Beijing — A Chinese Internet user has lost a suit to Taiwanese singer Elva Hsiao for spreading rumours that she was HIV-positive.
A Beijing court ruled that the Internet user, surnamed Ho, had defamed the 41-year-old celebrity and sentenced the guilty party to publish an apology for 10 days.
The China Times, a Taiwanese daily, reported that the court ordered Ho to pay Hsiao 80,000 yuan (S$16,000) for causing mental anguish. Ho, who posted the defamatory statement last May, claimed that he had got confirmation from Hsiao’s manager.
In 2017, Hsiao announced that she was taking a short break from work due to stress. The singer previously dismissed rumours that she had suspended her showbiz career due to active treatment for HIV.
In 2012, Hsiao reportedly rejected a marriage proposal from 1MDB-linked financier Jho Low. It cost him a whopping RM6.6 million (S$2 million).
Hsiao is also a songwriter, dancer, actress and entrepreneur.
Since being signed to a record deal in 1998 after competing in a singing competition, she has gone on to release 14 studio albums and achieve success in the Chinese pop music industry. Known for her R&B influenced ballads, the artiste’s first album, Elva Hsiao (1999), was considered one of the first to incorporate R&B in the Chinese market. Her most recent album Shut Up And Kiss Me was released in 2014.
Hsiao has been recognised as one of the four most popular female singers on the Chinese music scene among her contemporaries. As a result, she has been brand ambassador to Motorola, Sprite, De Beers, Avon, Pantene and Ford..
She was signed by EMI Virgin Records in 1998 as its first artiste after being scouted from the New Talent Singing Awards affiliated with Hong Kong’s TVB. She was one of 12 finalists. Singers Jacky Chu and Ruby Lu also competed that year.
Hsiao was part of a girl group called Phenomenon initially but pursued a solo career after her bandmates dropped out. She was studying design in Vancouver, Canada, at John Casablancas Institute at the time. After signing, she was managed and groomed by songwriter Yao Chien, who was also the president of Virgin/EMI in Taiwan at the time. /TISG