This week's biggest headline was news of DJ Chozie and Hong Kong star Duncan Chou being arrested on suspicion of possible drug use and being taken to the police station for urine tests last Saturday. The police had busted a group of foreign English teachers in a private residence for drugs. According to the Liberty Times, Chozie admitted to the police that he did take an illegal substance last week, but in China, not in Taiwan. He said he and Duncan went to the house that was raided purely to get some albums back from the owner -- and stayed just 10 minutes. It is not the first time Chozie has got himself into drug problems, however, as two years ago he and his ex-girlfriend Momoko Tao (陶子) were accused of having a weed party in Kaohsiung.
Meanwhile, its out with the old, plain-looking writer Wang Wen-hua (王文華) and in with the new, sweetheart Patty Hou (侯佩岑), as Momoko Tao's fresh-faced partner in the entertainment show Peach Protein (桃色蛋白質). In an effort to prove that she is not a bully who bosses around every co-host (as she did with wimpy Wang), Tao was keen to show how pally she can be by hugging and kissing the unfortunate Hou.
Goddess of seduction Shu Qi (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Proving it's not always looks that ring up the dollar signs Jackie Chan (
Rebel with a new cause, Daniel Wu (
A Hong Kong Disney World spokesperson said the ill will sprang from an unfortunate misunderstanding. But some entertainment observers believe many of Wu's fans will join the boycott and his actions could possibly spark a new wave of anti-pale-skin sentiment.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
After declaring "her heart has temporarily shut down for love," one-and-a-half-months ago, Mando-pop singer Elva Hsiao (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby