In addition to his acting career, Chen has ventured into entrepreneurship, launching his own clothing line, "EC Fashion," in 2019.

"Sexy Photos Gate" is considered a landmark event in the history of the Chinese-language internet. It demonstrated the uncontrollable power of viral content and the limitations of legal systems in policing the internet.

Ultimately, searching the "Edison Chen scandal photo" today is an act of digital archaeology. It is a reminder that before the #MeToo movement, before GDPR, before revenge-porn laws, there was a 27-year-old guy from Vancouver whose private folder brought down an empire of pop stars. The photos are blurry now, both literally (by ancient 6-megapixel standards) and metaphorically. They are no longer shocking. They are just sad.

The first image was a bombshell: a photo of Chen and the beloved Canto-pop star Gillian Chung (of the duo Twins) in an intimate pose. Over the following weeks, hundreds more would surface, involving other high-profile celebrities, including actress and model Bobo Chan and actress Cecilia Cheung.