The Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎) handed out yearly laurels to the kings and queens of television on Friday of last week. Bickering and catfights promptly ensued, giving the world a glimpse into the alliances and feuds among the glitterati.
Entertainment host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) waxed ecstatic when he was named best variety-entertainment show host for Guess Show (我猜我猜我猜猜猜) with co-hostess Aya (阿雅). Awarded the top honor for the very first time during his 20-year career, Wu did five push-ups out of sheer excitement on stage.
Things turned sour, though, when the funnyman was asked on Monday whether he felt intimidated by the comeback of Chang Hsiao-yen (張小燕). Long revered as the godmother of television, Chang’s new family-entertainment show Million Dollar Class (百萬小學堂) hit the airwaves about one month ago.
Not known for his discretion, Wu confidently replied: “Didn’t she withdraw from the leader’s circle already?”
But Wu seemed to have calmed down the next day, since he offered to attend Chang’s show for a special discounted fee as a gesture of reconciliation.
No sooner had shopping channel hostess-turned-star Li Jing (利菁) walked home with her first Golden Bell trophy as the best host in the category of singing entertainment for Super Idol (超級偶像) than the person who presented her the award, Pauline Lan (藍心湄), in a bit of backstage sniping, questioned the coarse-voiced lady’s suitability for hosting a singing contest show.
“I am not a lesser singer than she [Lan] is,” Li said in response to Lan’s criticism, according to the Apple Daily. “I can put together a record album to prove it.”
Pop Stop thinks the transsexual hostess would make better use of her time and public stature by fighting for the rights of her fellow transgenders in Taiwan.
In other gong-related news, the Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) revealed its nomination list last week. Heartthrob Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) was listed as a nominee for the best Taiwanese film worker of the year — for about seven hours. Takeshi isn’t ineligible because he’s a Japanese national.
Also caught in controversy is another nominee of Japanese nationality, Chie Tanaka. Nominated for the best newcomer for her performance in Cape No. 7 (海角七號), Tanaka’s eligibility was questioned because she has already played small roles in such films as Initial D (頭文字D).
Organizers said Tanaka wouldn’t be scratched from the list, but they promised to make the rules clearer next year.
Pop Stop suspects Tanaka is getting preferential treatment because Cape No. 7 beat Hollywood films at the box office and grossed more than NT$450 million.
The movie has also made its director, Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), a very popular man, but, according to unsourced rumors reported by Apple Daily, journalists have been muttering that Wei’s success has gone to his head. Why? Apparently it’s because he doesn’t always answer his phone when they call him.
Wei responded by saying that he’s still getting to used to going from being a nobody to a somebody in less than two months.
“Once I put aside my phone for five minutes and there were 18 missed calls,” Wu was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily.
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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