The Beijing Olympics came to an explosive end on Sunday night with Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s (張藝謀) less-than-creative closing ceremony. There was a massive fireworks display and hundreds of performers. More than 60 pop stars also took part in the extravagant festivities, with entertainment big shots including Jackie Chan (成龍), Andy Lau (劉德華), Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) and Emil Chow (周華健) all battling to get camera time as they sang songs with schmaltzy titles such as Beijing, Beijing, I Love Beijing (北京，北京，我愛北京).
Though the average screen time for each of these A-list stars was less than one minute, gossip columnists where not slow to point out that they did better than the artists taking part in the opening ceremony, who got no screen time at all due to its sheer length. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) caustically commented on the “ambient sounds that served to see off tens of thousands as they vacated the stadium,” to describe the concert telecast from the opening ceremony.
“It didn’t feel nice,” said Chan’s actor son Jaycee Chan (房祖名), commenting on Chan’s discontent over his cursory treatment at the closing ceremony by Chinese-speaking media. Chan was on screen for 45 seconds according to figures released by Southcn.com (南方網), a news Web site. This was significantly better than Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) who, according to the same source, only garnered one second of screen time. Pop Stop knows it must be hard for Chan, especially considering that the aging kung fu superstar is one of China’s most trustworthy ass-kissers.
One of China’s least favorite celebrities, actress Tang Wei (湯唯), became a citizen of Hong Kong on Monday, a change in status that should allow her to continue her acting career, which had stalled following her performance in Lust, Caution (色戒) in 2007. According to a report posted on Internet site Now News (今日新聞), Tang has had bans placed on her appearing on TV and other media because of her steamy performance in that film. As a citizen of the former British colony, it is suggested, she will now be able to pursue her goal of becoming the next Zhang Ziyi (章子怡).
As for Zhang herself, her acting credentials are in danger of being overshadowed by gossip about her relationship with Vivi Nevo, an Israeli capitalist and major shareholder in Time Warner. She is also working the floor with high-society types, and at a charity party held in Beijing last Friday, the 25-year-old star was spotted exerting her charms on Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair. Even an unintended reunion with ex Huo Qishan (霍啟山) didn’t cause Zhang to lose her cool. The media-savvy star demonstrated how a lady should act in such an unflattering situation. She politely kissed her old flame and passionately hugged his dad, who happens to be a powerful political magnate in China.
Turning to Taiwanese gossip tidbits, CTTV “talent” contest One Million Star (超級星光大道) alumnus Aska Yang (楊宗緯) might once again be a victim of his own arrogance. Promotions for the DVD recording from his May Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) concert, which hit record stores two weeks ago, have reportedly been suspended indefinitely due to continuous squabbling between the crooner and his agent Tehsu International (特許國際). Having decided that he didn’t like the terms he had agreed with Tehsu, Yang fired the assistant the agent had assigned to him and hired a lawyer as a go-between. Pop Stop’s advice to the star: don’t overestimate your staying power. Taiwanese consumers are notoriously fickle. Just look at what has happened to Hello Kitty and the craze for egg tarts. Is Yang heading for the same kind of oblivion?
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
It was just before 6am on a sunny November morning and I could hardly contain my excitement as I arrived at the wharf where I would catch the boat to one of Penghu’s most difficult-to-access islands, a trip that had been on my list for nearly a decade. Little did I know, my dream would soon be crushed. Unsure about which boat was heading to Huayu (花嶼), I found someone who appeared to be a local and asked if this was the right place to wait. “Oh, the boat to Huayu’s been canceled today,” she told me. I couldn’t believe my ears. Surely,
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
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