Fresh from being crowned the “king” of the Mando-pop charts, Jay Chou (周杰倫) was unceremoniously usurped last week by Mayday (五月天). The pretty-boy rockers announced that sales of their latest release Poetry of the Day After (後青春期的詩) totaled over 1.3 million copies, and noted that they edged past the Chairman’s Capricorn (魔杰座), which just broke the 1 million mark.
Chou’s record company JVR Music (杰威爾音樂) took the announcement as a dig. Instead of congratulating the competition, the company issued a long-winded, huffy response that ended with, “there’s no need to brag,” reports the Liberty Times [the Taipei Times’ sister paper].
The hoopla left Mayday’s lead singer, A-hsin (阿信), exasperated. “[Chou] is using Rubik’s Cubes [to sell records], we’re doing concerts — it’s a lot more tiring,” said A-hsin, referring to the Rubik’s Cubes plastered with Chou’s face that are being offered as a freebie with his new album. But he quickly composed himself. “Whoever’s number one is not important. The most important thing is for everyone to have good sales.” That is, just as long as Jay isn’t number one ...
Only the Apple Daily can turn a pop idol’s mundane shopping trip into a lost-love-drove-her-to-drink-narrative. One of the paper’s ace reporters spotted Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) at the Breeze Center’s (微風廣場) supermarket, where the 28-year-old singer was looking for a bottle of wine. Since Hsiao appeared “melancholic” and was lingering in the alcohol section, she obviously intended to drown her sorrows over male heartthrob model Leandro (李安卓), who got “snatched” out of her arms by model Liu Zhen (劉真).
Hsiao’s agent insists that Leandro is “just a friend” and Hsiao has plenty of prospective beaus lined up at the door — she just “hasn’t made her decision” yet. As for the wine, Hsiao and her mother regularly enjoy a nightcap. And who doesn’t? The photos accompanying the Apple Daily article are worthy of mention for the play-by-play captions that would make any stalker proud.
8:43pm: The store manager shows Hsiao a bottle of wine. 8:45pm: Hsiao is pictured with her brother, and she’s using a credit card to buy a bottle of red wine, which costs NT$2,100. 8:52pm: She’s in the Fendi store. She’s been looking at bags for what seems like an eternity. But in the end, she didn’t buy one.
German film director Wim Wenders was seen wandering the streets of Taipei earlier this week, on a visit with young filmmaker Arvin Chen (陳駿霖) [see Highlight on Page 15]; The director of Paris, Texas and Buena Vista Social Club is serving as executive producer for Chen’s upcoming film First Page Taipei (一頁台北). The Liberty Times reports that Wenders’ hosts took him to the Shida night market (師大夜市), where they frequently lost sight of the auteur, only to find him photographing scenes that caught his eye: a hardware store; an NT$10 discount store; and elderly shopkeepers.
A night market is an unlikely place to spot Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki, who performs tomorrow and Sunday at Taipei Arena. But if the demanding pop diva makes any public appearances, her assistants will have to be ready for anything — and that could mean having a toilet brush at hand.
A China Times article earlier this month relayed this past tale: on an outdoor photo shoot, Hamasaki told a male assistant she had to go to the bathroom. His immediate response was to find the nearest public toilet, scrub it clean, and make sure the coast was clear so the pop princess could have the facilities to herself.
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
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