You have to pity the model and wannabe singer Little Dragon Girl (
Little Dragon Girl's real name is Cheng Ya-ping (
A model and actress who seems to be fairing better, despite, or maybe due to her being harassed by rumors of a romantic liaison, is Kelly Lin (
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
In late August Pop Stop reported that Sun Yanzi (
Momoko Tao (陶晶瑩), better known as Taozi (陶子), landed in a bit of hot water this week with the Government Information Office over the content of a recent episode of her new talk show. The episode in question had as its topic bed manners, or more specifically, how people moan, scream and shout during sex. This was too much for the bureaucrats at the GIO, and they've asked Phoenix TV, the station that airs her show, for a written explanation of the offending episode and for greater restraint in the future.
According to insider knowledge uncovered by the Oct. 18 edition of the Gogorock newsletter, 7-11 stores across Taiwan will begin an unprecedented marketing campaign to promote the new boy band Cosmo, whose Chinese name is "wanzi" (
The boys were in Ximending on Saturday for a one-song show and to display their trademark dance moves, which conclude with them stacking their fists together to appear something like three wanzis on a stick. They can do the same with their heads too.
Superstar diva A-mei (
-- compiled by max woodworth
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby