Hoang Thuy Linh Sex Tape: Vietnamese Scandal

With all the hoopla surrounding recent celebrity sex tapes and Vanessa Anne Hudgens nude photos, Hoang Thuy Linh's sex tape might be the most controversial yet. The tape of the 19-year old Vietnamese actress and her boyfriend was filmed on Thuy Linh's cellular phone, and has led to the arrest of four students involved in "dispersing illicit material of sexual conduct," on the Internet.

The students apparently copied the video from the actresses' boyfriend's computer and then posted it on their blogs and sent it to other students, (BBC News).

The first look at the video was a five-minute version posted on YouTube; however, it was quickly removed. A longer, 16 minute version surfaced a couple of days later. All of the versions of the sex tape are still circulating around the Internet.

The Van Anh's Diaries, which was the television soap opera, the actress played a starring role in was cancelled due to the stir the and negative publicity the sex tape was causing. The show focussed on the daily lives of Vietnamese students and was popular with both young people and their parents, (BBC News).

While this kind of thing is becoming relatively common in the States it came as quite a surprise to the Vietnamese. Vietnamese journalist Hung Nguyen says, "This is the most scandalous and controversial thing that has ever happened in Vietnam's virtual world," (contactmusic).

According to many people that are familiar with the Vietnamese culture, people will be more forgiving of Thuy Linh's boyfriend because they believe that it is socially acceptable for a male to have sex at this age, but not a female. It probably does not help that Thuy Linh's character in the soap opera was a virginal schoolgirl.