At the time, the 27-year-old, surnamed Dong, was caught on camera by an unknown man who was photographing a busy street scene in Chengdu, southwest China.
She was walking hand-in-hand with a married man in his fifties whose surname was Mr. Hu. At the time, the man was an executive at the Beijing-based state oil company where Mr. Dong also worked.
After the scandal, Mr. Hu was fired and expelled from the Communist Party because of his relationship with Mr. Dong, an act deemed to violate company rules. Mr. Dong was also fired from the company.
In a strange turn of events, Dong became an internet sensation for a completely different reason, with a version of the silky pink dress she wore in the scandalous video selling very well on social media platform Douyin.
In a post on the platform on December 31, 2023, Dong said that she is a cheongsam enthusiast and has started publishing video clips of the traditional cheongsam dress, also known as cheongsam. chai pao Found Jiaodian Video in Chinese.
Before being banned from the platform, she had uploaded 39 clips of herself in various cheongsams and held 11 livestreaming sessions to her 24,000 followers.
“Yes, it’s me. Why not?” When many netizens asked if he was the woman involved in the scandal, Dong repeatedly answered in front of the camera.
When asked how he coped with public pressure, Dong said it was because of his family’s support.
“When I’m going through the darkest moments of my life, the warmth from my family is essential to me,” she said during a livestream event in February.
Dong’s social media appearances attracted attention on the mainland, with online observers divided over the closure of her Douyin account.
“I’m speechless. She has no morals at all. She’s admitting her identity and flaunting scandals in public,” said one observer.
“She should be banned or you’re encouraging girls to become mistresses,” another wrote.
He also expressed another opinion. “We should give her a chance to right her wrongs. Her tolerance is kindness,” one person said.
Another sympathetic observer said: Shouldn’t we give her a chance to earn her living? Is she right to make her pay for her own mistakes forever? ”