All over the news this week is the official breakup of One Million Star (超級星光大道) talent show producer Chan Jen-hsiung (詹仁雄) and wife of two years "sexy mom" Vicky Chen (陳孝萱). Back in December 2005, Pop Stop was all over the NT$1.2 million party that the high-profile producer threw for his wife's two-month-old baby Tie Ti (鐵弟). The couple doesn't even seem to be able to agree over the curtains these days, and now the split is official, information from inside the dysfunctional marriage has hit the press big time.
In addition to the usual allegations of flirtatious behavior on Chan's part, Next has also produced "evidence" that he swings both ways. The magazine claims Chan was caught by paparazzi taking male bonding in exciting new directions. Surely this is no more than expected behavior for a mover and shaker in the showbiz firmament.
And despite the big party back in 2005, Chan is reported to have kept his wife short of cash, even as he went about putting together a multi-million NT dollar collection of designer watches, and furnished the house with top-tier Italian furniture. Chan is all set up to be the bad guy, except for suspicions that Chen flirted with bigamy when she switched from former lover (or husband?) Howie Huang (黃文豪) to current ex. All this provides plenty of fodder for the innuendo peddlers and ensures the couple plenty of column inches in days to come.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
While some people can't wait to get out of their matrimonial situation, Big S (大S) just can't wait to jump in. Such is the pressure she is putting on current beau, Vic Chou (周渝民), that he is losing weight and has given the starlet a diamond ring. Now there's a tip from a true master for all the gold-diggers out there.
Speaking of getting rich, Jay Chou (周杰倫) continues, in the most recent Next report, to fend off the competition as the most financially successful artist in Taiwan. He is probably spurred on by the fact that his closest rival, Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), is, reportedly, a former lover, so instead of sharing a home, they simply see who can buy the biggest and most expensive one. Chou has ensured his lead recently after dropping NT$315 million on a new pad.
Keeping up interest in the mammary development of the nation's stars, Tang Wei (湯唯) has, for the moment at least, reversed the bigger is better trend in cup size. After her turn in Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (色戒) and her elevation to superstar sex kitten, she has shown that repressed desire can hit the mark just as surely as simply being big and bouncy. In her most recent venture "The Red Lips File" (紅唇檔案), Ada Pan (潘慧如) has reined in her "exploding tits" (爆奶) in an attempt to see if this will be a substitute for being able to act.
And finally, TV host Tuo Tsung-kang (庹宗康), having only recently recovered from the bad vibe relating to being collared for marijuana use, is now back in the press due to a new romantic attachment with a 23-year-old Chinese-American Kiki that he inadvertently leaked through his MSN. The total inconsequentialness of this news has Pop Stop reeling, but it is good to see that Tuo, on the verge of 40, still appeals to the very young.
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
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ!). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
At Computex 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) urged the government to subsidize AI. “All schools in Taiwan must integrate AI into their curricula,” he declared. A few months earlier, he said, “If I were a student today, I’d immediately start using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Grok to learn, write and accelerate my thinking.” Huang sees the AI-bullet train leaving the station. And as one of its drivers, he’s worried about youth not getting on board — bad for their careers, and bad for his workforce. As a semiconductor supply-chain powerhouse and AI hub wannabe, Taiwan is seeing