HONG KONG — A Taiwanese American star known as the King of Chinese Pop is in career freefall amid a messy public divorce that is the talk of the Chinese-speaking world.
Wang Leehom, 45, was born in Rochester, New York, to Taiwanese parents and grew into a hugely popular singer-songwriter and actor in Asia. He had been held up as a role model for Chinese men by his fans, in part thanks to his longtime relationship with his former wife, Lee Jinglei, 33. The couple have three children.
But Wang is now taking a break from performing after offering a public apology in a scandal that has highlighted the fragile status of both celebrities and women in modern China.
After Wang confirmed speculation that the couple had divorced, Lee posted a lengthy online missive last weekend accusing her former husband of infidelity, hiring prostitutes and emotional abuse.
Wang responded, setting off a social media war that undermined the clean-cut image he had cultivated as a husband and father.
The dayslong dispute drew interventions from his father and the Chinese Communist Party, with brands, including a luxury carmaker and a jewelry firm, dropping their deals with the star.
Wang apologized last Monday to his family and fans, many of whom had criticized him on the Chinese social media site Weibo, where the story was the top trending topic.
“After thinking it over, I should take all the responsibility as a man. I will no longer provide any explanations or defense. I didn’t manage the marriage properly, caused trouble for my family, and didn’t give the public the image that an idol should have. It was all my fault,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“I am going to quit work temporarily and set aside time to accompany my parents and children to make up for the damage caused by this turmoil.”
NBC News has reached out to Wang for comment.
Wang is far from the only major celebrity to face public backlash in China this year.
The ruling Communist Party under President Xi Jinping has also embarked upon a crackdown on celebrity and fandom culture, as part of an effort to exert greater control over both the lucrative entertainment market and the lives of the young audiences who may be influenced by their idols.
Last week, Huang Wei, a Chinese internet celebrity known as the “queen of livestreaming” who also goes by the name Viya, became the latest high-profile figure forced to pay a hefty fine for tax evasion. Popular actor Zheng Shuang was similarly fined by China in August after a probe that followed a surrogacy controversy in the United States.
Wang’s divorce scandal came a few days after Xi, speaking at a major conference of artists and writers in Beijing, warned his audience to “treasure their social influence” and watch their behavior. A commentary published Dec. 19 by an anti-corruption body, titled “Morality Comes Before Artistic Work,” was widely interpreted as criticism of Wang even though it did not mention him directly.
“This is part of a larger movement to strengthen the regulations on the economy,” Jing Vivian Zhan, an associate professor of politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told NBC News, citing recent crackdowns on Chinese tech giants such as Alibaba and Tencent.
“In general, the Chinese government wants to set up stricter rules for market activities,” she said.
The Chinese government and society’s high standards for stars send a clear signal about the kind of behavior that will be tolerated in the country. As Western brands and celebrities have also found, the fall from paragon to pariah can be swift.
“Clearly, these public figures and celebrities are expected to be role models,” said Pan Wang, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and author of the book “Love and Marriage in Globalizing China.”
Lee’s allegations certainly came as a shock to Wang’s fans like Michelle Yap, 38, a hotel manager in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, who met the star when he visited the country in 2005.
“I was in disbelief when I first heard about the news, it was out of his character,” she said. “With so much information flooding in, I felt so confused.”
The scandal surrounding the star has not only underscored the precarious status of celebrities in China, but also stirred discussion about why Chinese women stay in unhappy marriages.
“Whether it’s women in the past or in modern times, choosing to be a housewife is choosing a payless job,” Lee said in her first post outlining her fallout with Wang. Without a paycheck, she said, women risk losing the right to have their own savings and financial agency.
With men as traditional family breadwinners, even close relationships can come with unequal power dynamics.
The state-affiliated Global Times newspaper ran an opinion piece noting the saga had highlighted the plight of “desperate housewives.”
Faced with rising divorce rates and falling birth rates, the Chinese government has sought to reinforce traditional family values, with a new law this year imposing a 30-day “cooling off” period before couples can divorce.
It appears to have had the desired effect, according to data from state media, which shows that the divorce rate dropped by 70 percent in the first quarter of 2021.
The controversial law was met with anger from women, but Beijing appears to be taking steps to assuage some of their concerns. The country’s top lawmaking body last week debated legislation that would give women new safeguards in the workplace and during pregnancy, according to Reuters.
“If women plan to have children that means they need to take care of them, and that will really shrink their personal space for career advancement, or for socialization, leisure activities,” said Wang, the lecturer and author.
“Some women do see divorce as a fresh start, a new chapter of life,” she said.
Lee certainly did. She posted on Instagram once again on Thursday, saying she hoped to “put an end to the continuing turmoil.”