Reportedly missing for seven days, veteran TV variety show host Peng Chia-chia (
Peng said that since August last year he has been blackmailed six times because of the five-minute clip of him masturbating. Peng claimed he didn't remember how the footage came to be shot as he was under the influence of the medicine flunitrazepan which he took for an undisclosed psychological condition. He requested his pay in advance from his employers SET-TV station (三立電視台) to pay the blackmailers. And to avoid raising his wife's suspicion he borrowed money from loan-sharks. Peng refused to divulge the exact figure he owed, but it was estimated to be around NT$50 million.
Suffering from depression, and the target of blackmailers Peng said he was willing to cooperate with a police investigation, but claimed he had destroyed all the evidence. However, tongues are wagging with questions lingering as to why the entertainer borrowed such a huge amount of money over footage of a sexual act that the majority of men engage in regularly.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
This time, Jerry Yan (
The onscreen and offscreen romance between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie while shooting Mr. and Mrs. Smith has been copied Chinese style. Shu Qi (
Zhang Ziyi (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
circumstances.
Jackie Chan (
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50