It is amazing to see how the entertainment apparatus turns a nobody into a star and its efficiency to produce, consume and cash in on its creations is flabbergasting. Right now the machine is working its magic on Aska Yang (楊宗緯), its latest product. A local version of China's Li Yuchun (李宇春), Yang rocketed to stardom after participating in the singing contest One Million Star (超級星光大道), on national TV. Two months on, the college student-turned-household name keeps the nation enthralled with no more than a reasonably nice voice and a bent for getting teary eyed over defeated contenders.
Nicknamed cry baby for his tears and caveman for his rugged appearance, Yang has quickly become the gossip rag's new favorite as paparazzi digs out dirt saying the contestant once flunked out of college, subtracted five years from his real age and has developed a predilection for young, pretty assistants.
The show has been accused of deliberately eliminating Yang from the competition so that it can invite him back later in the game, adding a bit of suspense and drama to the show even as the star in the making ensures that gossip fodder is in ample supply.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
The Aska craze is predicted to reach a climax in a couple of months as Yang and the nine other finalists, now dubbed as the Million Star Gang (星光幫), are working on their first compilation album slated to hit the market in the summer. Whether or not the gang are successful products like Hello Kitty or Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), only time will tell.
In other tabloid news, A-mei (阿妹) is said to have developed a fancy for younger men as a widely circulated picture of her nestling up to Super Basketball League player He Shou-cheng (何守正) is interpreted as a sign of budding love by local media proficient in making gossip headlines out of nothing.
As the rumored romance comes suspiciously close to the release date of the star's new album next month, and one cannot but wonder whether the record company is getting a bit slack in resorting to a publicity gimmick that is so yesterday.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Pop singer and entertainer Alan Luo (羅志祥) is apparently in the prime of his life. Not only does his romantic pursuit of the queen of cute Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) look promising, the business-savvy star has set up his own clothing brand and his first flagship store opened last weekend in Ximending (西門町).
Over 600 fans flooded into the store to pick up Luo's designs of limited edition clothing and plastic toys. And by the end of the day, the astute star took more than NT$1 million of bucks for what are in fact plain T-shirts and trinkets.
Meanwhile, Luo's past rumored girlfriend Jolin Tsai is spending the same amount of cash on the other side of the planet. Picking up pricey lessons from Kylie Monogue's dance instructor in London, the dance diva's studiousness has been faithfully documented by the record company, lauding the star as a studious young lady who can lead a ordinary life like other Taiwanese students do despite her fame and wealth.
Pop Stop just wants to point out one thing: expensive dance lessons, extravagant shopping and five-star hotel accommodation can hardly constitute a common experience shared by Taiwanese students in foreign countries.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located