It has become an established practice for the fashion community to hand out best-and-worst-dresser lists after each celebrity grand event. But for the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎) held last Saturday, local pop stars, who mostly dressed in black, all scored Fs on their report cards.
A big disappointment on the red carpet, A-mei (阿妹) aimed for the "bling bling" look by having herself draped with Bvlgari jewelry worth NT$180 million, but her mismatched Dsquared hot pants earned her a drubbing from the fashion critics. Equally undesirable, Penny Tai (戴佩妮) looked like she was carrying a rug in a Gucci black velvet dress and Judy Chiang's (江蕙) custom-made outfit was said to look like a mosquito net.
The nation's new media plaything the Million Star Gang (星光幫) were a last-minute withdrawal from the red carpet; they were to be seen quietly seated downstage as the organizer was afraid that these press magnets would overshadow the event.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
As the old saying goes "fame portends trouble for people, just as getting fat portends the worst for a pig" (人怕出名豬怕肥), so it comes as no surprise that these recent media darlings have suddenly been caught in a spiral of negative news as the gang leader Aska Yang (楊宗緯) was found guilty last Friday for forging his ID card to appear five years younger than his real age.
Pop stop readers behold: If you are a woman aged between 15 to 25 with a height of 160cm or more, then here is your chance to work your way up in the glamorous world of modeling. Model agent Catwalk (凱渥) announced its national modeling contest last week that promised to generate a new wave of model fever.
Having a stable of big-ticket beauties such as Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) and Hung Hsiao-lei (洪曉蕾), the ambitions of this modeling agency to become the biggest exporter of belles to the Chinese-speaking world is abundantly clear.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
"From the contest, we will spot not just future models with pretty faces but young promising artists," local fashion godfather Ivan Hong (洪偉明) told the press. The final is scheduled to air on Aug. 18, so remember to tune in for some legs and breasts.
Another attention-grabbing project currently in the works is King of Kung Fu (功夫之王) starring Asian's two mega action stars Jackie Chan (成龍) and Jet Li (李連杰). As Chan's blog revealed, the kung-fu senior accidentally injured Li in the best fight he's had in 16 years. Li was surrounded by Chinese media in a press conference last week asking his opinion on who was the better martial arts master.
"It is Jackie Chan, of course, since I am paid only one tenth of what he gets," Li was quoted as saying.
Ouch, does Pop Stop detect some sarcasm from the usually composed star?
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not