Kris Wu | Image: Getty Images
At least 10 brands have cut ties with Chinese-Canadian pop star, Kris Wu, amid rising public opinion against him after a woman accused him of date rape and luring underage girls for sex.
30-year-old Wu Yi Fan, who is professionally known as Kris Wu, is an actor, singer and model who shot to fame as a member of the South Korean boyband EXO before leaving the group in 2014.
The accuser, 19-year-old university student Du Meizhu, alleged that date-raped her when she was 17 years old, according to an interview with the Chinese news portal NetEase on Sunday. She also said Wu had sex with at least seven other girls under the age of 18, seducing them with alcohol and promises of fame.
Meizhu said Wu’s team was present at the time of the incident, she was given alcohol and prevented from leaving.
“I became unconscious soon,” Meizhu told the outlet. “When I woke up again, I was on Wu’s bed.” She said Wu did not use a condom.
Meizhu said she was under the impression she and Wu were entering into a relationship, but the pop star began ignoring her a few months later. She eventually got in touch with several other women, including two minors, who had similar experiences with Wu, Meizhu said in the interview.
The allegations triggered an outpouring of solidarity from Chinese women, with the Weibo hashtag “girls help girls” gaining over 130 million views by Monday.
The hashtags “Du Meizhu interview” and “Du Meizhu demands Wu Yifan announce he is quitting the entertainment industry” gained 1.8 billion and 440 million views respectively on the Twitter-like platform.
Kris Wu | Image: Angela Weiss/AFP)
Wu’s management team has denied the allegations and has accused Meizhu of fabricating the story. They also claimed that Meizhu frequently contacted the studio and demanded huge sums of money as a requirement for her to delete and stop publishing the information, Global Times reported.
The studio added that it had reported the case to the public security organs for investigation.
On Monday, Wu wrote on microblogging platform Weibo: “I didn’t respond earlier because I didn’t want to interfere with judicial proceedings… but I cannot bear it anymore.”
The 30-year-old said he had met Ms Du once at a friend’s party but denied other details of her account.
“If I’ve done any of the things (alleged), I will go to jail myself,” he said.
Global Times reported that as of Monday, Porsche, Lancôme, Tempo, Chinese detergent brand Libai, food brand Master Kong’s iced tea branch, kitchen appliance manufacturer Vatti, haircare brand Seeyoung, and EtherealSound, a program affiliated with China Central Television, had announced that they were terminating cooperation with Wu.
Wu is active as a solo artist and actor in Mainland China and has starred in several No. 1 box office hits including Mr. Six (2015) and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back (2017), which are among the highest-grossing Chinese films of all time in China. He made his Hollywood debut in XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017).