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.
By global standards, the traffic congestion that afflicts Taiwan’s urban areas isn’t horrific. But nor is it something the country can be proud of. According to TomTom, a Dutch developer of location and navigation technologies, last year Taiwan was the sixth most congested country in Asia. Of the 492 towns and cities included in its rankings last year, Taipei was the 74th most congested. Taoyuan ranked 105th, while Hsinchu County (121st), Taichung (142nd), Tainan (173rd), New Taipei City (227th), Kaohsiung (241st) and Keelung (302nd) also featured on the list. Four Japanese cities have slower traffic than Taipei. (Seoul, which has some
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it? Last week I encountered journalist and travel writer Cameron Dueck, who had sailed to Taiwan in 2023-24, and was full of tales. Like everyone who visits, he and his partner Fiona Ching loved our island nation and had nothing but wonderful experiences on land. But he had little positive to say about the way Taiwan has organized its
Michael slides a sequin glove over the pop star’s tarnished legacy, shrouding Michael Jackson’s complications with a conventional biopic that, if you cover your ears, sounds great. Antoine Fuqua’s movie is sanctioned by Jackson’s estate and its producers include the estate’s executors. So it is, by its nature, a narrow, authorized perspective on Jackson. The film ends before the flood of allegations of sexual abuse of children, or Jackson’s own acknowledgment of sleeping alongside kids. Jackson and his estate have long maintained his innocence. In his only criminal trial, in 2005, Jackson was acquitted. Michael doesn’t even subtly nod to these facts.
Writing of the finds at the ancient iron-working site of Shihsanhang (十 三行) in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), archaeologist Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華) of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology observes: “One bronze bowl gilded with gold, together with copper coins and fragments of Tang and Song ceramics, were also found. These provide evidence for early contact between Taiwan aborigines and Chinese.” The Shihsanhang Web site from the Ministry of Culture says of the finds: “They were evidence that the residents of the area had a close trading relation with Chinese civilians, as the coins can be
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