It’s been how many months since Edison Chen’s (陳冠希) said he would leave the Hong Kong entertainment industry forever? That was in February, and there are already rumors that he is angling for a ticket back. According to a report on Sina.com (新浪網), director Andrew Lau (劉偉強)of Infernal Affairs (無間道) fame might be prevailed upon to give the lad a helping hand. The two developed a friendship during the making of Lau’s groundbreaking trilogy. Interest in Chen spiked slightly after he appeared in the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight, albeit for just two seconds, but do we really want him back so soon? Watch this space.
Taiwan’s favorite supermodel Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) showed her quality on Wednesday when attending Catwalk’s (凱渥) 2nd Star of Your Dreams (第二屆凱渥夢幻之星) modeling competition. (Catwalk is Taiwan’s most influential modeling agency.) And Apple Daily showed its quality yesterday by using the lead paragraph of its story on this event to note that Lin sports a cup size of 34C and that she was wearing a NT$9,810,000 necklace. Loosely translated, the headline yesterday read “Massive tits overawe aspiring models.” You can always be sure Apple Daily will give you the key points at a glace.
But back on the subject of Lin, she has shown that she can take the rough with the smooth. News that her gig as the host of CCTV’s Mid-Autumn Festival variety show had been nixed broke earlier this week, but local media angling for a big response were disappointed. Speculation abounds that this last-minute casting change is the result of Lin’s father expressing himself rather too freely in support of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). Lin played it cool, taking the responsibility onto herself, saying that she had been too busy to prepare for the task sufficiently well, and that she hoped that in future she’d have another chance to host the program. End of story. Then again, perhaps she was simply embodying the philosophy with which she encouraged the competition’s participants: “The job of a model is to make everybody happy,” she said in her speech to the competitors. Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell may beg to differ.
The skies above Taiwan may not be safe for very much longer. Variety host Zhang Fei (張菲) has taken up flying. He has just spent NT$5 million on purchasing a light aircraft of his own, but has been practicing using a friend’s. Having clocked up a grand total of 25 hours of flying time, he has told the media that he now aims to start a flying school. And Pop Stop thought the streets of Taipei were dangerous. According to the Apple Daily, he has already been in touch with the Civil Aeronautics Administration to establish better regulations for recreational flying in Taiwan.
When asked why he had taken up flying, the debonair show host quipped: “It’s the only way to keep above Taiwan’s plummeting share market.”
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
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
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) attendance at the Chinese Communist Party’s (CPP) “Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” parade in Beijing is infuriating, embarrassing and insulting to nearly everyone in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s friends and allies. She is also ripping off bandages and pouring salt into old wounds. In the process she managed to tie both the KMT and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into uncomfortable knots. The KMT continues to honor their heroic fighters, who defended China against the invading Japanese Empire, which inflicted unimaginable horrors on the
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
RSS