Hong Kong's entertainment industry likes to know that its celebrities are willing to do anything to get in front of the camera. Anything, that is, provided the studios are taking the pictures. If, however, a celeb moves behind the camera and begins filming another celeb in compromising positions, then the whole industry develops a prudish morality overnight. This is vigorously supported by a media that condemns the actor, all the while publishing the very photos they are condemning under the bogus excuse that it's the public's "right" to know.
This is precisely what is happening with fellatio-lover Edison Chen (陳冠希). The luckless Chen thought he had deleted videos he shot of some of Hong Kong's most famous female celebrities - including Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐), Bobo Chan (陳文媛), Mandy Chen (陳育嬬), Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Chiu Ching-yu (趙頌茹), just to name a few, in various sexual positions and performing various sex acts that hark back to the good old days of Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳) - from his computer, which he later took in for repairs. Surprise, surprise! Images from the videos began to appear online two weeks ago.
In the "sex scandal" fallout, Columbia Pictures has allegedly dropped Chen's scenes from its upcoming film Jump (跳出去), a joint production with Stephen Chow's (周星馳) company Star Overseas. The film was scheduled for release in early May. This has now been pushed back to October.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Ming Pao Daily reported that negotiations for Gillian Chung of pop duo Twins, to endorse a toothpaste company in China for NT$16.5 million have fallen through as a result of the scandal. This seems silly, really, because Gillian would be the perfect poster child for why twenty-something women should brush.
On the home front, the Apple Daily reported that Bobo Chan's (陳文媛) wedding to wealthy stock market investor Phillip Kam (金紫耀) has been called off. Cecilia Cheung's marriage to pop star Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), on the other hand, remains strong, even though the 141 pictures of her with Edison are among the tastiest of the bunch. Perhaps Tse and Cecilia are sticking it out because of the recent birth of their son.
Incidentally, the Internet is going crazy with rumors that more pictures are yet to be published, including images of actress Maggie Q (李美琪) and pop queen Jolin Tsai (蔡依林).
On the positive side, some of Hong Kong's stars have gone on the record as supporting Edison and his ladies. One blogger quoted Chinese megastar Gong Li (鞏俐) as saying, "Young people may be very impulsive but there is no point blaming them. If we can embrace them with wider arms, they will learn from their mistakes."
Veteran Hong Kong actress Lisa Wang (汪明荃), on the other hand, was more philosophical: "If you don't want others to see you naked, then don't take such pics!" Good advice Lisa, but it will be forgotten within a year.
If newspapers and members of the showbiz firmament have been getting all high and mighty, at least some bloggers were thanking Edison for putting a little extra zing in their sex lives. After looking at the racy photos, couples said they were getting hot under the collar and Pop Stop wouldn't be surprised if sales of condoms have skyrocketed.
Back in Taiwan, disgraced entertainer Hung Chi-te's (洪其德) problems just keep mounting. Busted two years ago after traces of amphetamine, ketamine and ecstasy were found in his hair, he decided to retire to Kenting (墾丁) where he opened a dumpling restaurant with entertainer Jung Hsiung (戎祥). Hung probably won't be serving dumplings in the near future after he hit and killed a woman while driving under the influence. One would have thought that Hung had learned a lesson from his drug days. But hubris, Pop Stops supposes, comes with the territory.
Finally, starlet and Puff the Magic Dragon fan Pei Lin's (裴琳) ex-boyfriend Ye Jin-long (葉金龍) ushered in the Year of the Rat by ratting out model Yvonne Yao (姚采穎), calling her a coke head, according to a report in Apple. Yao has yet to respond to the allegations but if precedent is anything to go by, she'd better hurry up and get a haircut - a full-body haircut, as former Channel V presenter Jason Tang (唐志中) would probably suggest. Meanwhile, Pei Lin will be drying out in a rehab clinic for at least 40 days to kick her own marijuana habit.
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