Cashing in on her popularity after the release of the chart-topping Dancing Diva (舞孃), Mando-pop queen Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) looks set to have another album put on record store shelves by the end of next month, just in time to duke it out with her ex Jay Chou (周杰倫), whose new record is slated for release on Sept. 8.
The Double J battle began when Tsai vowed earlier this year to dethrone Chou from his post as the artist who sells the most albums annually.
In response, the Mando-pop king enlisted veteran singer Fei Yu-ching (費玉清), whose heavenly voice provides an interesting contrast to Chou's pedestrian warbling, and is thus a selling point, the king himself believes. It remains to be seen how the now 51-year-old Mr. Bel Canto will capture the hearts of the current hip-hop-crazed generation, who probably care as much about him as they do about life on Mars.
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
A moral lesson from this story: Don't piss off your ex.
While the leak of photos showing Shu Qi (舒淇) snogging dream lover Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) during the Hong Kong filming of Behind the Sin (傷城) caused director Andrew Lau (劉偉強) to expel any reporter who dared approach the set, speculation about Shu's real-life romance with pop idol Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) is back in circulation again. This time, the local diva was spotted using the same mobile phone that Wang carries. Gossip observers also believe that Wang, a nonsmoker, is the inspiration behind Shu's determined attempt to kick the habit, even though she's added 2kg to her smack-addict physique.
Only time will tell whether the rumored pairing will turn out to have been just a fling or a serious relationship between the lonely diva and one of the most closeted womanizers in the business.
After years of marriage to local pop music composer Lee Zhong-sheng (李宗盛) ended in heartbreak, Hong Kong pop singer Sandy Lin (林憶蓮) is back in business. But her attempt at a fresh start in Taiwan doesn't seem to be taking off as planned.
Her inability to draw fans to two concerts at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋) this weekend forced record company Capitol to buy 4,000 tickets and sell them at a bargain price of NT$850, along with copy of Lin's new album thrown in gratis.
The frustrated divorcee can do nothing but promise to give her best at the concerts. Not good enough, apparently, for the more devoted but now enraged fans who bought tickets for NT$2,000 more than the bargain deal and have been refused refunds.
Always the joker in the three-piece girl band S.H.E, Ella last week made an alarming announcement by admitting that she's been suffering from mild depression. It's her second bout with the blues, and according to the other two band members, it's worse than the one she had three years ago.
After breaking down into tears in front of the camera last week, the star insisted that all she needed now was a long vacation, not professional help.
Fortunately for her baby girl's sake, Mando-pop diva Faye Wang (王菲) is seeking professional help.
Not for herself, but for her newborn daughter, who is currently undergoing treatment for a cleft palate in Los Angeles. Wang and husband Li Ya-peng (李亞鵬) reportedly will be calling Orange County, California home for the next few months.
Though the baby is expected to recover in a matter of weeks, Wang's publicist says that the star is becoming more and more inclined to leave showbiz altogether and concentrate on being a fulltime mom.
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
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
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