A writer for the Netflix show Wave Makers (人選之人—造浪者) has accused exiled Chinese poet Bei Ling (貝嶺) of sexually assaulting her when she was a student at Chinese Culture University.
Bei has denied the accusations, describing them as a “fabrication.”
Writer Chien Li-ying (簡莉穎), who published an account of the alleged assault on social media on Friday, accused Bei of groping her and placing her hand down his pants while sitting on an air bed at the poet’s home when she was in her junior year at the university.
Photo: CNA
Chien said she had contacted Bei via e-mail because he was a friend of writer Susan Sontag, and she had planned a project to direct and stage Sontag’s Alice in Bed.
Before the incident, Bei had sent her a box of Sontag’s books, which had convinced her that he was trying to help with her project, she said.
In response to media queries, Bei said Chien’s account was a “pure fabrication.”
“She sought to impose experiences she had had with others or things that never happened on me,” he said.
Bei denied ever owning an air bed or sending Chien a box of Sontag’s books, adding that he did not recall Chien ever directing Alice in Bed, as the Taiwanese adaptation had a male director.
Victims of sexual harassment coming forward to confront their abusers indicates that society is moving forward, Bei said, adding that he “fully supported” such actions.
However, he said, if Chien tried to “pressure” him with something he could not be held accountable for, he “reserved the right to seek legal recourse to defend his reputation.”
Bei was a leader of underground literary and cultural movements in the 1980s prior to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
He was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2000 for publishing an edition of the Tendency (傾向) literary journal, which he cofounded, on a charge of “illegally publishing a foreign literary publication.”
Bei’s arrest triggered an international backlash, and he was released two weeks later and exiled to the US.
He moved to Taiwan in 2016 and obtained permanent residency in 2021.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS