In the attention-deficient pop world, stars may ride high on instant fame one day but wake up forgotten the next morning. Former Mando-pop queen Coco Lee (李玟) may well be a living testimony as Sony BMG doesn't seem to be putting much effort into promoting the star's latest Mandarin album Just Want You (要定你).
“Compared to other singers, my songs don't really get aired that often,” the 31-year-old star admitted to local press last week.
New trends may be the root of Lee's downfall. The sporty, tanned look is no longer in, replaced by the pouting, doll-face epitomized in the queen of cute Rainie Yang (楊丞琳). Also signed to Sony, the 22-year-old cutie has been getting a lot more love from the music giant.
On another note, the Chou-Hou-Tsai love-triangle is still the hottest gossip, especially after the most recent surprising turn.
According to an online fortune-telling site, Patty Hou (侯佩岑) was Jay Chou's (周杰倫) husband in a previous life, but an extramarital affair with a wealthy young lady — Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) — intervened. The lovers rode off into the sunset and the deserted wife ends her life heartbroken.
This is supposed to explain why the two women now have to pay their dues to Chou. And there is more bad news: The trio is stuck together for five more lives before the cycle of karma ends.
A couple years ago before the sudden rise of Lin Chih-ling (林志玲), local models were hardly integral parts of the celebrity circle. But nowadays they are running amok on gossip rags with their love affairs with pop idols and hunks in general.
While Patina Lin (林嘉綺) has been reported busy among three men, one of whom is her rumored German fiance, Yvonne Yao (姚采穎) was spotted having dinner with local actor Lan Cheng-long (藍正龍), Big S' (大S) ex, last week.
With more years of experience behind her, Lin has some advice for Yao. “I don't date guys in the show biz because if I did, I would have lots of cousins and it will be awkward to work with them,” the man-magnet said in the local press.
In pop terminology, a cousin is someone who has slept with the same guy or girl. And Pop Stop has to say that it is indeed a piece of good advice from a business-savvy lady.
Making starlets do the unthinkable has always been a popular if questionable tactic used by TV stations to boost ratings. From spiders, centipedes to human urine, unwilling participants are forced to have intakes of unwanted substances just to entertain.
However, the bat-eating incident on variety show Royal Women's College (皇家女子學院) has caused a stir and fueled speculation that it violates the Wildlife Conservation Law (野生動物保育法). Moreover, the show had embarrassingly low ratings, a real slap in the face for the producers.
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and