The Million Star Gang (星光幫) craze has reached its zenith after a meticulously planned PR scheme catapulted the group's debut album to the top of the Mando-pop billboard charts.
Wasting no time in cashing in on the fad, the gang was deployed on a multi-city tour last weekend for shows that will see thousands of fans gladly part with their money.
Asked if he was worried that the group's popularity was just a flash in the pan, leader Aska Yang (楊宗緯) responded with a poker face and disappeared in a cab.
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
In similar news, Blackie's Teenage Club Beauties (黑澀會美眉) and Bang Bang Tang Boys (棒棒堂男孩), from Channel V's brain-damaging variety shows, have paired up for teen soap opera Brown Sugar Macchiato (黑糖瑪奇朵), which hit the nation's airwaves on Sunday. Agents say they have imposed tough rules on the boys and girls, including keeping their hands off each other, no wandering the streets after 10pm and keeping fit. They have been warned that their characters in the soap will suffer rape or death if there are any transgressions.
Environmentalism is in vogue these days, though it is ironically facilitated by the henchmen of consumerism that include brand worship and the celebrity pitch. While English designer Anya Hindmarch's limited edition eco-friendly shopping bags triggered riots in front of local department stores that ended with broken shop windows, injured shoppers, piles of trash and police mediation two weeks ago, ABT pop star Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) took a ride on a giant globe to raise environmental awareness at a press conference in Beijing last week held to promote his new album Change Me (改變自己), the sleeve of which is made from recycled paper rather than plastic.
The environmentally-friendly star also proved his political sensitivity and pandered to both Taiwan and China by singing Long Live the Chinese (華人萬歲) and a Taiwanese ballad.
The smooth singer, however, is said to be less than eloquent in Ang Lee's (李安) Lust, Caution (色戒) currently in post-production and slated to hit local theaters by the end of September. When asked by the local press about the performances delivered by the star-studded cast last week, Lee gave two thumbs up to Tony Leung (梁朝偉) and Tang Wei (湯唯) but admitted Wang wasn't much of an actor.
"He didn't really know how to act at first, but did catch up half way through the shooting," Lee was quoted as saying.
G-MUSIC, BASED ON RETAIL SALES
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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