Sexual harassment and power abuse is quite common in showbiz: Acclaimed lyricist Hsu Chang-te

Hollywood has predators like Harvey Weinstein who abused his position as a film producer to commit sexual crimes against actresses. So what about the Asian entertainment industry?

It doesn't seem that much different, according to what a respected Chinese pop music lyricist said on television.

In an excerpt of Taiwanese talk show News Wawawa uploaded to Facebook on Tuesday (Sept 1), Hsu Chang-te said: "Sexual harassment and power abuse is quite common in showbiz."

"There are some things that appear very normal to people outside the industry. But to people who work in showbiz, those actions are very abnormal."

Chang-te, 57, is acclaimed for penning the lyrics to many chart-topping hits such as Mavis Fan's Snowman, Valen Hsu's If The Clouds Know, and Faye Wong's Restrain.

He gave an example to illustrate his point. If a music producer offers to pick a singer up from her home and send her to the recording studio — which is the job of a promotions executive — it's not because he's friendly.

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"The singer will not dare to reject the producer, especially if he's a famous one or has helped her with a hit song. During the ride to the studio, or after the recording has completed, he will ask the singer to go out for a meal. She cannot turn it down. And it will get worse," Chang-te continued.

"This kind of harassment is horrifying. It can get to the point where he confesses his feelings to her and says he still has many songs for her. They use these methods to pressure singers to get what they want."

Some singers succumbed to the pressure but were dumped in the end, he added.

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He also said these men have risen to such a high position of power that they feel most people would agree to their actions.

Such behaviour is not limited to just music producers. Movie bosses do it as well, Chang-te said.

"They will ask (the talents) to come down to the KTV to sing and accompany the clients. (The talents) will be asked to sit with the clients, and while everyone is singing and drinking, the clients will touch her leg and tell her to work hard. If it gets to this point, something more will usually happen next."

News Wawawa’s presenter Cheng Hung-yi also chimed in on the issue, saying the boss of a TV broadcasting station told him about the many times they’ve had to clean up the mess made by a popular, and married, TV host.

The harassments involved make-up artists, wardrobe stylists, and hair-stylists, and the TV station had to pay the women to cover up the incidents.

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Homegrown former singer-actress Stella Ng also admitted in an interview two years ago that she left Taiwanese showbiz after a few years partly because there were people who tried to pressure her to sleep with "people with power and reputation" in order for her to make it in the industry. She stuck to her principles and stood up to the harassment, choosing to leave the toxic environment.

She added to AsiaOne in a recent interview: "It was horrible for me and I wished that #MeToo started earlier. Women experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace has been around for too long."

kwokkarpeng@asiaone.com