Last Friday, on the eve of the legislative elections, a number of candidates squeezed out some tears and some even dropped to their knees in dramatic, eye-popping attempts to wrest every possible vote from constituents. But Chin Yang (
The actor emerged onto the stage at the campaign's final rally in a wheelchair claiming to have been viciously attacked the night before by a bunch of thugs set on punishing him for his support of Lee. Through tears and loud sobs, Chin told Lee's supporters he had suffered a concussion and internal bleeding in the attack, and that, by the way, they should please vote for Lee.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Even in Taiwan Thunderbolt Fire, Chin wasn't much of an actor, so almost immediately people began picking apart his appearance on stage and the security video tape showing him being attacked. A fair number of detractors, as well as police and officials of the hospitals he visited after the alleged assault, all raised suspicions that the attack may have been staged, though Chin vehemently denies any malfeasance. Police have said they won't investigate unless charges are pressed.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Ella, the vaguely tomboyish member of the girl band S.H.E., was outed this week by Next Magazine (
Bringing a relationship to a close this week was David Wu (
This year has proven to be a banner year for Chinese film abroad, with the remarkable box-office take of Zhang Yimou's Hero (
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located