GILLIAN CHUNG’S is the face that launched a thousand ships. Well, a thousand protesters. And it’s her bare shoulders that did it, not her face.

The demure singer, half of the Hong Kong pop group Twins, is the unwilling focus of an international controversy that’s embroiled top government officials, the Asian tabloids and crossover chop-socky star Jackie Chan.

Chung, 25, was unwittingly snapped by a photographer while she was apparently changing backstage during a concert in Genting, Malaysia, in mid-August. The pics have been circulating on the Internet, but it’s their publication in a Hong Kong tabloid magazine, Easy Finder, that has everyone in an uproar.

Thousands have filed complaints with the Hong Kong television-licensing authority, and more than 20,000 people have signed a petition asking the government to rein in the paparazzi. The photographs have sparked protests in the streets by women’s rights groups, government honchos and social-betterment societies calling for people to boycott the magazine, and Aug. 28 saw a television special in which Chan and high-profile Asian-media celebrities denounced Easy Finder in front of a banner that read “Privacy. Dignity. Hong Kong People’s Business.”

“What I am most worried about are my young fans who look up to me as a role model,” a tearful Chung said this week.

A Hong Kong tribunal has slapped that particular issue of the gossip rag with the label “indecent”; the Malaysian Internal Security Ministry is investigating how the photographs were taken; and even Hong Kong’s chief executive, Donald Tsang, has gotten involved, ordering a government review of the pictures’ publication—and raising the specter of a curtailment of press liberties in the former British colony.

The magazine has been unapologetic, and is probably pleased by the attention. It’s issued only one public statement, in which it denied using a hidden camera, but it’s Easy Finder’s bank statements that speak volumes. The first printing of the issue, whose cover featured Chung’s photo next to the prominently displayed English word “bra,” quickly sold out, forcing the the magazine to pump out an additional 15,000 copies. The second run sold out within a day, too. (To be fair, at least one copy was bought only to be burned by a small group of protesters in front of the Easy Rider’s publisher.)

To Westerners who now yawn at celebrity sex videos a la Paris Hilton, the matter likely seems ridiculously overblown. Though described disapprovingly as “semi-nude” or “nude,” the published photographs don’t reveal anything more titillating than a bare shoulder or a patch of bra strap. But Chung, who has compared the experience to being photographed on the toilet, said it’s impossible to tell how many photographs were taken and how many more may be released. She’s filed a court injunction demanding the magazine turn over all the photos of her, and has filed complaints with both Hong Kong and Malaysian police.

Whether or not Chung will replace a naked, pregnant Britney Spears on Tokyo subway ads has yet to be seen. •