Big S (大S) has hit the headlines of the Chinese-language media yet again, this time for putting an end to her two-and-a-half year romance with F4 band member Vic Chou (周渝民). Rumors abound, ranging from the prosaic but credible "divergent career paths and incompatible interests," to the juicier suggestion from Apple Daily that Chou has recently had a relapse into depression after getting too deeply into his role in Johnnie To's (杜琪峰) most recent flick, Linger (蝴蝶飛). According to reports, Chou's name has also been linked with Linger's leading lady Li Bingbing (李冰冰) and TV personality Patty Hou (侯佩岑), whom he met while working on the TV romance series Delicious Relation (美味關係).
Recent reports say that the young Lothario, who swept Big S - five years his senior - off her feet back in 2005, is now history for her. His excuse for his recent inattention to his "big sister" has been preoccupation with the release of the new F4 album, Waiting For You (在這裡等你), which two weeks ago hit the charts at number two, but has since dropped to number 17.
Pop Stop is glad to announce that its prediction that Guatemalan-Taiwanese model Liz Yang's (楊莉思) involvement with David Tao (陶吉吉) would earn her plenty of coverage in the gossip rags has come true. After Tao's two run-ins with police (on both occasions significantly the worse for drink) the rising model has decided that enough is enough. According to Next, the model claims that they are "just friends," that he has been too busy to get in contact and the rest of the usual brush-off palaver. As a result, the model has a four-page spread and a cover (lathered fetchingly in strawberries and cream and wearing cherry-print cotton knickers) in this week's edition of the magazine. Clearly she is not just a pretty face.
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
According to gossip Web sites, Yang is not the only one getting a leg up from a big-name star. The 19-year-old TV commercial model Chiang Yu-chen (江語晨), who has been associated with Jay "The Chairman" Chou (周杰倫) ever since his fling with Hebe ended, seems to be doing well enough in the romance race to spark the envy of Internet gossip mongers. They have been painting her as a two-timing gold-digger, with possible lesbian inclinations to boot.
In November last year, Little Pan-pan (小潘潘) was caught up in the drug busts that hit the celebrity world. Although cleared, the celebrity says that the incident lost her NT$300,000 over the last three months as gig organizers cancelled shows because of the negative publicity. To console herself, reports say, Little Pan-pan has announced that she will head to the cosmetic surgeon's office so she can put on a new face for the New Year.
CTV's One Million Star (超級星光大道) pop idol "reality" show is finally beginning to slip in the ratings. Bad singing and almost constant rumors that the competition is fixed by record companies have been taking their toll. The show still manages to hold first place though, well ahead of TTV's rival reality show Super Idol (超級偶像). It seems that One Million Star works the rumor mill to maintain its lead, this week generating the snippet that the current second-place holder and Hello Kitty look-alike, Annie Lin (林宜融), is related to the show's producers. With the number of people surnamed Lin in Taiwan, though, even the gossip rags are unable to put their heart into this one. In another story with a rather gloating tone, Apple Daily reported that last year's One Million Star favorite, Aska Yang (楊宗緯), flubbed his first appearance as a guest host on GTV's 100% Entertainment (娛樂百分百).
PHOTOS: TAIPEI TIMES
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and