Taiwan’s top supermodel Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) has the media abuzz over a rumored engagement to Scott Qiu (邱士楷), the son of a toilet magnate. The rumor emerged when Lin was spotted at an awards ceremony last month sporting a diamond ring, reports the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Lin’s mother, Wu Tzi-mei (吳慈美), emphatically denied the reports, even though Qiu has made numerous appearances with Lin in public, including a late-evening hot pot date. This isn’t the first time marriage rumors have surfaced for Lin, whose past romances are said to include Chinese billionaire Yang Linchuan (楊林川) and singer Jerry Yan (言承旭).
The public obsession with Cape No. 7 (海角七號) continues, but the attention has backfired slightly for the homegrown box office hit’s lead actor, Van Fan (范逸臣). The Amis pop singer has been slapped with some unwelcome comparisons this week to Hong Kong singer-actor Edison Chen (陳冠希) on Internet discussion boards, reports the Liberty Times. No, Van Fan hasn’t been filming his sexual exploits with fellow celebrities, but has been accused of plagiarism: on a poster promoting one of his upcoming concerts, Van Fan strikes a pose that resembles a past jeans advertisement featuring Chen.
Van Fan’s label, Forward Music (豐華唱片), says any similarities are a complete coincidence, and that the photo on the poster was chosen out of several thousand from a recent shoot. The accusations are unlikely to faze Van Fan, who was once rumored to be a possible replacement for Chen in the upcoming film Jump (跳出去). The film, which is being co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Stephen Chow’s (周星馳) company Star Overseas, axed the Hong Kong actor’s scenes following his “sex photo scandal.” Van Fan’s agent denies any knowledge of a potential role, however, and says the singer is sticking to concerts this month.
Meanwhile, death metal band Chthonic (閃靈) continues to enjoy international attention after its tour of Europe and the US last year. The group says that it is now being courted by record labels in Finland, the US, the UK and Germany to release its upcoming album, Mirror of Retribution, with the highest offer totaling tens of millions of NT dollars. But Taiwan’s renowned headbangers, who have another international tour planned for next year, are not rushing into any deals at the moment, saying that “there are many things to consider.”
Chthonic’s lead singer, Freddy Lim (林昶佐), has chimed in about Guns N’ Roses’ provocatively titled new album, Chinese Democracy, which has been officially banned in China. In an interview with Reuters, Lin said, “I think Guns N’ Roses’ new album shows the true rock spirit of the rock artist, of the rock culture, because we have to speak out loud our beliefs and our faith. If we believe in democracy, we believe in freedom, we should just speak out loud. Guns N’ Roses has made a perfect example.”
And as the belts tighten with the global recession, Pop Stop concludes this week with a look at how a few performers are faring in these challenging times.
William So (蘇永康) might have to think about moving to smaller venues. The Hong Kong pop singer filled about 3,000 seats at the National Taiwan University Sports Center (台大綜合體育館) last week — just over half of the stadium’s capacity.
“Reality” show pop idol Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) has no qualms about footing a NT$600,000 dental bill for his brother and sister, says a Liberty Times report, but as for himself? According to Hsiao’s manager, he constantly compares prices for tissues and in shopping for a piano, his first stop was a second-hand shop. On his own dentist visits, the pop crooner travels the extra distance just to save NT$7 in processing fees.
For her show last week at the Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋), singer and actress Rene Liu (劉若英) spent NT$2 million on six different costumes (which didn’t reveal much more than her shoulders, to the disappointment of the Liberty Times’ concert reviewer). And that figure doesn’t appear to include the five Austin Minis that circled the stadium for one of her songs.
And Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) will still be laughing all the way to the bank. According to the Apple Daily, the pop starlet is reportedly ready to sign a deal with Warner Music that would exceed the value of her previous two-year contract with EMI, which was a cool NT$120 million.
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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