When Canadian born actor and singer, Edison Chen, took his Pink MacBook to a Hong Kong repair shop named eLiTe Multimedia, he got a lot more than he bargained for. An employee copied the memory and the contents have turned out to be the equivalent of digital dynamite. The laptop was loaded with sexy photos featuring Edison and some of Asia’s top actresses and singers.

The images wound up on the net and have triggered a major scandal. The photos show Chen in bed with at least six different women. One of the women featured in the photos is Gillian Chung, a best-selling singer who has a large fan base consisting mainly of young teen girls.

The discovery that Chung was a participant has generated some criticism. Around the time she was starring in Chen’s bedroom scenes, Chung had been doing the rounds as an advocate of upstanding morality – making speeches condemning premarital sex.

The first batch of pictures appeared on the net about two weeks ago. Since then some unknown operator has been uploading fresh photos on a daily basis, further compromising the women involved.

Edison Chen has apologized and made an appeal for people to destroy the images, which is a bit like asking the little Dutch boy to stick his finger in the dike when half of Holland is under water.

Everyone from the Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong to bloggers have been weighing in on the debate. The Bishop made a plea for decency and called upon people not to post or circulate the pictures.

The cops are threatening to prosecute people who are caught image sharing. This has led to a backlash, with bloggers objecting to what they view as unequal treatment. At a protest rally some of the participants complained that Hong Kong’s anti-pornography laws are too vague. They argued that while a lot of pornography is overlooked by the police, they only decided to clamp down in the Chen case because celebrities were involved.

Sexy pictures may be the least of Edison Chen’s problems. The entertainment industry in Hong Kong has many connections with organized crime, and the tabloids have been running stories about gangsters who want to teach Chen a lesson. There are even reports of threats on his life.

At present he’s at some undisclosed location outside the territory, which sounds like a good plan. There are reports that he will be returning to Hong Kong to hold a news conference.