Breaking News: Vietnam teenage TV soap sex scandal (October 2007)

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http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/breakingnews/breakingnews/view_article.php?article_id=94605
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có ai dịch ra tiếng Việt dùm em với không...?? hix.. em hổng biết tiếng tây - tiếng u gì hết !

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Vietnam has been hit by hurricanes, floods and a catastrophic bridge collapse of late, but the nation is abuzz with talk of just one thing - a blurry video of an encounter between two teenagers.

Internet forums are swamped with messages about an online sex video apparently showing 19-year-old Hoang Thuy Linh, the star of the popular TV series Vang Anh's Diaries, and her boyfriend.

"This is the most scandalous and controversial thing that has ever happened in Vietnam's virtual world," says journalist Hung Nguyen.

A couple of days after the so-called Vang Anh scandal broke, Vietnam Television (VTV) dropped the series.

A five-minute clip, filmed by mobile phone, was originally posted on YouTube by an anonymous user.

It has since been removed, but copies of it - including a 20-minute long version - are being circulated on other websites.

Parental approval

Thuy Linh, despite playing a schoolgirl in the series, is actually a first-year college student.

Even in a conservative county like Vietnam, it is not unusual for teenagers to engage in sexual relationships.


The problem is that Vang Anh's Diaries is hugely popular.

The series, which focuses on the daily life of Vietnamese school students, was in its second season when the scandal broke - and Thuy Linh's character, Vang Anh, had become a kind of idol among youngsters.

Before this, Vietnamese parents had approved of the programme. They considered it educational as the children featured were not only talented and beautiful, but also doing very well at school.

"All my friends and myself watch Vang Anh's Diaries regularly," says 13-year-old Thu Thuy.

"I especially love Vang Anh. She's smart, she's pretty, she's so so cool. I love her style."

Thuy admitted she was shocked to be told by her parents that she is no longer allowed to watch Vang Anh.

"My mum said Vang Anh had been a very bad girl. But she didn't explain why."

Ratings winner

Despite unprecedented attention from the public, state media soon went cold on the story after some critics branded the topic "sensational" and "cheap".

But the frenzy continues on the internet.

Blogs and forums are flooded with millions of messages discussing whether Thuy Linh deserves sympathy or punishment, and whether she needs to apologise publicly to her fans.

"The topic cannot be spared only for tabloids to cover," wrote journalists Tran Le Thuy and Huy Duc in Sai Gon Tiep Thi.

"This poses a big question about modern life that the mainstream newspapers need to answer...

"That is the question about information control in terms of blogging [and] privacy protection. That is also the question about the sexual revolution among the young people in Vietnam nowadays."

While the term "sexual revolution" remains somewhat controversial - it is an editorial minefield for the Vietnamese press - the mention of it can work wonders for TV programmes.

The VTV show in which the closure of Vang Anh's Diaries was announced, with Thuy Linh tearfully apologising to her parents and begging for understanding from her fans, attracted a phenomenal number of viewers.


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Should the show have been axed? What is your reaction to this story? This form has now been closed. Read a selection of comments below.
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The real story here is how bloggers have broken through the government's tight media screen to get their opinions out to the rest of the country.
Aviva West, Hanoi, Vietnam


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Whats wrong!!!!! We see suicide bombers killing hundreds of people on TV, insugents killing and mainming hostages and yet a bit of two people enjoying themselves and we are in fear of society.
Jenny Howard, Seoul, S.Korea
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I've seen that video You shouldn't show to others. The girl and the boy does what has to be done at that age. That's it! There is nothing to do with TV show and others on the globe. It's their personal. Let's keep it so. And "show must go on!"
Raitis, Latvia

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The show should not have been cut. Actors and actresses are people and they have their own lives. They should not have be treated any different, and people should not expect a moral example from them.
Conúil, Belfast, Ireland

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I feel very sorry for this young lady Hoang Thuy Linh whose name is now in the news. Its one of those things girl, if you really want to be famous, then be ready to contain everything scandal. All the same, life must go on.Cheer up girl.
Nana Ama Owusuaa Osei-Tutu, Accra ,Ghana

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This is just pathetic- the same story as with Paris Hilton. It only increases popularity - and anyway - she had sex wow! She's 19 what do you expect? Even as conservative a country's society as Vienam's couldn't possibly so naive as to believe that is something new and scandalous - shocking really - wake up and say hello to the 21st century...
Macduck, United Kingdom


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To avoid this kind of bad things, parents have to discuss with children about some of the dangerous of child sex. In Asian countries, parents are shy to talk about sex with children. Like Europe countries, sex education should be must for this generation students. Because of there are many media's spoiling this generation children. To overcome from these, we have to show the correct way to children. There should be some severe punishment to people who are misusing the internet.
Murugan, Chennai

