Reborn in the Entertainment Industry: This Top Star Has Real Achievements

As the group chatted and laughed, the controversy, which had initially only been brewing domestically, was successfully diverted to the attention of overseas media through various means.

As expected, various media outlets, eager to get a piece of the pie, found this short article through various means, like wild beasts smelling blood.

As one of the top newspapers in the United States, The New York Times released an in-depth report on its official platform in just half an hour.

The title is "A Step Backwards: Conservative Prejudice and Public Bullying in the Eastern Arts and Literature Circles".

The report begins by highlighting Li Xiang's global popularity, his rise to the top of international trends, and his status as a benchmark for cultural exchange between East and West, directly addressing the core issue.

"In 2012, the world had already entered a new era of inclusivity, freedom, and respect for individual choices."

The Olympics also allowed the world to witness the East's determination to open up and progress, but deep-rooted old and ugly practices still remain within its borders.

"Ethan Li, who conquered the world with his work and fashion charm, is now being embroiled in entertainment rumors created by netizens."

"He was publicly characterized by a well-known Chinese writer as having a corrupt moral character, being indiscriminate in his views on both meat and vegetables, and failing to distinguish between yin and yang."

"This scene also creates a huge gap with the image of China that the world constantly presents to the world."

"Personal feelings are a fundamental human right and freedom for everyone, and have nothing to do with profession, popularity, or rumors."

"Yet this is a creator who is highly respected in China and enjoys state subsidies."

Instead of focusing on creating quality works, they use their power of discourse to publicly judge private lives and interfere with others' personal freedom with outdated and corrupt values.

The language was sharp and incisive, and it crossed the line of diversity that the world is striving to uphold. This is not art criticism, but rather a form of intellectual bullying perpetrated by abusing one's social status.

"In a world that advocates diversity and inclusion, such narrow-minded and prejudiced remarks make one question whether everything China presents is truly genuine."

As one of the world's largest news agencies, the M News Agency's reporting is even more incisive.

"Hollywood superstar and top global artist Ethan Li has been deeply involved in Sino-foreign film and television cooperation and is one of the most successful representatives of Eastern cultural export in recent years."

"In its home country, a senior writer published a long article, maliciously speculating and attacking others by taking advantage of public opinion and gossip."

"This implies that his emotional orientation corrupts the industry's morals, and forcibly blames the celebrity for the netizens' entertainment frenzy."

"Our organization believes that literary criticism should target works of art and industry malpractices, rather than personal privacy, emotional freedom, and private choices."

"This kind of behavior of attacking individuals without regard to their works is clearly the biggest dereliction of duty and prejudice of the relevant Chinese authorities."

"At the same time, it can be seen that these so-called displays of beauty and embrace of the world are just empty words."

Following the simultaneous outcry from several authoritative media outlets, dozens of LGBT rights organizations worldwide also issued a collective statement immediately.

The incident was quickly characterized as: public figures being targeted by prejudice and bullying, and their right to free choice being blatantly trampled upon.

"We resolutely oppose any form of orientation discrimination and the hijacking of personal freedom!"

"Freedom to love, freedom of aesthetics, and freedom of emotion are inherent rights of every individual."

"No country, no individual, has the right to arbitrarily slander or judge others based on outdated prejudices!"

"Ethan has done nothing wrong and should not pay the price for the entertainment gossip of reporters and netizens, much less suffer unwarranted personal attacks and humiliation of his values!"

These remarks directly caused a complete uproar in overseas public opinion.

Unlike the numerous barriers on the domestic internet, there was genuine freedom of speech on foreign websites in 2012.

It is precisely because of this freedom that many equality organizations on the internet have extremely unified, but also extremely extreme, stances.

Once they label you as racially discriminatory, suppressing diversity, or sexually motivated bullying.

Regardless of the other party's nationality or identity, they will ruthlessly tear off a piece of their flesh.

At that moment, Li Xiang was also looking at these news reports in Anna's office, but he didn't think these people were helping him.

This incident merely gave them the opportunity to demonstrate their strength and expand their influence, which is why they were charging forward with such enthusiasm.

"Did this writer from your country really give you such a public evaluation?"

"Yes." Li Xiang had no intention of keeping his family scandals private, and immediately took out his phone and handed it to Delphia.

As one of the heirs to the giant conglomerate, Delphia can read Chinese.

"Just because you refused to act in his son's movie?"

"This old man isn't doing this for the first time," Li Xiang casually crossed his legs, giving an affirmative answer.

"He probably thought I was like everyone else, someone he could manipulate at will."

"Do you need LVMH's help? The group has dealings with many of your departments in China."

"No need. It's best not to get involved in this matter, but cheering and supporting is fine."

"At least with the brands I endorse, I can express my stance when appropriate, which will also help other future brand ambassadors develop a sense of belonging to the brand."

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Anna.

"There's no need to involve China's VOGUE; after all, it's a print weekly. That old man is, after all, someone within the Federation of Literary and Art Circles system."

Anna nodded knowingly, but a little curious, "With your current fame, how could anyone in your country dare to target you like this?"

Li Xiang chuckled lightly: "If you think of them as those older white men on the Oscar panel, you'll understand."

Anna immediately understood; they were the people who climbed up the ranks step by step by accumulating seniority and years of experience.

Holding the power of discourse at the source, coupled with the network of connections accumulated over the years, allows them to act so recklessly, believing that everyone should give them some leeway.

At the same time, Li Xiang's movie fans, fashion fans, and CP fans all over the world were completely enraged.

Countless people, spanning time zones and languages, spontaneously rallied together on Twitter to launch the hashtag #ResistPrejudicedWriters#.

#RejectArtisticBullying#

#SpeakUpForEthan# Three trending search terms.

That's not all; countless fans and ordinary people have launched a joint boycott.

"Permanently boycott all works by Taro and his father, and prohibit the exhibition and dissemination of any of their works overseas."

In just one hour, the number of people signing the global boycott petition exceeded one million, and the number is still skyrocketing.

If the preceding points were merely scratching the surface for the Lu family father and son, they could simply pretend not to hear them.

However, the series of international official announcements that followed were the real blows, stripping away the skin and exposing the bone.

The first to issue a statement was San Sebastián, whose official website announced the revocation of Taro's Golden Shell Award for Best Film at the 57th edition.

This statement also seemed to open the floodgates of a purge.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association followed suit, invalidating Taro's Best Foreign Language Film award.

Subsequently, the Victoria Film Festival announced the revocation of the Golden Lotus Honorary Award that it had previously awarded him.

The Berlin Film Festival, one of Li Xiang's core venues, held a high-profile press conference to announce the cancellation of the minor award in the Taro Parallel Section.

Seeing that major film festivals were cutting ties one after another, the Tokyo International Film Festival was finally forced by public pressure to reluctantly cancel the Grand Jury Prize for "Coco".

In a short period of time, all the overseas honors and industry endorsements that Lu Taro had painstakingly accumulated over more than a decade in the film industry were rendered worthless overnight.