China and Singapore are already in on Jay Chou's (周杰倫) Secret (不能說的秘密) so there won't be many surprises when the film gets its nationwide release tonight in Taiwan (see p17 for the review). Pop Stop has seen some of the rushes and basically, Chairman Chou (周董) directs himself, playing himself, in a celluloid diary of self-love worthy of a latter-day Dorian Gray.
The 28-year-old plays a music student at his alma mater, Tamkang high school in Danshui. True to his bio, he has problems at home growing up and tinkling the ivories is a form of escapism. According to interviews, his first love (after himself) is the inspiration for the movie.
"It happened when I was about 14," he told Channel Newsasia. "On her birthday, I brought her to a park, told her to close her eyes and then set off some firecrackers. It was like a scene from a movie." Not surprisingly, the self-absorbed pyromaniac was dumped. "She broke up with me saying the exams were near."
Pop Stop's difficulty here is that his pursuit of a schoolgirl looks perverse. Chou is old enough to need a rug that covers his receding fringe, and expects us to feel comfortable with him pursuing and kissing a girl in uniform (played by Guey Lun-mei (桂綸鎂). Surely, even Oscar Wilde is turning uncomfortably in his grave.
The movie had its Taipei premiere on Tuesday, when The Chairman warned hacks' criticism would be noted and preclude invitation to future openings. Pop Stop, it is safe to assume, will not be on the list, but recalls the advice given in Dorian Gray. "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
The price for lunch with Pace Wu (吳佩慈), according to a Hong Kong mama san, is NT$1.25 million. She doesn't need the money, however, as she has taken ET Mall for a NT$7 million ride. Next Magazine said Eastern Multimedia Group (EMG) paid out this sum for the Taiwanese model to publicize its fashion and shopping Web site.
But Wu refused to play ball. When she was asked to disport herself near naked in a pile of designer bags she instead turned up in a gauzy, white outfit. She was requested to model bras, but would only wear a nightshirt. They asked her to write a blog, but she couldn't find anything to say. This so enraged EMG it banned her and other models from her agency, like Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄), from appearing on its TV programs. Hell hath no fury like a media giant scorned.
Chen Yu-han (陳瑀涵) famously increased her bust size from a barely noticeable 32C to a "supersize me" 34D after eight months of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Not. The former Miss Asia contestant was "devastated" after photos of her showering were put on the web, according to Next. The magazine said her "basketball boobs" were filmed bouncing around in the shower when shooting a video to promote the launch of her singing career. Chen said the photos were stolen and uploaded by fiends in the MV director's company. Cynics will point out this is a suspiciously obvious method of getting free publicity.
Finally, an introduction to the human body. Readers of the local rags may have noted that various states of undress are given a rating. These are called "exposure points" (露點) and go from one (breast) to two (breasts). Models get three points for a vertical smile and a maximum of four when they make an ass of themselves.
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government in May last year agreed to allow the activation of a spent fuel storage facility for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門). The deal ended eleven years of legal wrangling. According to the Taipower announcement, the city government engaged in repeated delays, failing to approve water and soil conservation plans. Taipower said at the time that plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) remained stuck in legal limbo. Later that year an agreement was reached
What does the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) era stand for? What sets it apart from their allies, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? With some shifts in tone and emphasis, the KMT’s stances have not changed significantly since the late 2000s and the era of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) current platform formed in the mid-2010s under the guidance of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and current President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity. Though their ideological stances may be a bit stale, they have the advantage of being broadly understood by the voters.
In a high-rise office building in Taipei’s government district, the primary agency for maintaining links to Thailand’s 108 Yunnan villages — which are home to a population of around 200,000 descendants of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) armies stranded in Thailand following the Chinese Civil War — is the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). Established in China in 1926, the OCAC was born of a mandate to support Chinese education, culture and economic development in far flung Chinese diaspora communities, which, especially in southeast Asia, had underwritten the military insurgencies against the Qing Dynasty that led to the founding of
RSS