If you have been keeping up with any sort of gossip, news about some Taiwanese celebrities being accused of sexual harassment would have surely reached your ears. To name the few exposed for their past actions are Taiwanese actor Chris Wang (宥胜) and popular TV host Mickey Heung (黃子佼). As more victims of sexual assault speak up about their past experiences, many more are finding the courage to speak of their own traumatic experience too.
Recently, a victim of sexual assault told her story on Facebook. She did not mention specifically who was the frontline TV host in her post, but because the surname ‘Xu (徐)’ (there can be multiple English spelling for the surname) was given, many have pointed her experience to be related to well-known Taiwanese TV host, Kevin Hsu (徐乃麟).
After graduation, the aforementioned woman did not know which job was best suited for her, so she ventured into many different fields. One of the jobs she had years ago was a scriptwriter at a somewhat famous film and television production company. This job turned out to be a traumatising one for her as she was sexually harassed by a frontline TV host with the surname ‘Xu’.
One of the woman’s project was an outdoor shoot at Green Island, Taiwan. After arriving at the location, she had to go through the script with the TV host in advance, and this meant travelling back and forth with the host. Initially, everything seemed fine as they had many common things to discuss.
However, things took a turn after dinner one night when everyone changed into their swimsuits and headed to a hot spring. “Maybe it’s the beautiful night, or maybe it’s the alcohol. In the hot springs, I felt that he was touching my thighs. I changed my seats, but shortly after, I realised he was beside me again, and continued to touch me.” Thinking that it might be her own imagination and feeling powerless to deal with it, she eventually left the hot springs.
The woman attempted to avoid the TV host after that, but he was persistent. On their way back by car to the homestay, the TV host seated himself beside the woman. He then wrapped his hands around her shoulders and played with her hair and swimsuit straps. At night, he even went to her room and gave a dumb excuse to enter. In fright, the woman ran away to her female colleague’s room. When she returned to her room a while later, the TV host was gone.
“If you want to talk about how this sexual harassment incident have affected me in any way, I felt like I learned how to be stronger and protect myself better. When you feel that something’s ‘off’, you need to find the courage to withdraw yourself and not let anyone advance any further. This is an important lesson.”
The identity was not revealed in the Facebook post, but many netizens speculated that it could’ve been Kevin Hsu. In respond to this, Kevin said, “My whole life, I have only been to Green Island once and that was 30 or more years ago. I remember going there to shoot the show ‘Funny Family’ with Matilda Tao (陶晶莹). The program’s content at that time involves diving, so I learned how to dive in China before the trip. The recording process went very smoothly.”
This article is contributed by Amelia Er.
