Amid all the buzz surrounding the term taike (
At the bash, excitable youths cheered the quinte-ssentially taike MC Hotdog who during his set bashed Mando-pop king Jay Chou (
In its second year, the taike festival has quickly evolved and replaced the orthodox taimei (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Determined to show the many facets of the taike phenomenon, the organizers included pole-dancing girls on the bill to show the less-refined face of local cultural practices. The girls exhibited all their charms onstage to entertain visitors: a sight which would undoubtedly enrage conservative feminists.
As Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu (
As for the week's break-up news: Asian megastar Zhang Ziyi (
But Zhang shouldn't worry about being single for too long as her beauty and fame not only bewitch 20-somethings like Huo but also septuagenarians like fashion guru Giorgio Armani. While attending a fashion show in Shanghai last week, members of the local press asked the svelte star if she was too flat-chested to wear Armani dresses. A devoted fan of Zhang, Armani wasted no time showing off his chivalry by saying, "If you like big breasts, you won't be looking at her."
Another hot shot Hong Kong director, Andrew Lau (劉偉強), is scheduled to come to Taiwan this Sunday to promote his latest film Daisy (愛無間), but is reportedly feeling out of sorts. Lau is irritated by the Chinese title of his film that places a rather meaningless spin on Infernal Affairs (無間道), the film that brought Lau fame and wealth.
"The story of the film is totally different from Infernal Affair," Lau repeatedly told the local press.
Local film distributors should take note next time they make up silly Chinese names for foreign movies that have nothing to do with either the original titles or the stories.
Local TV actor Lee Wei (
Hopefully, the bevy of young stars can still find their way in this complex maze of amour.
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