In a world where people are geared up to snatch at every opportunity to lay their hands on the lion's share of any profit, one may ask: Is there a short cut to fame and wealth?

The most obvious answer is to become a household name through media hype. Taking that route dispenses with having to make the strenuous effort required to accumulate knowledge and professional expertise and the subtle commercial skills needed to overwhelm one's rivals. Nor does the person have to worry about his/her identity being revealed and becoming an easy target for kidnappers or extortionists like the white-collar worker who hit the jackpot and pocketed the staggering sum of 36 million yuan (US$4,400,000) after tax.

On the contrary, a person who looks forward to becoming a celebrity overnight may divest themselves of having any binding moral obligations imposed on them by stereotyped ideology and adopt a laisser-faire attitude towards everything.

The trailblazer in this search for a short cut to fame and fortune is the young woman who brazenly and glibly talked on the Internet about her sexual experiences with a number of partners. The response to her show of audacity was so tremendous that she determined to put her narrative down in black and white.

Though taken to task by some hidebound bigots, she and her biography were hailed by most young people as a marked departure from time-honoured moral standards and she became a celebrity with an overnight bestseller.

Following close behind in her tracks was another young girl, an actress reportedly aspiring to become a brilliant star. She produced a tape which she says lays bare the hypocrisy of a famous self-righteous director whom she depicts as a libidinous villain.

As I am not in the mood to discuss whether what she alleges is trustworthy or not, her act of spurning a director, whom most actors regard as a monarch and putting an indelible stain on his reputation, at once put her in the spotlight. She quickly rose from oblivion to become a star for her courage and challenging character.

Taking the short cut to fame and wealth is not solely confined to those stuck in the mud of oblivion. Take the kidnapping of a well-known actor. No sooner had he been rescued by the armed police than he was contacted by film companies intending to shoot a TV series based on his experience.

It kind of fits in with the teaching of Lao Zi, the great philosopher and thinker in the Spring and Autumn period (722-481 BC), that misfortune breeds good luck and vice versa.

Lastly, we can't turn a blind eye to the bitter quarrel between a well-known anchorman and a director over a film. The news media played an essential role in fanning the feud and riveting public attention on the exchange of verbal abuse. The farce, though a bit absurd, has undoubtedly placed the two in the limelight for the public to admire and criticize.

Obviously, all these would have been impossible without the media functioning as a catalyst. While people involved in the rumbustious affair reap the better part of the benefit, the news media increase their revenues through expanding their audience and readership.

It's a win-win strategy, is it not?

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