The Scheming behind Edison Chen's Apology Speech. Expert analysis of why his speech fared so much better than Gillian's

Under threat, Peter Lam Trumps Albert Yeung

Edison Chen finally made an appearance yesterday afternoon. In just five minutes, his speech captured the hearts of netizens, many of which launched into fierce online debates over his apology video. It was clear that while most netizens expressed revulsion at the very beginning of the sex scandal, most now sympathized with him. In stark contrast to the first artiste who came out to address and apologize for the sex scandal Gillian Chung whom was labelled by many as "hypocritical" upon addressing the media last monday, Edison Chen's apology speech obviously obtained the desired effects and reception from the public. According to a few polls conducted online, nearly 60% of netizens have accepted Edison's apology.

Both are apologies directed to the public, yet why is there such a stark difference when it comes down to their respective public reception? Yesterday, a reporter interviewed a Beijing renowned entertainer manager Miss Wang, who revealed that she thought that Edison Chen's successful apology is the achievement of Edison's record label (East Asia Music) boss Peter Lam's “crisis management”. Which brings us to question exactly what were the secret schemes and motivations behind Edison's boss Peter Lam's weapon of an apology speech used for crisis-management?


Choosing the right time to appear

With close to a decade's experience in managing celebrity figures, Miss Wang reveals "After a scandal of such gravity and scale erupts, no one dares make a move. In actual fact, the period right after the scandal involves a gamble of sorts between EEG and East Asia Music where the first party to make a move faces more adversity. EEG boss Albert Yeung is apparently not as bold or resilient as East Asia Music boss Peter Lam, who has shown that he can withstand prolonged stress. By not letting Edison make an appearance for such a prolonged period, fact has shown that this has only helped lead to a resigned acceptance and successful reception from the public. She believes that whoever comes out to acknowledge the authenticity of the scandal pictures will suffer much condemnation as many people are not totally convinced of the authenticity of the scandal pictures right at the start. When a celebrity comes out to acknowledge that the pictures are indeed real, many hearts either break or freeze over and people start to pass inevitable judgment on the apology of which becomes an easy target for criticism. But with the passing of time comes the natural and gradual acceptance of the public towards the authenticity of the entire scandal and people become much more accepting towards any redemptive measures. Hence, much of the heat is taken off Edison when he only makes an appearance after people have had time to get over their shock and disappointment. Also, suddenly appearing at a time when hong kong citizens and media people alike are all struggling with recovering from the shock and grief of losing their beloved icon gives Edison a very good opportunity and advantage indeed. He couldn't have picked a better time to appear before the media."


Playing the "word game"

"A simple phrase of "very naive, very foolish" is simply not enough to redeem Gillian Chung from the huge vertical plunge in how people view her and her image in their hearts and minds. Looking back at her apology video, it is obvious that she wants to skim over the matter with as few words as possible in a scanty attempt to address the matter. Little did she or her management imagine that this would lead to a huge backlash from both the media and public. It is clear that Edison's apology speech was one that was deliberated on and improvised upon time after time over a considerably long period of time. This is obvious in its content, which touches on every possible aspect you can think of, expressed sincerely while allowing little to no room for open criticism, it is obvious that the speech was created by someone very smart and very highly skilled in word play who has all along been directing behind the scenes." Miss Wang added that she has no doubt that this person is Edison's record label boss Peter Lum and that the most scheming and skillful sentence in the entire apology speech crafted of skillful word play has to be that of edison's decision to "step away from the Hong Kong entertainment scene" and that Edison's specific reference to the "Hong Kong" entertainment scene ensures that he has a choice of lots of other entertainment industries such as Hollywood to break into apart from Hong Kong. Miss Wang defines this move as "以退为进", which means that one needs to retreat in order to advance and sums up the move as "most cunning".


Playing Psychological Warfare with the Media and Populace

Miss Wang further adds that "From Edison Chen's clothing down to his performance in the press conference and even arrangement of the setting at the press conference, Peter Lum is playing a game of psychological warfare with the media and populace. The press conference comprised of only a solitary table and chair and this undoubtedly helped create an impression that Edison was shouldering a heavy and full responsibility all by himself and that he had no assistance, guidance and support by his side. At the same time, suddenly seeing a somberly-clad and serious Edison in place of the cheeky and jaunty character Hong Kong citizens and other Asian audience have grown used to leaves them with a serious and responsible impression of Edison. Apart from that, Edison's sombre countenance throughout the entire speech helps make him appear genuinely regretful and sincere and those are factors which lead to helping him garner sympathy votes from the public. And when you draw comparisons between Edison's speech and Gillian's, it is obvious that Gillian's speech is a flop compared to that of Edison's. Not only did she stress on an inadequate and somewhat comical reasoning for her involvement in the scandal, she also chose to inappropriately smile every now and then to the audience while making her speech. Even though her smiles may well be fronts to conceal her unease and nervousness, it is inevitable that they make viewers see her apology as most insincere. Furthermore, EEG's decision to launch Gillian straight back into fronting various entertainment events right after her speech made her seem like an innocent bystander to the entire scandal and like she was never truly apologetic and regretful in the first place. It is of little wonder that people would tag her as being most "hypocritical"."


Source: Translated from chinese from ifeng.com by Cocolove. Article was published in chinese in DongFeng ZaoBao (Oriental Morning Post).