When sex brings down the rich and famous

Another point of debate is the rate Wang is said to have paid. It was 800 yuan ($130), 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 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 moral standard? I believe the audience should be in the position to make the final choice.