It's natural with the hot weather to shed inhibitions and clothing. Singer Alex To (杜德偉) and his fans are no
exception.
For his latest album Take Off (脫掉), To not only makes a nude appearance in his music video, but he also invited his fans to do the same. On Sunday in a promotion for his new musical offering. To stripped to his shorts in Ximending. His record company advertised "half naked for half price, all naked for free" CDs, to encourage people to go on stage and strip with To. A few women took off their tops and presumably got half price CDs.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
"I look at myself in the mirror every night, naked, and make believe I'm 25. I can dance, sing, act, write songs and I'm good-looking!" said To (actual age, 42), adding he's proud of his iron-hard hard butt. According to The Great Daily News (大成報), however, To didn't just lose his clothes last week, he also lost his wallet and work permit in a taxi, causing a headache for his manager.
Thai action star Tony Jaa was another hot male body in action last weekend. In a promotion for his movie Ong Bak, Jaa gave Taiwanese reporters a first glimpse of his awesome Thai martial art powers. He somersaulted into the press conference and then practiced "kicks" at a 2m-tall colleague. It was all done so quickly the photographers present had to ask him to do it again, and again.
"I don't smoke, drink or have sex. I don't touch anything that's bad for the body. The most important thing for me is Thai boxing," the 28 year-old actor said. "The sacrifice is worth it." Whatever, Jaa is now back in Thailand to shoot the mega-budgetedTom Yum Goong, a story about saving an elephant from being abducted.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Jackie Chan's (成龍) 22 year-old son Jaycee Chan (房祖明) is receiving recognition for his singing skills and dad will doubtless be chuffed. At the 6th CCTV-MTV Music Award Ceremony held last Saturday in Beijing, Chan Jr. took the award for Best Hong Kong New Performer. Never mind the fact that his record has not been released yet, and few people in China (let alone Taiwan)) have ever heard of his singing. Dad has clout, obviously. Jaycee Chan is also starring in the NT$320 million action thriller, Twins Effect II (千機變II花都大戰), in which his father is an investor.
"I don't want to rely on my father's connections in the entertainment field. In fact, I don't want people to mention his name in front of me," Chan was quoted as saying by Chinese media. Yeah, right.
In its second week of release, the negative reception to House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏) is becoming a chorus of disapproval in the media and in Internet chatrooms in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Beijing, film professor Su Mu (蘇牧) wrote an article slamming the film as "childish and ridiculous."
"Most of the audience was laughing in the theater and this expressed the contempt of the audience toward Chinese filmmakers," Su wrote. In Hong Kong well-known actor and director Michael Hui (許冠文) told Apple Daily (蘋果日報) that only one word could describe the movie ? "crap." In Taiwan, a movie Web site concluded, "Basically you can treat this movie as a comedy and laugh about it. But then again, NT$250 is better spent on more meaningful things."
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
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