The One Million Stars (超級星光大道) pop idol "reality" show continues to hold its own in the ratings and the gossip rags as its second season winds up to a well orchestrated climax. Favorite in a field dominated by women is club singer Lai Ming-wei (賴銘偉), who has quietly gained ground in the show, and though no match for showman and super crybaby Aska Yang (楊宗緯), is tipped to win the contest.
Speculation has been given substance by leaks that Yang is not quite as warm and fuzzy as the little chubby chops likes to make out. The rather tame allegations that he once hurt someone in a fight when performing in an Eight Generals dance seems calculated to give some color to a rather bland personality. Next (壹週刊) magazine has also published statements by various restaurant owners that the singer has used his success on television to boost his fees as a cafe musician to 10 times the going rate. The magazine revealed that he had demanded and got over NT$10,000 an hour for a gig at the revolving restaurant at the Taipei Incinerator in Beitou.
Another hot favorite on the show, Liang Wen-ying (梁文音), was eliminated in a "penalty shoot-out" (PK賽) round of the competition last week, which has given rise to comparisons with Yang, who was last session also eliminated only to make a return in a "resurrection" round (復活賽). Liang, who has performed strongly since the beginning, has sworn that she'll be back. This bit of deja vu might suggest the show's spin doctors are already running dry on new ideas. The ploy, however, could be a clever double bluff?
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
In other television news, Blackie (黑人), who hosts Blackie's Teenage Club (我愛黑澀會), has been seen getting a bit too close to one of his "teenage" proteges, to the rumored annoyance of seven-year girlfriend FanFan (范瑋琪). Next magazine's intrepid team of paparazzi have caught Blackie out and about with GueiGuei (鬼鬼), one of the Teenage Club - she's staying at his mother's house to avoid trouble at home. It's no surprise that the tabloid press is already getting flustered about possible favoritism.
Also on the romantic front, Pop Stop is surprised to see the more things change the more they stay the same. Recent developments in the four-year relationship between Terri Kwan (關穎), sometimes actress and daughter of Jih Sun Group (日盛集團) chairman Chen Kuo-he (陳國和), and boyfriend Huang Chih-wei(黃志瑋), reads like something from a turn-of-last-century melodrama.
Huang may well be Taiwan's No 1 male model, but with a father who drives a taxi and a mother who runs a convenience store, Kwan's mummy and daddy didn't see him as a long-term prospect. They have reportedly been hoping young Terri would find someone "more suitable." The pressure was on, and revelations about a serious rival Lin Chi-you (林知佑), who comes from established money and who works in the family-run Hua Nan Financial Holdings (華南金控), prompted Huang to pop the question. The young lady in question is keeping her options open, and keeping mummy and daddy sweet, by rejecting Huang's offer. Huang may be younger and look better in a suit, but that doesn't necessarily stack up too well against Lin's wealth and career prospects.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
While Kwan is a young star on the rise, the only place celeb Suzanne Hsiao (蕭淑慎) is likely to be heading is a spell in the big house. It's only five months since she got out of rehab, but she is now back in the spotlight, and this time its not just for using. A Chinese Television System (CTS) report said that a search of Hsiao's home not only revealed a stash of heroin, but also a pair of scales, which could get her up before the courts for dealing. Police picked up seven people in a raid on property rented by Hsiao on Chongqing North Road.
The depressing numbers continue to pile up, like casualty lists after a lost battle. This week, after the government announced the 19th straight month of population decline, the Ministry of the Interior said that Taiwan is expected to lose 6.67 million workers in two waves of retirement over the next 15 years. According to the Ministry of Labor (MOL), Taiwan has a workforce of 11.6 million (as of July). The over-15 population was 20.244 million last year. EARLY RETIREMENT Early retirement is going to make these waves a tsunami. According to the Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the
Last week the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) announced that the legislature would again amend the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) to separate fiscal allocations for the three outlying counties of Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu from the 19 municipalities on Taiwan proper. The revisions to the act to redistribute the national tax revenues were passed in December last year. Prior to the new law, the central government received 75 percent of tax revenues, while the local governments took 25 percent. The revisions gave the central government 60 percent, and boosted the local government share to 40 percent,
Many will be surprised to discover that the electoral voting numbers in recent elections do not entirely line up with what the actual voting results show. Swing voters decide elections, but in recent elections, the results offer a different and surprisingly consistent message. And there is one overarching theme: a very democratic preference for balance. SOME CAVEATS Putting a number on the number of swing voters is surprisingly slippery. Because swing voters favor different parties depending on the type of election, it is hard to separate die-hard voters leaning towards one party or the other. Complicating matters is that some voters are
Sept 22 to Sept 28 Hsu Hsih (許石) never forgot the international student gathering he attended in Japan, where participants were asked to sing a folk song from their homeland. When it came to the Taiwanese students, they looked at each other, unable to recall a single tune. Taiwan doesn’t have folk songs, they said. Their classmates were incredulous: “How can that be? How can a place have no folk songs?” The experience deeply embarrassed Hsu, who was studying music. After returning to Taiwan in 1946, he set out to collect the island’s forgotten tunes, from Hoklo (Taiwanese) epics to operatic
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