This week the gossip hounds may be shedding a few tears over marriage, but not in joy, since their favorite subjects have finally bitten the bullet and tied the knot. Mando-pop diva Faye Wang (
The fact that Wang's close friends were banned from the "happy" event doesn't appear to be a good omen for the couple's future, however, especially if Li's dating history is anything to go by. His conquests include singer/actress Zhou Xun (周迅) and Qu Ying (瞿穎). Both, incidentally, have annual incomes of over NT$10 million. Zhou even bought Li a flashy car and a house while dating the "gold-digging parasite," according to Apple Daily (蘋果日報).
In related news TV hostess Momoko Tao (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Gong Li (鞏俐), the illustrious diva who has already left a imprint on the world of cinema, has finally made her grand Hollywood entrance. After overcoming the language barrier and starring in Memoirs of a Geisha, she has been cast as the leading lady in the big-budget movie Miami Vice with heart throb Colin Farrell as her co-star. It's reported that director Michael Mann has given the actress five-star treatment by assigning a crew of at least a dozen people to look after her. The hel-pers include a translator, language teacher, driver and bodyguards.
Another star entering the world of Hollywood is Taiwanese entertainer Da Bing (
Horny teenage boys can celebrate this week, because paparazzi have gotten hold of naked photos of Carina Lau (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and