Vietnam is having Paris Hilton moment

The Link

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VIE...EMPLATE=DEFAULT

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam is having a Paris Hilton moment.

An online sex video featuring a popular celebrity has riveted the nation for more than a week now, much as Hilton's clip seized the attention of Americans when it hit the Internet several years ago.

But unlike Hilton, the 19-year-old woman at the center of Vietnam's sex scandal won't be able to capitalize on her newfound notoriety.

Hoang Thuy Linh's show has been canceled and the actress has made a tearful farewell on national television.

"I made a mistake, a terrible mistake," said the doe-faced teen, who had cultivated a good-girl image. "I apologize to you, my parents, my teachers and my friends."

Her fall from grace has highlighted the generational fault-lines in Vietnam, a sexually conservative culture within which women have been taught for centuries to remain chaste until marriage and stay true to one man - no matter how many times he cheats on them.

Like everything else in this economically booming country, ideas about sex and gender roles are quickly changing as satellite TV and the Internet bring Western influences to a society cut off by decades of war and economic isolation.

But for many in communist Vietnam, new ideas about free love are much harder to accept than the free market. And unlike men, women who break the old sexual taboos are not easily forgiven.

"Kids today are crazy," said Nguyen Thi Khanh, 49, a Hanoi junior high school teacher. "They often exceed the limits of morality. They have sex and fall in love when they're much too young."

In the old days, Khanh said, a woman who had sex before marriage would be ostracized.

"A good girl must keep herself clean until she is married," Khanh said. "Thuy Linh should be condemned. If I ever see her again on TV, I will turn it off, for sure."

In "Vang Anh's Diaries," Thuy Linh portrayed an earnest high school girl, modern and stylish but determined to uphold the traditional virtues of "cong, dung, ngon" and "hanh," which promote women as tidy, charming, soft-spoken and chaste.

Then the 16-minute video hit the Internet on Oct. 15 featuring Thuy Linh in bed with her former boyfriend, both of them apparently aware that they were on camera.

On Thursday, Hanoi police detained four college students accused of posting the sex clip to the Internet. They could face charges of "spreading depraved cultural items," which carries a sentence of six months to 15 years if convicted.

Police identified the man in the clip as 20-year-old Vu Hoang Viet, who is currently studying overseas. They said a friend copied the film off of Viet's laptop, and passed it along to other friends who then posted it online.

Most of the public's wrath has been directed at Thuy Linh rather than Viet.

"People will forgive him, but not her," said Tran Minh Nguyet of the Vietnam Women's Union, which promotes gender equality. "Vietnamese think it's OK for a boy to have sex at that age, but not for a girl. It's absolutely unfair."

The video has been the talk of Vietnam. Even members of Vietnam's National Assembly were overheard gossiping about it last week at the opening of the new legislative session.

A few lonely voices have sprung up in Thuy Linh's defense. But in most newspapers and on blogs and Web sites, the video has become the target of jokes and condemnation.

VietnamNet, a popular online newspaper, said the episode underscored the "dark side of globalization" and warned that a flood of foreign influences "threaten Vietnam's cultural foundation."

The scandal also has disillusioned many of Thuy Linh's biggest fans.

"She was supposed to set a good example for Vietnamese students nationwide," said Chi, 14, a Hanoi junior high school student who declined to give her full name. "Now this scandal has ruined everything. It's completely destroyed her image."

Hilton's sex tape, made with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon in eerie night-vision green, surfaced just before the start of her reality TV series, "The Simple Life" and helped propel her to superstardom.

But in Vietnam, the video scandal is certain to destroy Thuy Linh's career, said Nguyet of the Vietnam Women's Union.

"Vietnam is changing quickly, but there's no way Thuy Linh will be forgiven," Nguyet said. "That will take another generation."

Comment:Her career is finished by this scandal.

its reported in thai newspaper too

I think this is a couple week too late to post this. I'm sure by now most Vietnamese members here knew or rather downloaded, viewed, and formed their opinions about the clips already.

"Her fall from grace has highlighted the generational fault-lines in Vietnam, a sexually conservative culture within which women have been taught for centuries to remain chaste until marriage and stay true to one man - no matter how many times he cheats on them."

This part of this article really strikes a negative chord with me. This is truly irresponsible journalism.

While it is true for the most part that the Vietnamese culture does encourage remaining chaste unitl marriage, there is no moment in my entire life as a Vietnamese person that I can recall a Vietnamese parent or adult figure tell a vietnamese girl "stay with him, no matter how many times he cheats on you." A fallacy on a large scale.

Someone has been mis-informed and has irresponsibly regurgitated this misleading information to the masses. The women in my family as well many of the Vietnamese female friends I know would not tolerate a cheating man. Not even once.

Along the same "sexually conservative culture" lines, it is horribly irresponsible to include the implication that in the "sexually conservative culture" of Vietnam it is acceptable for the men to cheat on the women many times. This is absolutely false. This is difinitely not an accurate representation of the the culture of Vietnamese people by my first hand accounts. The men in my family and circle of friends are good fathers and good husbands. There are a few exceptions and they are an extreme minority.

Do they not have resnopsible editors for the Associated Press? Practice responsible journalism PLEASE!!!

Man, she really got torn up. What could anyone else really do?

She got Fuk-ed!!! Serves her right for having sex b/4 marriage!!!

fu-king on camera phone, how modern. Vietnam is improving not only in the economic field but also culturally.



How unmodernizes...

Jesus would be very disappointed by you. If his mother didn't have sex before marriage he wouldn't exist. (assuming that there are evidence of his existence)

Sex before marriage creates miracles. People should do it more often.

This has nothing to do with modern or un-modernized!

Yeah ppl should have more sex (teenagers that is) and have ton of abortions or throw their babies in the trash can, is that what you want???

More sex doesn't mean more abortions, where did you get that from?

There are a lot of methods out here to prevent the sperms from reaching an egg cell.

Like I've said, your thinking is very "primitive" and unmodernizes.

Peace dawg.

And your thinking is just like those "liberals" in the media GV...

the title is funny

Thank you 4fingazUp. This is one of smartest things anyone has said on this forum for a long time. The writer is a white male trying to stereotype and slander vietnamese culture as inferior so that western culture can appear to have moral authority. Never have I met a vietnamese women who would put up with this crap. What if I said it is normal in american culture to wed preteen girls to older white males who have many wives already, and raped by her 'husband', all the while being condoned by the community. The realiaty is, when it comes to morals, vietnam is far superior to america. In america, girls are having having sex by the age of 13. Teenage pregnancies occur far more in america than it does vietnam. The divorce rate is 1 in every 2. Teenage girls hooking up with guys well into their late 20's, early 30's. The list goes on...

Isn't AP the one responsible for labeling black victims of katrina as looters while suggesting that white victims have 'found' food? Yeah, these guys are as reputable as fox.

Sadly, a lot of this mis-representation of the public, to the public, goes on all the time. Fox and The AP are repeat offenders when it comes to this. It chafes my hide everytime I hear or read some kind of hogwash reckless journalism and know that it amounts to a titanic pile of cow manure. I find it refreshing when the likes of Stephen Colbert or Stephanie Miller catch these irresponsible journalist, calls them on it and do a media check on them. Its awsome. But some things will never change.