Jay Chou (
Several years after the peak of F4's popularity in Taiwan, the four-piece boy band has found a new market in Japan, where the release of Meteor Shower (流星雨) took the band into the top 10 on Japan's main pop chart, marking a first for a Taiwanese band. Previously, the only non-Japanese to make it onto the country's pop chart were Jackie Chan (成龍) and three South Korean singers, all of whom sung in Japanese. F4's album is entirely in Mandarin and still squeezed its way into the No. 10 spot. Whatever's hot in Japan eventually makes its way to Taiwan, so could F4's success there portend a strong comeback at home? Watch for it this summer.
China's hottest export, Zhang Ziyi (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The entertainment world suffered a grievous loss this week when one of the greatest Taiwanese comedians and actors, Ni Min-jan (
According to Ni's friends, the legendary veteran comedian had been greatly agitated by recent financial and family problems and suffered severe depression without realizing it.
Ni's second wife, Lee Li-hua (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Since Ni's 83-year-old mom has been hospitalized for cancer treatment, the family thought the news would be too much for her and decided to lie about Ni's death as long as they could. One of Ni's best friends, Yu Tien (
On a much happier note, Taiwanese beauty Chen Xiao-xuan (陳孝萱) recently confirmed the good news of her pregnancy after dodging rumors and questions for weeks. She and her metrosexual boyfriend Zhan
Ren-xiong (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Legislative Caucus First Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
RSS