Hong Kong's paparazzi are unique in their sense of entitlement when it comes to invading the privacy of celebrities, as if these stars are supposed to accept their rude, probing questions with a smile and maybe even a handshake afterward. But Cecilia Cheung (
Her skills in this category were on full display at a press conference for her newest movie, as reported in the The Great Entertainment Daily (大成報), when in response to a reporter's question about something completely unrelated to the movie, she snapped "You should really go home and look in the mirror! Look at the questions you're asking." After a few more rhetorical volleys between her and the reporter she was whisked away by her agent.
The following day, on the set of a variety show, she held court with a 20-minute monologue detailing how she has a low EQ but a high IQ, and that people with a low IQ tend to make her fly off the handle, especially journalists. According to the Apple Daily (蘋果日報), after the recording session the gaggle of incensed reporters on the scene refused to interview her.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Always standing in her corner in the ongoing Cecilia vs. media battle royale is her friend and suspected lover Jordan Chan (陳小春). Last month he jumped to Cecilia's defense against someone dressed up in an oversized alien outfit, at a cellphone promotional event in China, who allegedly squeezed Cecilia's butt. Whoever it was in the costume got a swift punch in the head from Chan, who will have another chance to display his loyalty when the two star opposite each other in a movie that is planned to start filming in the next two months. Chan is currently winding up filming an as-yet untitled movie in Hong Kong, in which one of the scenes features Chan standing outside a senior citizens' home masturbating with the intention to sell his sperm to earn money for his ailing father.
Big S (大S) had her own run in with the media last week while on the set of a TV show in Dalian. According to GTV, a Chinese photographer followed her into the toilet to shoot her on the throne, but was apprehended by the TV film crew who promptly beat the living hell out of him.
Last week, Pop Stop reported on Faye Wong's (王菲) lackluster album sales and her problems renting space at the Taipei 101 mall for an autograph session. Her travails didn't end there. As part of her nine-day promotional tour she was a guest on several TV shows and, according to the Liberty Times (自由時報), viewers changed stations whenever she was on because the shows were too bad to watch.
Faye has a reputation for being a tough interview, responding with single-word answers or sometimes simply not responding at all. On Momoko Tao's (陶晶瑩) show, back on the air after a week's break, Faye misunderstood a question about whether they should talk about "mature women" (熟女) and said, "Why would we talk about that? That sounds horrible." She apparently wasn't accustomed to the Taiwanese usage of the term, meaning grown-up, sophisticated and confident, and thought it insinuated looseness. Later in the show, when handed two cards, one with an X and one with an O, for her to use to respond to questions in case she didn't feel like talking, she didn't get the joke and said "Oh no. Do I have to act again?"
David Tao's concert went off last Saturday, with scalpers asking for up to NT$36,000 for tickets. The show was a hit with most fans, except for the fact that the entrances to the venue for the sections with cheap tickets were too few to ensure everyone was inside before the music started, so that over 1,000 people were still standing outside when the first songs were played.
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist