Hong Kong's hottest couple Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) dropped a bombshell last week by announcing they had secretly tied the knot in the Philippines. After years of wavering between Cheung and Wang Faye (王菲), the playboy quickly decided to end his bachelor life three months after the two got back together. Gossipmongers say the reason behind the quickie nuptials was because Cheung has a bun in the oven.
Friends, colleges and families all extended courteous congratulations to the two except for Cheung's unfailing admirer Jordan Chan (陳小春). When asked how he felt about the news, the pop star said in a begrudging tone, “when people get married, you have to congratulate them. What else do you expect me to do? Jump from a building?”
Tse's mother was deeply hurt and enraged since the wedding ceremony was so secret that even the bride and groom's parents didn't know about it. Gossip observers believe the mom's grief also stems from divinations made by fortune-tellers that point to Cheung as a jinx on the family and a source of bad luck for her son.
It seems that now her dream to marry a handsome man and start a family seems to have come true, Cheung is entering a new phase in life, joined by a mother-in-law who sees her as a thorn in her side.
While Hong Kong paparazzi were busy chasing the newlyweds, local hacks have been tailing the soon-to be-divorced couple Lily Tien (田麗) and Chen Ting-chung (陳定中), after Chen was caught by information-wired paparazzi spending four hours in a hotel room with a flight attendant in her early 20s last week.
News of Chen's clandestine love affairs came as a big surprise to local showbiz insiders as his wife, a surprisingly well-preserved actress who is always ready to dazzle with her femme fatale facade, had carefully crafted a public image of a happily married couple and had been lauded as an ideal wife who gave her man boundless freedom and an erotically-charged sexual life. When informed of the news by members of the local press last weekend, Tien was first taken aback but quickly composed herself and said, “I don't believe it but I will ask him about it. If it can't be solved, then we'll get divorced.”
Chen's alibi: the tryst was an innocent seafood feast in a hotel room with a long-legged beauty. Chen also revealed that he and his wife have been planning to divorce since last year and he will become single again before Christmas. “A battle is about to begin,” Chen said to the local press.
Since Chen is estimated to have assets of NT$400 million, the direct translation of the “battle” is a fight over alimony.
Pro-independence heavy-metal combo Chthonic (閃靈樂團) has quietly made a diplomatic move by releasing its second album in the US last week.
An English-language version of Seediq Bale (賽德克巴), the record take its lyrics from the legendary story of the heroic Seediq tribe that mounted an anti-Japanese revolt in 1930 that later became known as the Wushe incident (霧社事件).
Signed to the rock label Megaforce, the local black metal outfit is all set to woo crowds with their faces painted like the Eight Generals (八家將). The group goes on tour in the US early next year.
David Tao (陶吉吉), on the other hand, is a less music-driven musician who regularly dominates the gossip rags with his rapacious advances on young beauties. After commenting on his dinner dates with local supermodel Pai Hsin-huai (白歆惠) to the local press, the star was spotted last weekend doing the splits (劈腿) by getting cozy with a PR worker at a pub in Shanghai.
However, the swarm of paparazzi outside the pub alerted the star who then skillfully disengaged himself from the girl and was adroitly escorted out of the place by security guards.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built