Pop Stop would be negligent of its duty if it failed to report on the latest twists and turns of gossip rag fodder Terry Gou's (郭台銘) latest affair(s) of the heart and wallet. Recently admitting to gossip hounds that his feelings for Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) are genuine and serious, one of Taiwan's most minted men nevertheless shared the love by flying Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) in his private jet to host grand parties at his IT empire's redoubts.
The tycoon's courtship game with Lin was made official at his company's evening party in Shanxi Province, China, last Friday when the national sweetheart-turned-private hostess played the role of a fan-holding fortune-teller offering her divination on Gou's future love. "There is no need to forecast my love life since I am the one who is in control not fate, and I'm not interested in the fan but the person who is holding it," said subtle-as-a-sledgehammer Gou.
Lin later said that Gou was just using her, not for her looks, or her intellectual prowess, but as a cloak to hide his real intentions towards Lau. The tycoon-turned-playboy touched on his latest progress with the Hong Kong diva by mentioning his rival in love for the first time. "Tony Leung (梁朝偉) is my mom's favorite actor and I think he has more merit than I," Gou was quoted as saying, suggesting the well-preserved star may be out of the picture.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Is the whole convoluted affair a contrived circus for the media to boost Gou's chances of becoming a movie mogul, or, heavens above, is he really just a player?
Another budding relation-ship in the spotlight is between the queen of Mando-pop Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and foreign-educated wannabe star Eddie Peng (彭于晏). The pretty boy is reportedly following Tsai from online chat rooms to late night parties.
Peng's strategy seems to be working as Tsai told members of the local press last week that, "Peng is a good friend that I can talk to," which in dating game speak roughly translates as, "ya, I like him and we'll see how it goes."
Ah! Love, power, money, lust and fame — what a heady mix. At least Hong Kong actor Andy Lau (劉德華) has other things on his mind. The star, it is widely speculated, is going bald.
When cornered by local paparazzi, Lau laughed off questions about his reportedly thinning mop top, but failed to explain why hats have become an indispensable part of his outfits these days.
One of Taiwan's most famous pop culture exports, the disbanded boy band F4, will unite again in Taipei, for a handsome profit of course. Their get-together party with fans, to be held next month, will draw over 5,000 devotees from neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, it is reported.
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake. Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which we explored in part one of this series, “Ko Wen-je, the KMT’s prickly ally,” (Aug. 16, page 12). Ko was open to cooperation, but on his terms. He openly fretted about being “swallowed up” by the KMT, and was keenly aware of the experience of the People’s First Party
Aug. 25 to Aug. 31 Although Mr. Lin (林) had been married to his Japanese wife for a decade, their union was never legally recognized — and even their daughter was officially deemed illegitimate. During the first half of Japanese rule in Taiwan, only marriages between Japanese men and Taiwanese women were valid, unless the Taiwanese husband formally joined a Japanese household. In 1920, Lin took his frustrations directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs: “Since Japan took possession of Taiwan, we have obeyed the government’s directives and committed ourselves to breaking old Qing-era customs. Yet ... our marriages remain unrecognized,
Not long into Mistress Dispeller, a quietly jaw-dropping new documentary from director Elizabeth Lo, the film’s eponymous character lays out her thesis for ridding marriages of troublesome extra lovers. “When someone becomes a mistress,” she says, “it’s because they feel they don’t deserve complete love. She’s the one who needs our help the most.” Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller based in north-central China’s Henan province, is one of a growing number of self-styled professionals who earn a living by intervening in people’s marriages — to “dispel” them of intruders. “I was looking for a love story set in China,” says Lo,
During the Metal Ages, prior to the arrival of the Dutch and Chinese, a great shift took place in indigenous material culture. Glass and agate beads, introduced after 400BC, completely replaced Taiwanese nephrite (jade) as the ornamental materials of choice, anthropologist Liu Jiun-Yu (劉俊昱) of the University of Washington wrote in a 2023 article. He added of the island’s modern indigenous peoples: “They are the descendants of prehistoric Formosans but have no nephrite-using cultures.” Moderns squint at that dynamic era of trade and cultural change through the mutually supporting lenses of later settler-colonialism and imperial power, which treated the indigenous as
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