For basketball star Sam Ho (何守正), A-Mei’s (張惠妹) absence while she is in Tokyo rehearsing for a part in a Japanese production of Turandot hasn’t made his heart grow fonder. The Taiwan Beer basketball team player has, reportedly, found consolation elsewhere. The new woman in his life, air hostess and wannabe singer Lin Pei-yao (林佩瑤), is hardly a match for the nation’s premier diva, but as Next magazine points out, she’s 10 years younger and is the proud owner of 32D cup breasts, compared to A-Mei’s 32B mammalian protuberances.
Lin managed to squeeze into the top 10 contestants in season two of CTV’s One Million Star (超級星光大道) pop idol “reality” show, but her talent was rather for looking good in hot pants and mini skirts than for her singing. Having snagged A-Mei, Ho seems content to return to romance’s Little League.
In Taiwan, breasts are not to be trifled with. Model and actress Kelly Lin (林熙蕾), who has for some time been trying to put her sex kitten image behind her, has parleyed her 33C melons for NT$6 million to act as spokesperson for Ladies brand bras, beating a strong field of well-endowed contenders. Next reports she suggested that exercising with dumbbells was the best way of keeping her assets “up, up.”
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Aska Yang (楊宗緯), another One Million Star graduate who is looking to parley his reality show recognition into real celebrity status, has received a drubbing from local media for his “attitude.” Yang, best-known for turning on the water works on stage, has long been portrayed as a sensitive soul. Recent revelations suggest that he isn’t as soft and cuddly as previously thought, and Next speculates that relations with other One Million Star alumni have become strained, as rumors emerge of hysterical outbursts towards music industry support staff such as makeup artists and personal assistants. Formerly a key player in various One Million Star get-togethers, Yang was dropped from the lineup for the first One Million Star overseas concert in Malaysia this month. Yang’s album Dove (鴿子) has already dropped to No. 4 in the charts. His 15 minutes may have run its course.
Dreams of fame and fortune have fallen apart for model Kelly Po (柏妍安), who had been in line to marry Winston Wang Junior (王泉仁), son of Winston Wang (王文洋), once tipped as the most likely successor to the Formosa Plastics empire, after their relationship was brought to public attention in July last year.
On March 21, Wang Junior held an engagement party, but Po didn’t attend. A report on ETTV suggested that the breakup was due to parental pressure, as Wang Senior did not think the model worthy to become a member of his illustrious family because of her lack of educational qualifications. Both father and son have impressive academic credentials, while Po’s main claim to fame is that of being the “other woman” in the love-triangle that led to the suicide of model Hsu Tzu-ting (徐子婷) in 2004. Clearly this was not the sort of connection that the Wangs, undisputed members of Taiwan’s financial aristocracy, wanted to form.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Jolin Tsai’s (蔡依林) fans launched an Internet protest on Wednesday because of delays over the release of the pop diva’s new English-language album Love Exercise (愛的練習語). A report in the Liberty Times (The Taipei Times’ sister paper) suggests that these delays may be a result of a shake-up at EMI; there are even rumors that the company will close down its Asian operations. Fans are demanding that the album, which was scheduled for release this month, be put on the shelves at once, proposing a “three noes” boycott if the company does not do so. The three noes are “no to Jolin re-signing from EMI, no to purchasing EMI albums, no to attending activities for EMI artists.” According to the report, other artists signed to EMI, including A-Mei and Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿), are reassessing their future with the company.
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