At the Venice International Film Festival awards ceremony last Saturday, Ang Lee (
The novelist said that during the judging panel's intense meetings, some members thought Lee's film wasn't impressive enough and wanted to let Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney win the top award. "But I convinced them that Brokeback Mountain was almost perfect, in every aspect. And eventually I turned the judges' opinions around and saved the film," Zhong is quoted as saying in the Apple Daily (
Perhaps we should have known film festival awards are less focused on artistic achievements, and are rather based on ethnic considerations and the art of persuasion commonly exerted by salespersons. Our mistake.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Mando-pop star Little S (
marriage, following the newly weds wherever they went, from the airport, to the ceremony, to a private family gathering. Most entertainment pages were taken over by photos of the star's
smiling face, with commentaries saying she is the luckiest woman on earth because the mom-to-be married a man who could provide financial security and a connection to a family which is far more valuable than her career.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
So, gays, feminists and radical socialists beware! Traditional family values are making a comeback, and the ideas of marriage and having babies are still deeply rooted in society's collective consciousness. And yes, brave comrades, there is still a long way to go.
Ken Chu (朱孝天) of boy band F4 and Taiwanese sex kitten Kelly Lin (林熙蕾) have emerged as the latest hot couple in showbiz. According to the Liberty Times (自由時報), the couple has been secretly dating for a while, but the affair was downplayed by friends. "Lin has so many
admirers. This long-distance romance will definitely be the shortest-lived relationship ever," one mutual friend is quoted as saying in the daily.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Chu doesn't seem to mind the ill-intended prediction. Judging from snap shots of him attending a wedding last weekend, the young guy seems to have let himself go with a dodgy mustache and an outfit that should have caught the attention of the fashion police.
Disney World in Hong Kong had a grand opening this week, and a troupe of super stars were invited to show up. Local media paid especially close attention to the interaction between two Chinese divas, Gong Li (
Taiwan’s English education system is being pulled apart by three opposing forces. Bilingual Nation 2030 pulls students toward English and global communication. Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness pulls them toward digital judgment, verification and AI-mediated work. But Taiwan’s old exam culture pulls them back toward memorization, grammar drills, timed reading and correct answers. If the education system keeps using old exams to define success, it risks producing graduates who are neither genuinely bilingual nor genuinely AI-ready, but trained for tasks machines can already perform. The first force is Bilingual Nation 2030. Launched in 2018, the policy aimed to “help Taiwan’s workforce connect
It seems every few days one bumps into one of those “real man” comments in which Taiwan is urged to “face reality” or similar, and “make a deal,” with the speaker implying that soon it will be too late. “Deal” advocates always present themselves as having a superior grip on reality, and the manly ability to make the “hard choice.” Their testosterone-laden language often echoes that of Taiwan sellout advocates. Note that such commentary always specifies a process (“make a deal, work with, make progress”), never the end state of what occupation by a violent authoritarian colonialist state will entail. In
June 1 to June 7 "If all Taiwanese were as afraid of dying as you, then what would happen?” Physician Shih Chiang-nan (施江南) reportedly said this to his wife Chen Chiao-tung (陳焦桐) after she urged him to stop intervening on behalf of Taiwanese soldiers stranded overseas after serving in the Japanese Army during World War II. Shih had clashed with high-ranking officials over the issue, engaged in several heated arguments with Taiwan governor-general Chen Yi (陳儀) and allegedly shouted at general Ko Yuan-fen (柯遠芬), chief of staff of the Taiwan Garrison Command, over
“Taiwan’s Opposition Leader Comes to US With a Message Straight Out of Beijing” read a May 31 headline in the Wall Street Journal. Top US administration officials and members of Congress almost certainly read the WSJ, and if there was a bullet point takeaway that people in Washington should absorb ahead of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) arrival in DC on June 9, that headline is it. The last few columns have discussed this very topic, and the timing is not coincidental. While those top officials likely do not read the Taipei Times, judging by the number
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