Rebirth: How A Loser Became A Prince Charming

Qin Guan was in his house, sorting out photos sent by reporters. Some of them could possibly be used for his website.

By that time, most people had fallen asleep on their soft mattresses. Qin Guan was wide awake though. His chest was filled with pride. After turning over in his sleep for a long time, he eventually got up early in the morning. Then he heard some stunning news.

Jay Chou hadn’t stayed in America for the Grammys. After his conversation with Qin Guan, he had returned to Taiwan for work. Another award ceremony was going to be held there.

Taiwanese music awards were more popular than those of the Chinese mainland in terms of scale and album sales. Taiwanese musicians also attached great importance to their own music festivals.

However, Jay Chou, who seemed to be everywhere in China those days, had failed to win the award for the most popular album.

Coincidentally, the award was given to Jolin Tsai, who did not get along with him at all.

The reason Jolin had won the reward was because her album sales had beat Chou’s by more than 20%. In 2007, this was considered terrible.

As Jolin Tsai got on the stage to accept the award, everyone realized that Chou was absent from the ceremony. The next day, some surprising news about the award were released by none other than Jay Chou, who blamed Chen Zeshan, the boss of IME, who was also Jolin’s boss. Chou accused Chen of cheating during the selection.

Chou said that Chen had paid a lot to fake the sales of Jolin’s album, so Chou’s sales would be less than Jolin’s. Such an unscrupulous crime was unacceptable not just for Chou, but for the entire music circle. The integrity of the selection and the honesty of the music circle was coming into question.

Chou wanted to expose the scandal to the public, so during a TV interview, he addressed the matter openly, mentioning people by names. This action of his raised a storm of controversy in Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. All the fans were angry. They couldn’t stand to see music tarnished by money and con artists.

The question of loyalty started spreading from Taiwan to Macau, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, but Chen Zeshan’s public response surprised everyone.

"I feel sorry for Jay Chou’s accusations."

The reporter was confused. "Is there any truth to the news? I thought you would be angry about the whole thing."

"No, I just feel sorry for both of us. A superstar like Chou shouldn’t have gotten involved. This was an unspoken rule in the music circle. It’s no secret among music insiders that people pay different prices for different sales ranks."

Actually, the media and the audience had no idea about this.

The reporter didn’t know what to say, so he held onto the microphone, waiting for Chen’s next words.

"Chou is a silly man. Music companies will keep a distance from him from now on. He will not benefit from this in any way."

The reporter couldn’t help but comment, "So, in your opinion, fabricating sales is not a mistake, but a meaningful unspoken rule that people have to follow?"

Chen didn’t answer directly. Instead, he changed the topic.

"I’m not in favor of fabricating things, but everyone wants to have their way. As the boss of a company, why can’t I try a more efficient way? I don’t like this trend, but if everyone else uses this method, I’ll go bankrupt if I don’t as well. It’s sad, but I have no choice but to do the same."

"Isn’t there any way to challenge this situation? This compromises the public’s trust."

"Yes, there is. Jay Chou revealed it to the public, but that didn’t achieve anything. I’m nothing but an unlucky scapegoat. He can’t solve the problem from the root. Besides, why would he choose such an instance to reveal it? Could it be a way of venting his personal anger?"

The reporter immediately wrote something down on his notebook. He decided to use Chen’s final comment as a key point.

"What do you mean by ’personal anger’? Are Jay and Jolin still on bad terms?"

Chen Zeshan waved his hands. "That’s not what I meant."

Actually, this interview was his way of venting his personal anger.