Sex, drugs and wardrobe malfunctions
Looking back over this year, Pop Stop wonders whether this should be dubbed the year of the celebrity drug bust, or the year of the wardrobe malfunction. Both have taken place with depressing regularity through 2007.
A whole host of celebrities, both major and minor, have been collared for taking everything from marijuana to cocaine. Weed picked up a dubious endorsement after the "Prince of Nightclubs" Tuo Tsung-kang (庹宗康) and TV host Chu Chung-heng (屈中恆), were outed as users, and drag queen Topper (大炳) showed off a personal predilection for amphetamines. Ecstasy continued to hold its place in the drug charts after minor showbiz personality Chiang Kuan-hau (姜冠豪) was caught popping. But all this was small potatoes compared to the saga of Suzanne Hsiao (蕭淑慎), who has been repeatedly busted for using cocaine and ketamine; this year alone she was busted for taking the dynamic duo only weeks after being released from rehab for smoking marijuana.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
As for wardrobe malfunctions, this year has had a bumper crop, with models, actresses and singers showing off their assets in the hope that they'll make the cover of Next (壹週刊). Vivi Wang (王婉霏) was up there with the best of them with her now notorious "black forest incident," in which the model showed off her pubic hair while posing for photographers. Model Liu Zhen (劉真) gave punters an eye-full of the real goods when she popped a nipple during the launch of a photo collection. Next magazine fed the flames of this trend by giving the nipple in question close-up coverage.
Reality "talent" show One Million Star (超級星光大道) has been a powerful engine driving the rumor mill, and though now well into its second season, participants of Season One such as Aska Yang (楊宗緯) and Lin Yu-chia (林宥嘉) are still at the forefront of media attention. Many former participants can be seen now on television ads, but it is a sign of the times that both Yang and Lin made it into the Encyclopedia of Taiwanese Famous People 2007 to 2008 (台灣名人百科2007-2008) as among the most influential people in the country. While Season Two has not produced any likely rival in terms of real media celebrity, romantic shenanigans among the finalists are already making it into the tabloids, with chubby chops Lai Ming-wei (賴銘偉), Hello Kitty lookalike Annie Lin (林宜融), hot chic Huang Mei-chen (黃美珍) and dumb puppet Tseng Pei-ci (曾沛慈) all getting coverage in the national media.
While the Million Star kids play at romance, IT tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) has made serious headlines not just for his big commercial deals, but also for his pursuit of Hong Kong diva Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) in the first half this year. When Lau rejected the tycoon and got back together with Lust, Caution (色戒) star Tony Leung Chiu-wai (梁朝偉), the tycoon began to take an interest in Taiwanese supermodel Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), wooing her with flights in private jets and much more. He failed to bag this beauty as well. After two high-profile rejections, the mogul is keeping a lid on the affairs of his heart ... for the moment at least.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
TV host Hu Gua (胡瓜) is no such shrinking violet, and despite narrowly evading a conviction for a gambling scam, not long after picking up a conviction for smoking weed earlier in the year - he is back, and without even the hint of a blush in those fat cheeks of his.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s