This week’s Next Magazine (壹週刊) is worth its weight in gold — if you’re a feminist or sociologist and want to teach your students about Taiwan’s lurid media.
In a kiss-and-tell with the gossip rag, “Joanna,” the blatherskite ex-girlfriend of model and man-about-town Ethan Ruan (阮經天), went into explicit detail about the couple’s past sex life.
“People say Scorpios are really good in bed,” she gushed. “He’s definitely a Scorpio,” she said, explaining that Ruan was capable of performing for at least 30 minutes a time.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
“He really likes anal sex and though it’s a little painful, I like it too,” she said. If that wasn’t enough to make you choke on your breakfast, Joanna went on to say that though the pair dated for nine months, Ruan never used a condom. When asked why she would allow this to happen, the love-crazed Joanna said, “Because I love Hsiao Tien and I will do anything he wants.”
She went on to describe other common-or-garden sexual acts, albeit in graphic detail.
Pop Stop wonders why Next published such run-of-the-mill tales of hanky-panky. Where’s the kinkiness?
It turns out that Hsiao Tien (小天, Ruan’s pet name, which in Mandarin means Little Heaven and isn’t, rather suspiciously, Big Heaven, 大天) is something of a lothario.
Next’s intrepid reporters caught up with Ruan and aspiring model Tiffany Hsu (許瑋甯) last summer heating up the beaches of Kenting (墾丁) and more recently apartment hunting. According to the report, Ruan had been double-dating Hsu and Joanna for three months before breaking up with the latter.
Ruan is in good company this week as he joins senior Casanova Terry Gou (郭台銘) on the pages of the nation’s tabloids. The Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman was “papped” twice this past weekend with his rumored fiancee Delia Tseng (曾馨瑩).
The first time was at a wedding on Saturday. The following night, they showed up at crooners Donnie and Marie Osborne’s concert. Local paparazzi were on hand to annoy the hell out of Terry and Delia — or at least that’s how it appeared as Gou tried fruitlessly to avoid the cameras. Speculation is rife among celebrity insiders that Tseng is pregnant and has set up shop in Gou’s home.
Meanwhile, funnyman Chen Wei-ming (陳為民) just had the smile wiped off his face after a judge handed him a four-month prison sentence. Chen had taken his ex-girlfriend Hou Ju-chieh (侯如捷) to court, accusing her of applying for a credit card under his name in 2003 when they were dating.
Last year the presiding judge threw the case out of court because the bank employee who issued the card reportedly contacted the TV entertainer before doing so. Hou then set her lawyer on the TV entertainer accusing him of making a false accusation. The judge decided in her favor and now it seems likely that Chen will be yukking it up behind bars.
In other legal news, Taiwan’s Apple Daily (蘋果日報) reported that actress Kelly Lin (林熙蕾) lost her suit against the China Times (中國時報). A year ago the Times reported that Lin had secretly married former F4 boy band member Ken Chu (朱孝天) in the US and showed pictures of her life in America. Lin promptly sued the daily saying the paparazzi had invaded her privacy. Perhaps Lin lost because, as a model, complaining that photographers are taking pictures of her and publishing them seems indefensible.
The two lovebirds returned on Monday evening from Japan and were immediately chased by Taiwan’s energetic press corps. Chu tried to give them the slip — he really should know better — and drove to his assistant’s pad on Heping East Road (和平東路), after dropping off Lin at her Dazhi District apartment. When cornered by reporters and asked about his relationship, the former crooner said the pair were just friends.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of