung-ti Technology.

7. Chu launched her singing career in 2002

Chu began her singing career in a sold-out Singapore theater. It was her first public appearance since being forced from office after being caught on camera having sex with her married lover. She believed that Singapore would provide her with a new lease on life. In an elegant black gown, she delighted a crowd of over 1,000 by performing a selection of songs in English and Mandarin.

8.  She’s been married twice

Mr and Mrs signage. Photo by micheile dot com.

Chu married Simon, a man fourteen years her junior, in June 2005. They ran a cafeteria together in England after they married. Chu returned to Taiwan in February 2009 to host the 9th Mainland, Hong Kong, and Macau Business Cooperation Conference. She appeared ill at the time, and she later explained that it was because she was under severe financial stress due to three housing loans in Taiwan and another in America.

In November 2009, she admitted her marriage with her ex-husband Simon had only lasted a year and a half and that ownership of the cafeteria was entirely Simon’s. She later married Yu-shuanglun on July 6, 2011. They have a son named Qi-Rong together.

9. Chu was banned from performing in Malaysia on moral grounds

Music notes with a banned sign. Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20.

Ms. Chu was barred from performing in Malaysia after being deemed “morally unfit” by an ethnically Chinese political party. Her subsequent concert performances in Singapore sparked a moral debate, with some accusing her of exploiting her notoriety.

10. She released her autobiography to capitalize on the scandal publicity

An autobiography. Photo by deyangeorgiev.

Ms. Chu revealed her relationships with 14 men in a book. On the cover, she is seen cutting her hair. The Confessions of Chu Mei-feng detailed the trauma she experienced after the video discs became widely available. Tsai’s relationships with six boyfriends are detailed in The Confessions: a married man, Tseng Chung-ming; a former classmate, Chou Chih-wei; Tsai; a news reporter, Shao Li-chung; and two businessmen, Wang Cheng-ping and Tsai Chao-lun.

The former Taipei city councilor also mentioned eight other prominent Taiwanese men she has met but provided no further details. She admitted that she still hoped for true love and wished to establish a stable relationship and family.