The hubbub over Zhang Ziyi’s (章子怡) recent sandy sweethearting has prompted considerable moralizing in China. As Pop Stop reported a few weeks back, Zhang and her Israeli fiance, Aviv “Vivi” Nevo, were caught noshing up the beaches of St Barts, a French territory in the Caribbean. A paparazzo snapped pictures of the Memoirs of Geisha and 2046 star in what one blogger from China described as Zhang’s “unpatriotic behavior,” for exposing herself in public so brazenly.
Song Zude (宋組德) blogged that Zhang did this because she was “only interested in her career and money.” Pop Stop must protest. Starlets only expose themselves when their careers are faltering, not when they are at the pinnacle of the celebrity firmament, as Zhang currently is.
Time passes, however, and it seems that nationalistic zeal has taken a backseat to criticism of Zhang’s body — particularly her “tiny” bust size. Which is hardly surprising, given the tabloids’ obsession with this particular part of a woman’s anatomy. This week’s edition of Next Magazine even published a detailed report on why an ageing model wants to have cosmetic surgery done on her breasts. (It’s because they “droop,” if you must know.)
Meanwhile, yWeekend, the online version of the Beijing Youth Daily, caught up with “Fred,” the mystery man from France behind the Zhang photos, who described for readers what he saw.
“Nevo kept rolling his body back and forth. Then he caressed Zhang Ziyi’s back. He caressed it again and again. His hand then slid further and further down. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. It was getting too hot. Then they went into the ocean to swim. My guess was that they got too ‘hot’ and they had to cool down by jumping into the ocean.”
So this is what constitutes steamy behavior: a man and a woman who plan to marry caressing each other on a beach. Fred probably would have had a heart attack if he’d snapped last year’s photos of Edison Chen (陳冠希) with his coterie.
And speaking of marriage, Hong Kong director and one of the “Four Heavenly Kings of Canto-pop” Andy Lau (劉德華) said that Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (舒淇) would be worth marrying because she is good to her family, according to reports in Apple and the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
His comments at a press conference for the release of his new movie Look for a Star (游龍戲鳳) plus a wedding ring on his ring finger predictably sent the assembled gossip hounds into a frenzy. But Lau burst their bubble when he pointed out that the ring was the property of a certain French fashion house and that he and Shu were just old friends.
In other “Heavenly Kings of Cantopop” news, “God of Songs” (歌神) crooner Jacky Cheung (張學友) ended his one-year hiatus from the music industry with a press conference at Hong Kong Disneyland. He said he’ll release a new album, film a movie and hold a concert within the year, according to a report in the Oriental Daily News. He also lamented the lack of solidarity in the music industry and how he was powerless to remedy the situation.
It looks as though pop singer Wen Lan (溫嵐) has hooked up with another woman’s man — again, according to a report in Next. The saga began in July when Wen sent a flurry of text messages to dancer Lin Chun-che (林群哲), who had been in an 11-year relationship with fellow dancer Chen Hsien-he (陳仙禾). Both dancers have collaborated with Wen, and Chen and the singer had been close friends for years. Fast-forward six months and Lin dumps Chen to be with Wen. Par for the course for Lin, really, because the Casanova has allegedly cheated on Chen a number of times.
And finally, no Lunar New Year would be complete without a celebrity prediction. According to a report on Yahoo, a fortune-teller says that Jolin Tsai’s (蔡依林) career will tank this year and that she will be luckless in love because she devotes too much time to her career.
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
It is jarring how differently Taiwan’s politics is portrayed in the international press compared to the local Chinese-language press. Viewed from abroad, Taiwan is seen as a geopolitical hotspot, or “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” as the Economist once blazoned across their cover. Meanwhile, tasked with facing down those existential threats, Taiwan’s leaders are dying their hair pink. These include former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), among others. They are demonstrating what big fans they are of South Korean K-pop sensations Blackpink ahead of their concerts this weekend in Kaohsiung.
Taiwan is one of the world’s greatest per-capita consumers of seafood. Whereas the average human is thought to eat around 20kg of seafood per year, each Taiwanese gets through 27kg to 35kg of ocean delicacies annually, depending on which source you find most credible. Given the ubiquity of dishes like oyster omelet (蚵仔煎) and milkfish soup (虱目魚湯), the higher estimate may well be correct. By global standards, let alone local consumption patterns, I’m not much of a seafood fan. It’s not just a matter of taste, although that’s part of it. What I’ve read about the environmental impact of the
Oct 20 to Oct 26 After a day of fighting, the Japanese Army’s Second Division was resting when a curious delegation of two Scotsmen and 19 Taiwanese approached their camp. It was Oct. 20, 1895, and the troops had reached Taiye Village (太爺庄) in today’s Hunei District (湖內), Kaohsiung, just 10km away from their final target of Tainan. Led by Presbyterian missionaries Thomas Barclay and Duncan Ferguson, the group informed the Japanese that resistance leader Liu Yung-fu (劉永福) had fled to China the previous night, leaving his Black Flag Army fighters behind and the city in chaos. On behalf of the
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