Former Mediacorp actress Zully Le has lashed out at former actor Ian Fang after the latter was sentenced to 40 months’ jail for committing sexual offences against a minor.
Fang, 35, pleaded guilty on May 19 to three counts of sexually penetrating an underage girl.
Better known as Le Yao, she wrote the post, titled “The price of being in the limelight”, on Instagram and Facebook on May 20.
“The limelight is a double-edged sword. It can make you a national idol or bring you back to your former self overnight,” she wrote in Chinese.
“You want to enjoy the benefits of being in the limelight, yet you don’t set a strict standard for your behaviour? You want to have social influence and make lots of money, but yet you don’t obey the law and be a good citizen? It’s impossible to be so greedy as to ‘have it all’.”
“Please – be a human first before acting,” Le wrote, without naming the person.
She told Mediacorp’s online publication 8world that she was referring to Fang, saying that they both hailed from Shanghai.
She came to Singapore to participate in the Star Search finals after she was the female winner for the Shanghai zone in 2001.
Meanwhile, actor Christopher Lee declined to comment when he was approached by Chinese-language evening daily Shin Min Daily News. Fang had previously addressed him as “shifu” (mentor or teacher).
The 53-year-old, who is married to actress Fann Wong, responded with: “I don’t know what to say.”
Fang played Wong’s younger brother in crime drama On The Fringe (2011) and then interned at media production company Wawa Pictures. He served as a production assistant on the medical drama The Oath (2011), which starred Lee and Jesseca Liu.
Fang then played Lee’s son in gambling drama Show Hand (2012) and became Lee’s mentee.
“I would always ‘pester’ him on the set, for example, by calling him ‘shifu’,” Fang had said.
However, on the YouTube programme Rise ’N Shine in October 2024, Fang said that he no longer called Lee “shifu” but “big brother” instead.
“I let him down a few times and I could feel it even though he didn’t say it,” Fang said.
Referring to the leak of explicit private messages between him and actress Carrie Wong in 2019, Fang said: “I was lectured by him after the incident.”
Fang quoted a disappointed Lee as saying then: “Can you make me feel proud when you call me ‘shifu’? Not the type of incredulous expression when people learn that I am your ‘shifu’.”
Fang added that Lee did not cut ties with him due to the text-messaging scandal. He apologised to Lee on the show and promised to be the best version of himself. The video has since been deleted. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
