Fierce competition in the sagging pop music market and the tabloids' obsession with sex and celebrity have prompted record companies to cook up increasingly elaborate schemes to garner free publicity and place their singers under the showbiz spotlight. The transgression of good taste may now be par for the course.
Last week several tabloids ran the sensational story of Singaporean singer Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿) and personnel from her record label EMI Capitol being held up at gunpoint by local guides while shooting a music video in Cairo, Egypt. Music video director Huang Chung-ping (黃中平) later clarified, however, that there were no guns present during the incident, which was just a slight disagreement over the guides' payment.
The record label changed it's side of the story from "being extorted for NT$1 million" to labeling the brouhaha a "a big misunderstanding" and Sun, currently in Singapore recovering from the ordeal, ameliorated her previous invective against the "the local villains" by lauding Egypt as a beautiful country.
Taiwan's sweetheart Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) has reached 33, an age deemed overripe for marriage by some. Rumors are doing the rounds that "ice cream" Lin has secretly gotten engaged to Scott Qiu (邱士楷), the son of a local wealthy family who made its fortune of some NT$3.5 billions selling toilets.
The star's equally glamorous mom Wu Tzu-mei (吳慈美) last week took the liberty of refuting the news but did make known her preference for Qiu over Lin's other rumored lover Jerry Yan (言承旭).
While Lin puts her love affair, or affairs, on hold and strives to make it in movies in John Woo's (吳宇森) Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁之戰), the news of Tony Leung's (梁朝偉) withdrawal from the film was made public on Monday and immediately generated intense speculation.
The official reason: Leung has made other business commitments and can't be fully commit to the six-month long shoot in China. The other version: Leung asked for too much money and was replaced with Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) who was willing to settle for less money.
The story doesn't end there, however, as many in the showbiz firmament believe the 44-year-old heartthrob ditched the project to prevent IT tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) getting his hands on his girlfriend Carina Lau (劉嘉玲).
Record company ALFA Music (阿爾發音樂) is about to lose its biggest cash cow as its seven-year long contract with Jay Chou (周杰倫) expires this month. Desperate to keep the gold mine that is estimated to have brought in over NT$1 billion in profits over the past three years, ALFA has warned other big labels that it has first dibs on extending the contract with the king of Mando-pop.
However, on the other side of the town, the soon-to-be-free star has already procured himself a 200-ping luxurious office and looks set to launch his own empire. A troupe of investors including Sony BMG and Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Peter Lam (林建岳) have promised to back the golden boy.
It starts out as a heartwarming clip. A young girl, clearly delighted to be in Tokyo, beams as she makes a peace sign to the camera. Seconds later, she is shoved to the ground from behind by a woman wearing a surgical mask. The assailant doesn’t skip a beat, striding out of shot of the clip filmed by the girl’s mother. This was no accidental clash of shoulders in a crowded place, but one of the most visible examples of a spate of butsukari otoko — “bumping man” — shoving incidents in Japan that experts attribute to a combination of gender
The race for New Taipei City mayor is being keenly watched, and now with the nomination of former deputy mayor of Taipei Hammer Lee (李四川) as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, the battle lines are drawn. All polling data on the tight race mentioned in this column is from the March 12 Formosa poll. On Christmas Day 2010, Taipei County merged into one mega-metropolis of four million people, making it the nation’s largest city. The same day, the winner of the mayoral race, Eric Chu (朱立倫) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), took office and insisted on the current
March 16 to March 22 Hidden for decades behind junk-filled metal shacks, trees and overgrowth, a small domed structure bearing a Buddhist swastika resurfaced last June in a Taichung alley. It was soon identified as a remnant of the 122-year-old Gokokuzan Taichuu-ji (Taichung Temple, 護國山台中寺), which was thought to have been demolished in the 1980s. In addition, a stone stele dedicated to monk Hoshu Ono, who served as abbot from 1914 to 1930, was discovered in the detritus. The temple was established in 1903 as the local center for the Soto school
When my friend invited me to take a tour of a wooden house hand-built by a Pingtung County resident, my curiosity was instantly piqued and I readily agreed to join him. If it was built by a single person, it would surely be quite small. If it was made of wood, it would surely be cramped, dingy and mildewy. If it was designed by an amateur, it would surely be irregular in shape, perhaps cobbled together from whatever material was easily available. I was wrong on all counts. As we drove up to the house in Fangliao Township (枋寮鄉), I was surprised
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