Hair today, gone tomorrow: Hong Kong star Chow Yun-fat (
Chow is supposed to keep this new look a secret and so has been keeping a low profile, even declining invitations to attend fundraising events in Hong Kong. Despite his efforts, he and his facial hair were shot by paparazzi of Suddenly At Next (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
In the movie, Chow will play the role of Chang Bo-tsai (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Two stars from China are getting married. According to The Great Daily News (
Chinese media confirmed the Lee-Wong wedding date with Lee, who -- according to rumors of Chinese media -- dumped his former girlfriend Zhou to pursue Wong.
But Zhou is happily announcing her wedding day, too, and talked about her nuptial plans last Saturday during the launch of her record album. The woman in love said her new album is like her state of mind: very warm. The name of her fiance is even one of the songs in the album. "For me now the name represents happiness and hope. I hope every girl can find her own Lee Da-chi," Zhou said.
Zhou Xun's Taiwanese best friend Rene Liu (
Lead actor Andy Lau (
"For me he is such a perfectionist. I don't think there will be chemistry between us because I will be under a lot of pressure being with him," Rene Liu said on Tuesday.
There have been too many music awards praising the popular Mando-pop songs of last year. But is there a chart for bad songs? A radio show on National Radio Network (
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
Many Taiwanese have a favorable opinion of Japan, in part because Taiwan’s former colonial master is seen as having contributed a great deal to the development of local industries, transportation networks and institutions of education. Of course, the island’s people were never asked if they wanted to be ruled by Tokyo or participate in its modernization plans. From their arrival in 1895 until at least 1902, the Japanese faced widespread and violent antagonism. Things then calmed down, relatively speaking. Even so, between 1907 and 1916 there were eleven anti-Japanese revolts. A map in the National Museum of Taiwan History (國立臺灣歷史博物館)