A celebrated filmmaker caught in flagrante delicto with a prostitute is a catalyst for debate

While the Chinese government's crackdown on official corruption is creating a lot of smoke, it is the crackdown on vice, especially when it involves showbusiness personalities, that is the real sizzle.

Not a month has gone by this year without a top-name entertainer arrested for illegal drug taking, hiring prostitutes or spousal cheating OK, the last part has nothing to do with the police as it is still within the realm of ethics rather than that of the law for a movie star to have a mistress. But tabloids are green with envy because the government has preempted them on their biggest strength, which is, digging up dirt around entertainment celebrities.

The arrest of Wang Quan'an, director of Tuya's Marriage and a perennial favorite with the Berlin International Film Festival, has people scratching their heads. Unlike Huang Haibo, a popular actor who was caught patronizing hookers, Wang is married; and not only that, his wife is drop-dead gorgeous, and many online denizens say she is the woman of their dreams. Although no photo was made public of the prostitute Wang was with when arrested, many doubt the 31-year-old could hold a candle to his wife in appearance.

Armchair psychologists have offered many explanations: Some say Wang has an extremely strong sexual desire as the police report alleges he hired prostitutes three days in a row. Or he could be a victim of sexual addiction. (His actress-model wife was away on assignment in New York.) Others say he has certain proclivities because he is said to have been involved in a sexual threesome on one of the three days.

There is a lengthy piece with lots of academic jargon arguing that human beings, especially males, are incapable of being loyal to a single partner. It lists animal tests in which the male was engaged in sex with a group of females until he was exhausted. Just when you think he could not be tempted by any of them, a new female shows up, and he is alive again.

The traditionalists, on the other hand, stick to moral depravity as the main culprit. That and too much money and too much free time. As the Chinese saying goes, "When one is well fed and well clothed, one starts to think of his sexual needs."

Zhang Yuqi, Wang's wife, got a lot of praise for her timely response. She wrote on her weibo: "First I want to thank everyone for caring for me and my family. I feel torn right now. The incident, as it affects public order, will be handled with justice by the law-enforcement authorities, I believe. As for its impact on my family, the two of us will face it and bear it together."

Many tea-leaf readers have interpreted it as a sign of forgiveness on her part.

Another point of debate is the rate Wang is said to have paid. It was 800 yuan, well below what many would have imagined. Just a month ago, Guo Meimei, who was arrested for prostitution, among other crimes, said she was charging 400,000 yuan for a night. That ignited public curiosity about the pricing of the world's oldest profession. It seemed random and extreme.

Fortunately, we have historians or people who claim to know history come forward with the big picture. Prostitution as it was portrayed in classical literature was very expensive in ancient times. A night frolicking with someone from a popular brothel would cost half a year's salary of the average wage earner, one report says. But I strongly suspect that those were upscale courtesans in Guo's league. They were not hustling for the next meal.

I thought this trade was legal in antiquity when literary gentlemen might be humiliated if they did not have a coterie of courtesan friends who were kindred spirits. According to economic theories, entry barriers and harsh regulations such as law enforcement should drive up prices whereas making it legal would have the opposite effect. But a senior executive of a cheap hotel chain, the kind that is habitually friendly to this business, presumably gave his estimate for the average price as 200 yuan. So, is Guo bluffing by putting up a rate card out of whack with market acceptance?

Whatever your attitude toward prostitution, it exists in any society and its size in the economy and its impact should be a subject for academic study. If future novelists all quote Guo's rate as the standard, historians may deduce that China's economy today would be hundreds of times bigger than it actually is.

Another detail that piques public interest is how Wang's hanky-panky was discovered. He was caught in his own office, which for a film director is a natural extension of his home and may have a small or no staff. The Beijing police blog said it was qunzhong, a vague term that literally translates into "the masses", that blew the whistle on him. Previous incidents have also attributed to the reporting of this mysterious all-knowing group.

Theoretically, we could all be a member of qunzhong or the public. In the old days, though, qunzhong usually referred to the granny type who patrolled neighborhoods and communities. They tended to wear red armbands and would knock on the door of each household, checking to see if there were any fire hazards or anybody suspiciously out of place. That's why a fugitive had nowhere to hide even in this vast country of ours.

But things have changed. In the days of low mobility, you would know your neighbor three floors up and even his cousins three times removed. Nowadays people are moving in and out all the time. We don't say hello to our next-door neighbors even if they have not moved in a decade. In one generation we have swung from no privacy to vigilance for privacy.

Given this change, I really doubt a typical neighborhood granny would be able to tell that Wang walked in with a hooker, or an actress colleague, or a close friend or even a family member. Well, unless she was dressed as a street walker from a red-light district. But then, China has no red-light districts and young women who dress like hookers are usually not hookers, but rather, women who have been given very bad fashion advice.

If this particular granny hit the bull's eye on Wang, can we surmise that many of her suspicions turned out to be groundless and thus invaded others' privacy without uncovering any illegal act whatsoever? Unless Wang was wiretapped, it would have been pretty hard to bust in and nail him in the course of the illegal act. Then, in a less sinister scenario, that prostitute could be the cause. She might have been arrested before and was working on police orders.

Anyway, some of the public responses to Wang's fall from grace have been concerns about personal privacy. Not only how he was nabbed, but also how the authorities were alerted. The police announcement mentioned only Wang's surname, but the news media quickly discovered who that Wang was and added the details. Was it appropriate? Should he have the right to privacy before he faces a court of law?

Then there are the sporadic voices for legalizing prostitution. But judging from the vociferous condemnation from a wide swath of the society, especially the young generation, one realizes that, good or bad, it will never come to pass. One thing is definitely different: there is no general call for miscreants to be banned from their jobs, even though the regulators have urged province-level TV stations to be cautious when using those with moral blemishes. Will it extend to the film industry? Does it imply that entertainment professionals must be held to a certain height of moral standards? I believe the audience should be in the position to make the final choice.

The writer is editor-at-large of China Daily. Contact him at raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn