Yan Zhao Men - Sorrow of Hollywood Super Stars

Nude Photos of Hollywood Stars

Recently, the public was blown away by nude pictures of many Hollywood stars such as Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna, etc. Their private pictures were hacked and leaked, possibly from iCloud storage accounts and passed around over social media.

Hollywood Stars Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna Involved in Leaked Nude Photos

If you are a celebrity, and you pose nude for digital photos, you should not expect them to stay private, especially if the images are stored on your Apple iCloud account, where they could be stolen either by someone unlawfully accessing your account or by a hacker.

Chinese people are not surprised at 艳照门 (yàn zhào mén), because they have seen it happen in Hong Kong entertainment industry back in 2008. The scandal is about a large amount of nude pictures of 陈冠希 (Edison) with many other female stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan. It has been a huge turmoil across China and has caused very negative influence. Many roles involved in the photo scandal were once regarded by the Chinese public as pure, simple, angel, but everything changed until Edison’s computer was hacked.

Zhong Xintong - Another Female Star involved in Hongkong Photo Scandal

Chinese Phrase “…门”

The Chinese character “门” means gate or door in Chinese, so literally “…门” can be translated as “… Gate”. This expression first came into being in 1970s from the then American president Nixon’s “Watergate scandal”. Soon after the scandal, words with the suffix “-gate” appeared, which refers to “… scandal or matter”.

The Chinese phrase “…门” has been a very popular expression nowadays in China. People are just being creative and can’t stop. They put “门” after whatever can be seen as a scandal or a matter. For example, we may hear people say “厕所门(cè suǒ mén)” which is probably about what happens in a toilet，“女星门(nǚ xīnɡ mén)”which is probably about a scandal of a female star. And in the topic we discussed today we can say “艳照门”. The word “艳照” literally means “bright pictures”. It mostly refers to the nude photos of a person. So, the expression “艳照门” which, as you may have guessed, means photo scandal.

The private life of celebrities never fails to draw the eye of the media. They often complain about their privacy being stolen or hacked, but protecting themselves in the digital world can be also challenging. What’s your view on the leaked nude photos of Hollywood stars this time?

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