Local media have dubbed four-piece boy band Fahrenheit (飛輪海) the new F4 after it proved adept at raking in foreign currency from neighboring Asian countries. Reporters calculated that the group’s newly launched Web site (www.fahrenciti.com) successfully netted roughly 3,000 paid memberships in its first five days. Around 500 fans flew in from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore to meet their idols in person at the site’s launch party held at Nangang Sports Center (南港運動中心) last weekend.
Fahrenheit’s band members, who are also known by their temperatures (“cold, cool, warm and hot”), did their part and turned in emotional performances to ensure the get-together was worth the flight. Reportedly moved by the band’s success, Wu Chun (吳尊, 59°F), the sappy one, took the initiative and turned the celebration into a tearjerker by sobbing uncontrollably. Wu’s fellow crooners followed suit, finally reaching a climax that involved a group hug and four blubbering pretty boys.
Having had a taste of sudden media attention following her arrest for smoking marijuana, starlet Pei Lin (裴琳) has found a new way of commanding column inches after being discharged from the jug. The vernacular press is salivating over Pei’s alleged lesbian relationship with makeup artist’s assistant Lo Ya–wen (羅雅文), who was caught smoking pot with the star during a police raid last year.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Next probed Pei’s queerness by investigating how she spent her time in jail, and uncovered salacious details of the young star slurping up freshly squeezed orange juice and chomping on sticky rice desserts handmade by admirers. Pop Stop is outraged.
Pei denied all the above but said she would have batted for her own team if she had stayed at the women’s prison any longer.
Former beauty pageant winner Yuni Li (李妍瑾) returned to the media’s attention not for her famed “chocolate nipples,” but her budding amour with a guitar player known as Hantan Yeh (寒單爺). Li broke up with Shin (信), of Shin Band (信樂團) last year.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Members of the press pack wondered whether Li has a predilection for broke rockers. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) unleashed its intrepid showbiz reporters on the story, who revealed that the guitarist comes from a well-heeled family and that playing in an underground band is just one of his pastimes.
Li brushed off reports that the rocker spent more than NT$10 million winning her heart and insisted that the strummer is just a typical angry musician who runs amok at bars.
Much to the delight of the Hong Kong paparazzi tailing pop idol Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), who is shooting the sequel of Storm Riders (風雲) in Bangkok, Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) made a surprise visit to the set last week, along with the couple’s baby boy and a troupe of assistants.
After the Edison Chen (陳冠希) sex-photo scandal, the disgraced actress and wife has allegedly resolved on following extreme methods to save her marriage with Tse. From reportedly begging for forgiveness, making suicide threats to attempting to get pregnant again, Cheung is said to be sticking close to her husband and deploying every trick in the book.
According to Liberty Times and Next, Tse was indeed surprised by Cheung’s unannounced visit, though not necessarily in a pleasant way. Photos from the scene show a sullen Tse sitting next to Cheung and their baby in a car.
Cheng Ching-hsiang (鄭青祥) turned a small triangle of concrete jammed between two old shops into a cool little bar called 9dimension. In front of the shop, a steampunk-like structure was welded by himself to serve as a booth where he prepares cocktails. “Yancheng used to be just old people,” he says, “but now young people are coming and creating the New Yancheng.” Around the corner, Yu Hsiu-jao (饒毓琇), opened Tiny Cafe. True to its name, it is the size of a cupboard and serves cold-brewed coffee. “Small shops are so special and have personality,” she says, “people come to Yancheng to find such treasures.” She
Late last month Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the Philippine Senate that the nation has sufficient funds to evacuate the nearly 170,000 Filipino residents in Taiwan, 84 percent of whom are migrant workers, in the event of war. Agencies have been exploring evacuation scenarios since early this year, she said. She also observed that since the Philippines has only limited ships, the government is consulting security agencies for alternatives. Filipinos are a distant third in overall migrant worker population. Indonesia has over 248,000 workers, followed by roughly 240,000 Vietnamese. It should be noted that there are another 170,000
In July of 1995, a group of local DJs began posting an event flyer around Taipei. It was cheaply photocopied and nearly all in English, with a hand-drawn map on the back and, on the front, a big red hand print alongside one prominent line of text, “Finally… THE PARTY.” The map led to a remote floodplain in Taipei County (now New Taipei City) just across the Tamsui River from Taipei. The organizers got permission from no one. They just drove up in a blue Taiwanese pickup truck, set up a generator, two speakers, two turntables and a mixer. They
Hannah Liao (廖宸萱) recalls the harassment she experienced on dating apps, an experience that left her frightened and disgusted. “I’ve tried some voice-based dating apps,” the 30-year-old says. “Right away, some guys would say things like, ‘Wanna talk dirty?’ or ‘Wanna suck my d**k?’” she says. Liao’s story is not unique. Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics show a more than 50 percent rise in sexual assault cases related to online encounters over the past five years. In 2023 alone, women comprised 7,698 of the 9,413 reported victims. Faced with a dating landscape that can feel more predatory than promising, many in
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