Big Dreamers

Hello. My name is Hong Anrong. Ah, but you don't need me to tell you that, do you? Almost everyone in China and their mother knows my name. I am not trying to boast. It is only that I truly have achieved such fame that ordinary people can only dream of.

Much of my fame comes from my status as a teen idol. I am (or was) a musician, singer, actress, martial artist, and writer, though not necessarily in that order. But even if you are not familiar with my art, surely you would know of my involvement in an affair known as the Black Child scandal. The whole affair cost me my reputation, my career, and my friends. Whatever the public might think, the truth is that the scandal was caused through no fault of my own. But I am not here to prove my innocence.

No, I am here to document the lead-up to the scandal and my life hence. Because my career, my rise to fame, is as fascinating as it is controversial. And perhaps by understanding how I came to be you will also understand better the truth of this industry which inevitably led to my ruin. For even though it might seem that my fate as an idol was predestined, it was really the manipulation of grown-ups that set me onto this path. So let us go back to a hot afternoon some months after my ninth birthday, back to the day my destiny was irrevocably decided for me.