After shying away from media attention for a
while, Hong Kong pop diva Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) returned to
cover pages last week with some noisy speculations about her suffering from the deadly illness lymphoma. The rumor started when pictures of her abnormally swollen face got out during the shooting of the latest film by director Stanley Kwan (關錦鵬), Chang Hen Ge (長恨歌, Song of Everlasting Sadness), in which Cheng played the leading lady and regarded this opportunity as a major
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
breakthrough in her acting career.
According to the Great Daily News (
Shanghai International Film Festival (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Cheng was kept from attending these events there was absolutely nothing wrong with her body or her lymph nodes. At the moment the star is not available to comment on the news of her possible disease because she is not in Hong Kong, said the same agent.
It should be a great comfort for Cheng to know, however, that according to a poll done by MTV, she is one of the pop singers that the public never wants to retire from the stage. The top honor goes to Taiwan's pride and joy
Chang Hui-mei (A-Mei,
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Jay Chou (
The newly emerged hot duo, Hu Qing-wen (胡晴雯) and Tang Zhi-ping (唐治平), might be a fake relationship after all. Tang has gained a lot of exposure since his "beauty book" was put out last week. And as if his seductive
body didn't get enough attention already, the man was then spotted making intimate contact with the fluttering Hu on the street, a few days after his books hit the shelves. However, the validity of their rumored romance was quickly under suspicion because the two have acted like two total strangers and have pretended it never happened ever since their make-out photos got published. Both parties have denied the whole episode is a mere publicity stunt.
The controversial remarks made by Jackie Chan (
into political turmoil. The local media interpreted his refusal to come back to Taiwan until the term of the current president ends as a gesture that ``hurt all of the Taiwanese people's feelings.'' The international superstar thought his words had been terribly twisted and misused, and decided to clear his name by issuing a statement last
week, saying he has always felt close to Taiwan and anything he said about this land, good or bad, is always out of love and in good will.
The Taiwanese band May Day (
reason for their absence but did admit that they were not particularly fond of the name of the show.
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
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built