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August 27, 2014

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Scandal-ridden celebrities show the decay of moral fiber and the need for clean-up

IN Chinese, when we describe a person utterly lacking in moral scruples, we say the person is “desiring to have a memory archway (paifang) erected in her (his) honor even while practicing prostitution.”

The sensational Guo Meimei is exactly a person who thrives on notoriety.

In 2011, Guo was catapulted into stardom at age 20 when she flaunted her lavish lifestyle and extravagance via social media. The self-exhibition drew contempt, but notoriety can also be a valuable asset in the cyber age.

Her degradation added to her prestige and as her reputation grew, she became a celebrity. And today a celebrity is all-redeeming and all-exculpating. She was sought and pursued by paparazzi, courted by rich clients who would pay tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan to have sex with her.

She was even invited as a dignitary at ceremonies. She is young but has a shrewd understanding of human nature. She skillfully exploited public hankering for salacious details. She had made it — until July 14, when she was detained and later arrested in Beijing.

The interesting thing is that Guo was not nabbed for her extravagance or promiscuity, but for gambling.

I tend to believe Guo’s corrosive influence on our youth — her contribution to the raising of our collective tolerance of moral laxity and depravity — might be more pernicious.

But in today’s enlightened age, corrupting youth is no longer an offense, or at least not an offense punishable by death as in Socrates’ time. It is just a viable business marketing ploy.

Nor is sex for money or power something rare.

We have heard of a CCTV anchor receiving a flat as a gift from a banker who later got a suspended death penalty for taking bribes. The anchor was named in the banker’s trial, but she is still beaming with charm on TV. She came from a family of intellectuals and had the advantage of a good education.

For Guo, a young female of humble beginnings from a single-mother household, she has nothing but her youth to gamble on.

Guo might lack some of the shining qualities adorning the TV anchor, but she had her admirers. In a matter of a few years, she became a household name. But Guo’s distinction is limited compared to her superiors more schooled to guile and guises. Take the example of another CCTV anchor rumored to be linked to a recently disgraced “tiger.” After a brilliant career at CCTV, she suddenly disappeared and was appointed a senior official, obviously arranged by her patron. Of course, unlike Guo, she chose not to advertise the fact.

Core values

These news events and exposes are daily testing the limits of our imagination, challenging the time-honored code of ethics, pointing at new possibilities and shortcuts.

Last week Xinhuanet.com reported that several women, fresh from college and polytechnics in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, began their professional careers by working as prostitutes, soliciting clients via social media. They were somewhat intimidated by the prospect of having to make a living by honest work.

When they were caught on August 19, they protested to be engaged in massage, but the littered condoms and sexy lingerie betrayed them.

Here we may sense the pernicious influence of the likes of Guo, but there is also a need to blame an unfair distribution system so skewed that labor is no longer respected, let alone properly rewarded.

In some state-owned coal mining companies, for instance, a senior manager can be earning over 1 million, 30 times the wage for an average coal mine worker.

Guangzhou Daily newspaper reported on August 22 that while some bank employees can make over 100,000 yuan (US$16,000) a month, some grass-roots employees are getting by on a few hundred. These facts and conditions send young men hesitating on the threshold of their careers.

For our core socialist values to be more than empty promises, they must be substantiated by such virtues as dedication, sincerity and moral integrity, reified at the individual level.

It can be confusing when we view money and power as de facto hallmarks of success, while paying lip service to values that no longer inspire.

There is also the imperative to systematically and resolutely purge the contamination of the likes of Guo.




 

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