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
This is the year that the demographic crisis will begin to impact people’s lives. This will create pressures on treatment and hiring of foreigners. Regardless of whatever technological breakthroughs happen, the real value will come from digesting and productively applying existing technologies in new and creative ways. INTRODUCING BASIC SERVICES BREAKDOWNS At some point soon, we will begin to witness a breakdown in basic services. Initially, it will be limited and sporadic, but the frequency and newsworthiness of the incidents will only continue to accelerate dramatically in the coming years. Here in central Taiwan, many basic services are severely understaffed, and
Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 Of the more than 3,000km of sugar railway that once criss-crossed central and southern Taiwan, just 16.1km remain in operation today. By the time Dafydd Fell began photographing the network in earnest in 1994, it was already well past its heyday. The system had been significantly cut back, leaving behind abandoned stations, rusting rolling stock and crumbling facilities. This reduction continued during the five years of his documentation, adding urgency to his task. As passenger services had already ceased by then, Fell had to wait for the sugarcane harvest season each year, which typically ran from
It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uighurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings. But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison. Besh pede, a popular Uighur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uighur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar in
It’s a good thing that 2025 is over. Yes, I fully expect we will look back on the year with nostalgia, once we have experienced this year and 2027. Traditionally at New Years much discourse is devoted to discussing what happened the previous year. Let’s have a look at what didn’t happen. Many bad things did not happen. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not attack Taiwan. We didn’t have a massive, destructive earthquake or drought. We didn’t have a major human pandemic. No widespread unemployment or other destructive social events. Nothing serious was done about Taiwan’s swelling birth rate catastrophe.
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