Another criminal? BLACKPINK's Jennie faces backlash for collaborating with controversial Edison Chen

Content Warning: This article includes descriptions of sexual assault that may disturb some readers.

Not the first time, and it seems like it won't be the last time BLACKPINK's Jennie has collaborated with people with problematic or controversial lives in showbiz. After receiving backlash for her earlier collaborations with Alexander Wang, and Sam Levinson, and even working in a rape fantasy show called 'The Idol' with The Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp, she is embroiled in a new scandal.

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A few weeks ago, Jennie shared a post on her personal Instagram account about a collaboration between her, ADIDAS, and CLOT, a streetwear fashion label run by Hong Kong-based singer and actor Edison Chen. She posted a picture with Chen and even he shared a similar picture on his own Instagram. 

While some were excited about this collaboration, many BLACKPINK fans called Blinks and others took to social media, particularly X (formerly known as Twitter), to criticize the K-pop idol for her choice of collaborations, especially since it seems that it was Jennie's idea herself.

Edison Chen's controversies:

One of his earliest scandals was in 2007 when he was in his mid-20s and got into an altercation with a taxi driver that led to Chen kicking the car multiple times, causing extensive damage including dents and breaking all of the windows. He was charged by the police, placed on a one-year good behaviour bond, and fined HK$4,700 (~$600 USD) for the damages done to the taxi.

That being said, this was nothing compared to what else he had done. In 2008, he became embroiled in a highly publicized sex scandal in which pictures of him in various nude and sexually suggestive poses with prominent women appeared online. Those celebrities included Cecilia Cheung, Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan, and Chen's former girlfriend Vincy Yeung. The scandal severely damaged the reputations of those involved, and Chen eventually issued a public apology and declared his intention to leave the Hong Kong entertainment industry indefinitely.

He appeared to have continued after all of this, as evidenced by his involvement in another scandal in 2011. He was thirty-one years old when photos of him cuddling and kissing 16-year-old model Cammi Tse were made public. The pictures and texts that were exchanged between the two were leaked since it seemed that Cammi lost her phone. Given that Chen was only 16, her videotaped portrayal of a model child is considered pornographic in many places. Nonetheless, he was not prosecuted because, in Hong Kong, the legal age of consent is sixteen.

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