Always one to speak candidly, if not always eloquently, Jackie Chan (
The official release party for Sun Yanzi's (孫燕姿) new album was held Wednesday at the Far Eastern Hotel in Taipei, the highlight of which was a sneak preview of an 8-minute film that's like the extended remix of the first video off the album for My Love (
PHOTO: AP
A final decree was issued last week by China's Ministry of Culture, which serves as the gatekeeper for publication imports, declaring that Alex To's (杜德偉) album Take it Off (脫掉) would be barred from distribution within the country. The album was released in July, but had been stalled by censors concerned about the propriety of the highly suggestive sexual tone of To's album. To's label, Rock Records, said in response, that it plans to package the album with other soon-to-be-released products in China. Pop Stop has heard from sources in China, though, that the album was out there long ago in pirate form and was pretty much already forgotten.
PHOTO: AP
Hong Kong singer/actress Kelly Chen (
Perhaps the most exciting news of the past week was the announcement that Godzilla will be awarded a star on Hollywood Boulevard. The nuclear monstrosity, who's often conflicted and always misunderstood by humans in his movies, will get to make his imprint in the pavement in front of the city's Chinese Theatre on Nov. 29, which will mark the world premiere of the 28th and last Godzilla movie Godzilla Final Wars. Before hanging up his rubber suit, in the last flick Godzilla gets to indulge in an orgy of city stomping, this time through Shanghai, Paris, New York and Sydney.
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