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 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
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
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would