Taiwan's pride and joy, supermodel Lin Chih-ling (
Also appearing at the same awards ceremony was another Taiwanese beauty, Stephanie Hsiao (
The two beauty queens may look cozy together in the press photos and may have swapped niceties, but reading between the lines there is the inevitable
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
competition.
For film director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), this past week has been a a big success. Box-office receipts of his latest work, The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲), reached NT$7 million just two-and-a-half days after it hit the big screen. It is an amazing commercial achievement for the Taiwanese film industry since most Taiwanese films ticket sales are usually under NT$1 million. The subject matter of the film has drawn all kinds of audience members to try out the art-house experience. For example, many middle-aged, weird-looking men have reportedly emerged from nowhere to invade the theaters located in age-discriminatory, trendy districts. Tsai was said to welcome such new fans, believing it's a sign of greater acceptance of his work.
Family values and baby talk are still hot this week. Actress Lee Chien-rong (李蒨蓉) made her first public appearance yesterday after confirming the news of her second pregnancy. Lee proudly showed off her baby-bearing belly at Fendi's 2005 spring collection fashion show and couldn't stop her baby talk throughout the show. Singer Shun Zi (順子) is getting chubbier these days. When asked if she got pregnant before her November wedding, Shun Zi modestly replied that she wouldn't do something like ``get on the bus before buying a ticket.''
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Even though the gossip-generating couple, Jay Chou (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China. The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. In fact, just the opposite would have been huge news. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas. For some Chinese, that means flying to Seoul to see their favorite groups perform — as many were expected to do for three shows opening
A recent report from the Environmental Management Administration of the Ministry of Environment highlights a perennial problem: illegal dumping of construction waste. In Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) and Hsinchu’s Longtan District (龍潭) criminals leased 10,000 square meters of farmland, saying they were going to engage in horticulture. They then accepted between 40,000 and 50,000 cubic meters of construction waste from sites in northern Taiwan, charging less than the going rate for disposal, and dumped the waste concrete, tile, metal and glass onto the leased land. Taoyuan District prosecutors charged 33 individuals from seven companies with numerous violations of the law. This
Apr. 13 to Apr. 19 From 17th-century royalty and Presbyterian missionaries to White Terror victims, cultural figures and industrialists, Nanshan Public Cemetery (南山公墓) sprawls across 95 hectares, guarding four centuries of Taiwan’s history. Current estimates show more than 60,000 graves, the earliest dating to 1642. Besides individual tombs, there are also hundreds of family plots, one of which is said to contain around 1,000 remains. As the cemetery occupies valuable land in the heart of Tainan, the government in 2018 began asking families to relocate the graves to make way for development. That
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
RSS