With more than its fair share of tawdry scandals and uplifting newcomer achievements, 2004 was a banner year in the Chinese pop world. So, as the year draws to a close, Pop Stop pauses this week to reminisce about the moments and trends that caught our attention in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and that made this year so much fun.
1) In one of those odd, unexplainable pop phenomena, some time in the early summer, seemingly out of the blue, everyone in Taiwan began talking about supermodel Lin Chi-ling
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
2) With his antics, it was clear that TV show host Jacky Wu (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
3) Chinese director Zhang Yi-mou (張藝謀) this year released his two epic martial-arts movies Hero (英雄) and House of Flying Daggers (十面埋伏) in Europe and North America to almost universally rave reviews. The films were both panned in China for being gimmicky and untrue to the martial-arts tradition, but in the US, Flying Daggers picked up a nomination for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar. Hero, meanwhile, shattered US box-office records for a Chinese film, bringing in almost US$55 million.
4) Another TV variety show host who made his way into the news this year with an eyebrow-raising sensational story was Peng Chia-chia (
5) Still riding the crest of the Infernal Affairs wave that started last year, Andy Lau (劉德華) was finally given a Best Actor Golden Horse Award for his role in the series third installment in November. Up against Hong Kong buddy Tony Leung (梁朝偉) for the award, Lau beat the odds and rest of the competition for his first ever Golden Horse trophy.
6) The honors for strangest scandal this year go hands-down to actress Candy Lee (
7) Though he may not be Chinese, Sir Elton John certainly earned his place in this year's Top Ten for his dramatic arrival at CKS International Airport in September. After stepping out of an elevator to begin immigration procedures, John was hounded by Taiwan's notorious media mob and promptly began telling them to "fuck off, pigs!"
When reporters returned the favor by telling him to leave Taiwan, John said he would gladly have done so. A forgiving crowd still packed a stadium that night to hear him apologize and put on a great show.
8) Jay Chou (周杰倫) proved this year that he's still the man to beat, or at least emulate, in Mando-pop by taking the Best Album Golden Melody Award and a handful of others for his album Common Jasmine Orange (七里香), which he is still promoting on a world tour that's taken him all around Asia and even the US.
9) Having the roughest time in Mando-pop this year, local diva A-mei (張惠妹) took flak on all sides from political pundits at home and rabid nationalists in China and then released an album that fell like a wet rag straight off the charts. Still people's hometown girl, though, even if they aren't buying her records, she'll be the star of this evening's New Year's parties.
10) Hong Kong filmic auteur Wong Kar Wai (王家衛) finally finished 2046 after five years of filming just in time to enter competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May. But despite the standing ovation at the festival screening and rumors about town he had the top prize in the bag, in the end he was robbed of the Palme d'Or by Michael Moore's diatribe Fahrenheit 9/11. A second dis came earlier this month at the Golden Horse Awards, when Wong was overlooked in the Best Film and Best Director categories.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated