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Taiwanese actor, Chen Chien-chou, has found himself in hot water after his former employee and fellow Taiwanese singer, Chou Yi-Pei, publicly accused him of sexually harassing her during a work trip in Hong Kong in 2012.

A former member of the Taiwanese girl group, Hey Girl, Chou joined Chen's company, A Legend Star Entertainment, in 2010 and left four years later after her contract expired.

A photo of the duo embarking on the said trip to Hong Kong can still be found on Chen's Facebook page.

Details of Chou's allegations

In her Facebook post detailing the unforgettable experience, Chou shared that the incident took place in the early morning on Jul. 18, 2012, a date she remembered vividly because she was "scared to death" that day.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong via a red-eye flight, she and Chen began working immediately and only began making their way back to the hotel in the evening.

After noticing that Chou kept yawning, Chen turned around and asked while winking at her, "How come you are so tired? Has it been a long time since you relaxed for a bit?"

At first, Chou didn't think too much of his question and thought he meant to ask whether she hadn't been to a massage in a while.

Hence, she told Chen she might need a session to relax as she was really tired and her shoulders were stiff.

Subsequently, even though Chou quickly realised through conversations that Chen meant something else by "relax", she didn't think too much of it as Chen was known to be a joker.

Upon arriving at the hotel, Chou, Chen, and Chen's manager decided to go up to their respective rooms first.

In the elevator, which Chou described to be small, stuffy, and crowded, Chen asked her what her room number was.

At first, Chou tried to evade his question by making a face and telling him her manager's room number.

However, Chen saw through Chou's tricks and insisted on knowing her room number.

Eventually, Chou gave in and told him her room number, thinking to herself that he would not behave inappropriately when his manager was around.

Chen insisted on entering Chou's room

After entering her room, Chou told her friend and her make-up artist that she would be taking a shower first and that they could come over 20 minutes later.

Just as she was undressing herself, her doorbell rang, so she quickly put on a bathrobe.

To her surprise, Chen was standing outside her door.

When she asked him what he was doing at her doorstep and told him she was about to shower, Chen asked her to open the door as he only had to say a few words to her.

Just as Chen opened the door slightly to hear what he had to say, Chen pushed himself through, closed the door, and sat on Chou's bed.

He then went on to tell more jokes related to helping Chou relax while Chou sat on a chair next to the room table, distancing herself from him.

She also asked him to return to his room as she was tired and wanted to shower.

However, Chen continued with his jokes and even pulled her chair towards him.

While Chou had thought about calling others for help, she refrained as she was worried that she would burn bridges with Chen, as he had ways to make her lose her job immediately.

Chen forced a hug on Chou

Just as she got up and tried to open the door to keep herself safe, Chen suddenly hugged her from behind and asked her, "Am I not buff?"

In response, Chou commented indifferently that she liked skinny guys and asked him to stop.

Unbothered, Chen only replied, "You haven't even tried [a buff guy]. Maybe you will like one after trying."

Before Chou realised it, she had already fallen onto her bed with Chen.

When she finally found the opportunity to push him away, she asked him to return to his room again as she was really tired.

To her astonishment, Chen only said, "Alright, then let's do it faster then!"

Chou then spoke to him seriously, sharing that she had always regarded him as an elder brother, and what he was doing was inappropriate and weird.

However, Chen shrugged it off, saying, "I don't have other ways [to let out my urges]. Your sister [Christine] Fan doesn't like [sex]."

Thinking to herself that she could not afford to enrage Chen, Chou told him that he should not let out his urges on her as she was his employee.

Her response only prompted Chen to justify his pursuit, who then praised Chou, saying, "But you are so pretty!"

Chen called Chou after the incident to invite her to his room

The conversation was only put to an end when noises began to pop up in the corridor outside Chou's room, and Chou asked Chen to return to his room as it might be her friend and make-up artist visiting her.

Chen finally conceded and said, "Alright. Let's call it off since you are very tired. I will leave if you kiss me on the lips."

As a result, Chou had to remind him again that she viewed him as a brother and that he would not have asked his younger sister, which Chen had one in real life, to kiss him on the lips.

Again, Chen astonished her by saying while he had never asked his younger sister to do so, maybe he would try it next time.

Just as Chou thought that Chen had finally given up on his pursuit and left her room after she warned him repeatedly that her friend might be coming soon, he rang her doorbell again.

This time, he asked Chou to give him some make-up remover so that he could find an excuse to tell others in the elevator why he went to Chou's floor.

When Chou's friend and make-up artist finally came over to her room, Chou immediately told them about what had happened.

Before she could finish the story, she got a call from Chen, who asked her whether she had slept and whether she would like to come up to his room if she couldn't sleep.

In his call, Chan also highlighted that his room was bigger, and they could watch DVDs there.

Chen pretended nothing happened

The next day, Chen continued with their itinerary in Hong Kong as if nothing happened the day before.

A few years after the incident, Chen also greeted Chou naturally in a restaurant with his wife while Chou was having a meal with her friends.

It was then Chou realised that she not only detested Chen, but she was also extremely afraid of him.

This is why, at the end of her post, Chou said she would like to thank the individuals who came forward with their testimonies during the ongoing #MeToo movement in Taiwan, as they gave her the courage to speak up for herself.

She also said that if she could have exposed Chen's wrongdoings earlier, she wouldn't have been regarded as ungrateful when she left his company and wouldn't need to feel shivers whenever she heard or saw his name.

Chen denies all allegations

In response, Chen released a statement through his lawyers on his Weibo page, calling Chou's allegations "baseless and factually untrue".

The statement said that while Chen "absolutely supports" the ongoing #Metoo movement in Taiwan and believes it has created a conducive environment for both men and women to protect themselves from unequal treatment, he will not tolerate malicious slander.

The actor also denied spending time alone with Chou during their trip to Hong Kong in 2012.

At the end of the statement, Chen's lawyers said if the actor were to make any mistakes, he would have absolutely no issues with facing them.

However, he believed it would not be appropriate for false allegations to confuse the public and put media resources to waste.

As such, his lawyers will hold the relevant parties accountable legally in accordance with the law moving forward.

Response from Chou

Shortly after Chen issued his statement, Chou responded via a follow-up Facebook post, claiming that everything she shared earlier was factually accurate.

She also said she had nothing to feel guilty about and that justice would eventually prevail.

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Top images via Yi Pei Chou & 黑人 陳建州/Facebook