The biggest extravaganza taking place in Chinese-speaking showbiz circles this week is TV hostess Momoko Tao (
Tao's close friend, Chinese singer Na Ying (那英) reportedly blurted out her true feelings via a private phonecall with Tao. "You really have the guts to ask for wedding money as far away as Beijing?" Na is quoted as saying in a Chinese-language daily.
Family values are back in fashion with stars tying the knot and having babies all over the place. Sexy mom Chen Xiao-xuan (
Curiously, the former victim of domestic violence Wang Jing-yin (
Roving reporters turned their attention to the sexy mom's erstwhile boyfriend, TV host Jackie Wu (
But Wu didn't keep his month shut about his former buddy Hu Gua's (
As rumors of Hu's cheating at an illegal gambling joint mount, his market value seems to be rapidly going down. The scandal has so far cost him millions of dollars in missed opportunities to host year-end TV shows and wei ya (
Mando-pop queen A-mei(
A-mei's agent said the star's fee for wei ya shows will stay the same despite increasing market demand, that is, NT$3 million for a single show. Simple math suggests the star's year-end bonuses from local enterprises could easily exceed hundreds of millions of bucks.
A-mei proved a hit at the gay bar Funky on Hangzhou S Rd, Taipei (
Singaporean singer Stefanie Sun (
This is the year that the demographic crisis will begin to impact people’s lives. This will create pressures on treatment and hiring of foreigners. Regardless of whatever technological breakthroughs happen, the real value will come from digesting and productively applying existing technologies in new and creative ways. INTRODUCING BASIC SERVICES BREAKDOWNS At some point soon, we will begin to witness a breakdown in basic services. Initially, it will be limited and sporadic, but the frequency and newsworthiness of the incidents will only continue to accelerate dramatically in the coming years. Here in central Taiwan, many basic services are severely understaffed, and
Jan. 5 to Jan. 11 Of the more than 3,000km of sugar railway that once criss-crossed central and southern Taiwan, just 16.1km remain in operation today. By the time Dafydd Fell began photographing the network in earnest in 1994, it was already well past its heyday. The system had been significantly cut back, leaving behind abandoned stations, rusting rolling stock and crumbling facilities. This reduction continued during the five years of his documentation, adding urgency to his task. As passenger services had already ceased by then, Fell had to wait for the sugarcane harvest season each year, which typically ran from
It is a soulful folk song, filled with feeling and history: A love-stricken young man tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uighurs, the Turkic ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings. But today, if they download it, play it or share it online, they risk ending up in prison. Besh pede, a popular Uighur folk ballad, is among dozens of Uighur-language songs that have been deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar in
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was out in force in the Taiwan Strait this week, threatening Taiwan with live-fire exercises, aircraft incursions and tedious claims to ownership. The reaction to the PRC’s blockade and decapitation strike exercises offer numerous lessons, if only we are willing to be taught. Reading the commentary on PRC behavior is like reading Bible interpretation across a range of Christian denominations: the text is recast to mean what the interpreter wants it to mean. Many PRC believers contended that the drills, obviously scheduled in advance, were aimed at the recent arms offer to Taiwan by the
RSS