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.
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
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
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s