Sun Yan-tzu (孫燕姿) Jay Chou (周杰倫) are still the queen and king of Mando-pop after the two became the biggest winners at the fourth Global Chinese Song Award (全球華語榜), which was held last Saturday in Taipei.
Sun from Singapore won "Most Popular Female Singer," "Best Album," "Top 20 Songs of the Year" and "Outstanding Artist in the Singapore Region."
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Sun has been the winner in the "Most Popular Female Singer" category for three consecutive years, which is quite a contrast to her situation at another Mando-pop award -- the Golden Melody Award (金曲獎). There, she has been nominated for Best Female Artist for three consecutive years, but has always gone home empty-handed.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
According to Apple Daily (
Jay Chou, who is now called Chou Dong (
Chou held a victory party and celebrated his album Jasmine (
Another Mando-pop star Lee Hom--wang (王力宏) was taking a break last week, sort of. He was caught by Next Magazine (壹周刊) kissing a "mixed-race spice-girl" on a Taipei street. Reportedly, Lee was strolling around Taipei's Zhongxiao East Road district with a young woman called Zoe. The two went into an apartment together and stayed there for two hours. When saying goodbye, Lee was captured kissing the woman's cheek and ears. He later said in a statement that the lady was a good friend from a long time ago and it was simply a courtesy good-bye kiss. But the incident may have ended the long-rumored romance between Lee and pop diva A-mei (張惠妹). Lee wrote a song for A-mei's previous album and now is the producer of her upcoming album. It has been said that the two were found kissing when recording songs in the studio. Wang had also appeared in many of A-mei's concerts as a special guest. A-mei herself declined to comment on Wang's kissing incident. "We have always been friends. He has helped me a lot in music," A-mei was quoted by Apple Daily. Asked how is her love life going, "It could be better," said the singer.
Hong Kong actress Maggie Chueng (
magazine. "There was a period of time I indulged myself in tears and sorrow. But now I'm a different person. I think it was my boyfriend who changed me. I'm really happy being with him," Cheung was quoted as saying. Cheung referred to the time when she went through a divorce with French film director Olivier Assayas. Ironically, in May, Cheung won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for the Assayas-directed film Clean, in which she played a single mom.
After the divorce, a rumor about her being a lesbian was spread in Chinese entertainment circles. "In sex, I am 100 percent heterosexual," Cheung replied. The 40-year-old actress said she has decided not to have a baby. "Not because of divorce, but because after the 9/11 incident, I found the world to be very evil. And I don't want to bring a child to this evil world," Cheung said.
Another woman in love is Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong (王菲). According to Hong Kong magazine Suddenly At Next (
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
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Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless