In movies, TV and music, last year was characterized by only a few innovations and too many tragedies. There were some bright moments, for sure, but even these only seemed great against the gloomy background of sad news and pop-culture industries in general decline.
Below, Pop Stop revisits the good, the bad and the ugly stories that kept Chinese pop culture chugging along last year.
1) Taiwan Thunderbolt Fire (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
2) Hong Kong's movie industry kept its stride with the star-studded trilogy Infernal Affairs(
3) On April 1, one of Hong Kong's brightest stars, Leslie Cheung (
4) Another sad event came when Taiwan's own Evel Knievel and adored actor and singer Ke Shou-liang (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
5) Mayday (
6) Taiwan saw the underground release of its first hard-core porno, called Taiwan Plumber (
7) The black metal band Chthonic (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
8) Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) protegee, Lee Kang-sheng (李康生) came perilously close this fall to parodying his and his mentor's filmmaking style in an advertisement he made for Family Mart (全家便利商店) that featured the cast of Goodbye, Dragon Inn (不散) and The Missing (不見) moping about in the convenience store contemplating their beverage purchases in tiresome longshots.
9) If imitation is the best form of flattery, then Next Magazine (壹週刊) can take some pride in its invented term -- "doing the splits" -- (劈腿), used to describe someone who is two-timing their significant other. It become common usage in all the major Chinese-language papers after exposing Hsu Shao-yang (許紹洋) as the on-the-side lover of Lin Wei-jun (林韋君), who was the girlfriend of pop singer Lin You-wei (林佑威). Subsequently, affairs in all the major media have been referred to as a "splits event"
(
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
10) And finally, another of Hong Kong's pop legends, Anita Mui (
The US war on Iran has illuminated the deep interdependence of Asia on flows of oil and related items as raw materials that become the basis of modern human civilization. Australians and New Zealanders had a wake up call. The crisis also emphasizes how the Philippines is a swatch of islands linked by jet fuel. These revelations have deep implications for an invasion of Taiwan. Much of the commentary on the Taiwan scenario has looked at the disruptions to world trade, which will be in the trillions. However, the Iran war offers additional specific lessons for a Taiwan scenario. An insightful
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
Polling data often confirms what we expect, but sometimes it throws up surprises. When examined over time, some patterns appear that speak to something bigger going on. In this column, whenever possible, Formosa’s polls are used. Despite the sometimes cringeworthy antics of Formosa’s Chairman, Wu Tzu-Chia (吳子嘉), the data produced includes detailed breakdowns crucial for analysis. It has also been conducted monthly 11-12 times a year for many years with many of the same questions, allowing for analysis over time. When big shifts do occur between one month and the next it is usually in response to some event in
RSS