Yu Tian's Son Yu Hsiang-chuan, 17, Arrested for Marijuana Use at Taipei Nightclub While on Holiday from Canadian Studies; Parents Bow in Public Apology

On June 18, 2002, Yu Hsiang-chuan (余祥銓), the 17-year-old son of veteran Taiwanese entertainer Yu Tian (余天), was caught by police during a raid on a prominent nightclub on the top floor of the Jing-hua City shopping complex in Taipei. Yu Hsiang-chuan was on holiday in Taiwan from his studies in Canada when he was found in possession of and using marijuana — a Schedule II controlled substance under the Republic of China (ROC) Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act. He was transferred to a juvenile reformatory and placed under two weeks of corrective education. The arrest provoked widespread media coverage under headlines such as 'Celebrity Child Caught With Drugs,' dealing a severe blow to Yu Tian's carefully cultivated image as a model father. Yu Tian and his wife Li Ya-ping rushed to the juvenile facility to visit their son. In front of media cameras, Yu Hsiang-chuan dropped to his knees in tears to beg forgiveness from his parents, while Yu Tian and Li Ya-ping performed a formal public bow of apology to society at large. The episode was the first in a string of controversies surrounding Yu Hsiang-chuan — who would go on to accumulate incidents including parking disputes, brawls, and a 2009 drunk driving citation — earning him a persistent public reputation as a spoiled celebrity offspring ('靠爸族'). Compounded by the later revelation of the execution of Yu Tian's fourth brother Yu Fu-hsing for heroin trafficking in 2005, the marijuana incident began cementing a troubling public perception of the Yu family's fraught relationship with narcotics-related scandal.