Profile | How Gillian Chung of Cantopop duo Twins survived the Edison Chen photo scandal to keep thriving as a singer and actress

Gillian Chung debuted in 2001 as one half of girl duo Twins. Her career was rocked in 2008 when private photos of her with singer Edison Chen were leaked online

The scandal over the intimate photos led to Chung taking a hiatus from the industry – but 16 years after the incident, she is thriving as a singer and actress

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Gillian Chung at an interview with the Post in 2010. Chung, one half of Hong Kong’s Cantopop duo Twins, is now thriving as a singer and actress but the road to success – marred by a scandal involving intimate photos – has not been an easy one. Photo: SCMP

Ashlyn Chak

Published: 7:15am, 19 Jan 2024Updated: 12:44pm, 23 Jan 2024

This is the 16th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades.

Many Hongkongers today will remember the phenomenon of Twins, the Cantopop girl duo who dominated music, film and television for the better part of the 2000s.

Unfortunately, one half of Twins, Gillian “Ah Gil” Chung Yan-tung, has had a rather difficult time in the public eye since 2008.

Born in 1981 in Hong Kong, Chung was raised by a single mother and graduated from the all-girls Kowloon True Light School in Kowloon, soon after which she was discovered for her looks.

Charlene Choi (left), then 18, and Chung, 20, at an interview with the Post in 2001. Photo: SCMP

In 2000, she signed on with the label Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG), where she began training as an artist around the same time as Charlene “Ah Sa” Choi Cheuk-yin. Reportedly, people in the record company often mistook them for each other as they were inseparable and looked alike.

In 2001, Chung, then 20, debuted with Choi, 18, as Twins. The duo played off their youthful energy and their songs often referenced high-school life and young love.

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