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It's very hard as a Westerner to say yes or no to this - our cultural values are so different, and who are we to push ours onto others? But in my personal opinion, the answer is no, it shouldn't have been axed. Permitting herself to be filmed wasn't the wisest choice Thuy Linh could have made but at the end of the day, it's just sex.
Sophie, Ireland

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So this poor teenage actress had a perfectly normal, healthy, act between herself and her boyfriend caught by some scumbag with a mobile phone and she's the villain of the piece? Completely unbelievable. The poor girl deserves sympathy. The twisted individual who took - and then shared - the illicit video is the villain of this piece. I hope he, and all those who have subsequently propagated the clip, is tracked down and punished appropriately.
Disgruntled, Frankfurt, Germany

What this teenage girl does in her private life is her own business. Parents should not try to save children from reality and disappointment, it will happen all thier lives.
Saad Rajput, Canada

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This is typical of repressive societies. The first thing they try to control is your sex life. If you permit them to tell you when, how and with whom to have sex, controlling everything else is easy. This is why religions and other despotic regimes are anti-sex. The world will be better off when we are rid of both.
James Smith, João Pessoa, Brazil
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This poses a big question about modern life that the mainstream newspapers need to answer
Tran Le Thuy and Huy Duc
Vietnamese journalists

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Internet sex scandal snares young Vietnamese TV star, highlights generational fault-lines
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam is having a Paris Hilton moment.

An online sex video featuring a popular celebrity has riveted the nation for more than a week now, much as Hilton's clip seized the attention of Americans when it hit the Internet several years ago.

But unlike Hilton, the 19-year-old woman at the center of Vietnam's sex scandal won't be able to capitalize on her newfound notoriety.

Hoang Thuy Linh's show has been canceled and the actress has made a tearful farewell on national television.

"I made a mistake, a terrible mistake," said the doe-faced teen, who had cultivated a good-girl image. "I apologize to you, my parents, my teachers and my friends."

Her fall from grace has highlighted the generational fault-lines in Vietnam, a sexually conservative culture within which women have been taught for centuries to remain chaste until marriage and stay true to one man -- no matter how many times he cheats on them.

Like everything else in this economically booming country, ideas about sex and gender roles are quickly changing as satellite TV and the Internet bring Western influences to a society cut off by decades of war and economic isolation.

But for many in communist Vietnam, new ideas about free love are much harder to accept than the free market. And unlike men, women who break the old sexual taboos are not easily forgiven.

"Kids today are crazy," said Nguyen Thi Khanh, 49, a Hanoi junior high school teacher. "They often exceed the limits of morality. They have sex and fall in love when they're much too young."

In the old days, Khanh said, a woman who had sex before marriage would be ostracized.

"A good girl must keep herself clean until she is married," Khanh said. "Thuy Linh should be condemned. If I ever see her again on TV, I will turn it off, for sure."

In "Vang Anh's Diaries," Thuy Linh portrayed an earnest high school girl, modern and stylish but determined to uphold the traditional virtues of "cong, dung, ngon" and "hanh," which promote women as tidy, charming, soft-spoken and chaste.

Then the 16-minute video hit the Internet on Oct. 15 featuring Thuy Linh in bed with her former boyfriend, both of them apparently aware that they were on camera.

On Thursday, Hanoi police detained four college students accused of posting the sex clip to the Internet. They could face charges of "spreading depraved cultural items," which carries a sentence of six months to 15 years if convicted.

Police identified the man in the clip as 20-year-old Vu Hoang Viet, who is currently studying overseas. They said a friend copied the film off of Viet's laptop, and passed it along to other friends who then posted it online.

Most of the public's wrath has been directed at Thuy Linh rather than Viet.

"People will forgive him, but not her," said Tran Minh Nguyet of the Vietnam Women's Union, which promotes gender equality. "Vietnamese think it's OK for a boy to have sex at that age, but not for a girl. It's absolutely unfair."

The video has been the talk of Vietnam. Even members of Vietnam's National Assembly were overheard gossiping about it last week at the opening of the new legislative session.

A few lonely voices have sprung up in Thuy Linh's defense. But in most newspapers and on blogs and Web sites, the video has become the target of jokes and condemnation.

**********, a popular online newspaper, said the episode underscored the "dark side of globalization" and warned that a flood of foreign influences "threaten Vietnam's cultural foundation."

The scandal also has disillusioned many of Thuy Linh's biggest fans.

"She was supposed to set a good example for Vietnamese students nationwide," said Chi, 14, a Hanoi junior high school student who declined to give her full name. "Now this scandal has ruined everything. It's completely destroyed her image."

Hilton's sex tape, made with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon in eerie night-vision green, surfaced just before the start of her reality TV series, "The Simple Life" and helped propel her to superstardom.

But in Vietnam, the video scandal is certain to destroy Thuy Linh's career, said Nguyet of the Vietnam Women's Union.

"Vietnam is changing quickly, but there's no way Thuy Linh will be forgiven," Nguyet said. "That will take another generation."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)