Brands in China have cut ties with top Chinese-Canadian celebrity Kris Wu after he was accused of predatory behavior.
In a recent interview with the Chinese news portal NetEase, Du Meizhu, 19, accused the 30-year-old pop star of date-raping her when she was 17. She also said Wu had sex with at least seven other girls under the age of 18, seducing them with alcohol and promises of fame. These include two “who are still minors who don’t want their lives to be disturbed but wish to see him punished,” Ms. Du said.
She also claimed that Wu would pay other women he had slept with to introduce more girls to him.
Ms. Du alleged that Wu had paid her 500,000 yuan ($77,130) to “keep quiet”, but decided to speak out now as she wanted to be “the last victim”. She said she was repaying the money and was ready to face legal action.
“My life has definitely been ruined,” Du said. “Although I have only ever slept with Wu, the public has long thought that I’m damaged goods,” she wrote in a Weibo post with more than 7.3m likes.
Ms. Du, who said she wanted justice for other alleged victims, gave Wu an ultimatum to quit the Chinese entertainment industry within 24 hours and apologise publicly.
Wu’s management team has denied the allegations and has accused Ms. Du of fabricating the story.
On Monday, Wu wrote on microblogging platform Weibo: “I didn’t respond earlier because I didn’t want to interfere with judicial proceedings… but I cannot bear it anymore.”
The 30-year-old said he had met Ms. Du once at a friend’s party but denied other details of her account.
“If I’ve done any of the things (alleged), I will go to jail myself,” he said.
Since the allegations have surfaced, Shanghai cosmetics brand Kans, detergent brand Libai and music streaming platform Yunting announced they would sever all ties with Wu. The singer holds several lucrative advertising deals with foreign luxury brands.TV programme Ethereal Sound also said that it would no longer work with him, Other brands such as Kiehl’s and snack brand Bestore removed mentions of him on their Weibo pages.
Tencent has announced that Wu Yifan (Kris Wu) will no longer be the brand’s spokesperson. The upcoming drama ‘The golden hairpin’ is also affected since the drama’s broadcast will be delayed or will never be broadcasted at all.
The allegations triggered an outpouring of solidarity from Chinese women, with the Weibo hashtag “girls help girls” gaining more than 130m views by Monday.
The hashtags “Du Meizhu interview” and “Du Meizhu demands Wu Yifan announce he is quitting the entertainment industry” gained 1.8bn and 440m views respectively on the Twitter-like platform.
Following the accusations, EXO(K-pop group) became a target of cyberbullying due to their previous relationship with Wu. However, fans have stood up for the group, and have reminded others that “exo is 9,” and that the members are no longer associated with Wu.
Source: the Global Times. Weibo.
