The Hong Kong gossip rags’ obsessive watch over the contents of Carina Lau’s (劉嘉玲) uterus continued unabated over the Lunar New Year holiday. The actress was spotted carrying two big shopping bags from children’s clothing stores, including Baby Dior, and stopping at a bookstore to look for parenting manuals and children’s picture books.
Singtao Daily (星島日報) wondered if Lau was building a layette for her future spawn, even though it appears that her superstar husband Tony Leung (梁朝偉) has yet to impregnate her. The newspaper speculated hopefully that Lau was indulging her baby fever — but pragmatically admitted that she might have been buying holiday presents for the two young daughters of her best friend, fellow Hong Kong star Faye Wong (王菲).
Also getting her bump watched over the holidays, but for completely different reasons, was Golden Horse-winning actress Loletta Lee (李麗珍, also known as Rachel Lee), who in the 1990s was dubbed the “sex goddess of Hong Kong cinema” because of her penchant for disrobing on-screen.
But now the 44-year-old actress’s taut hourglass figure has allegedly become so distorted by the ravages of age that it makes one want to cry, sighs Oriental Sunday (東方新地). Lee was spotted on the street by a photographer, looking so frumpy in a sweater and horn-rimmed glasses that it made the magazine nostalgic for her naked past.
Unflattering sweater aside, Pop Stop thinks Lee looked just fine in the paparazzi shots (if a little annoyed). There is no reason to make the woman neurotic about her weight.
Speaking of neurosis, Taiwanese pop singer and heartthrob Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) had the unfortunate experience of discovering his latent claustrophobia during a recent flight to the US. Hsiao, who the press dubbed the “New King” after just three appearances on One Million Star (超級星光大道) propelled him to pop fame, was traveling to Los Angeles to take voice classes.
On previous flights in economy class, Hsiao would settle in and go straight to sleep, his manager told reporters, but on this flight he had upgraded to pricier seats that give each passenger a small, private cabin of space — and as a result became anxious and fidgety. A full-scale panic attack was averted, however, by a mid-flight showing of Mamma Mia.
Call us cynical, but Pop Stop thinks that the only reason his manager gave the public a glimpse into Hsiao’s newly-uncovered phobia is to make the famously bashful singer seem even more cuddly to his legions of female fans, who no doubt have plenty of ideas about how they would calm the tall, chisel-jawed, raven-locked crooner the next time he finds himself stuck in a tight, secluded space.
Also feeling the squeeze, but financially speaking, is Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (舒淇). The plush-lipped vixen told Xinhua News Agency (新華通訊社) that she has cut her wage demands by 30 percent in response to the dearth of offers since the global economic crisis hit. Some of Shu’s peers are following suit, including Hong Kong actress and singer Josie Ho (何超儀), who disclosed that her earnings for her last job consisted of a hong bao with a token amount tucked inside. But Ho may not have to tighten her purse strings as much as other starlets — her daddy is casino magnate and billionaire Stanley Ho (何鴻燊).
The credit crunch has forced consumers all around the world to cut back on
luxuries and instead find pleasure in simple things, including, it would appear, Mando-pop singer Fish Leong (梁靜茹). The Malaysian songstress was spotted by our sister newspaper, the Liberty Times (自由時報), when she went out for a sushi lunch in Xinyi District with her
paramour, the press shy, bespectacled gentleman known to gossip rags as
just “Tony.”
At one point during the meal, the Liberty Times’ intrepid spy saw Leong excitedly hand a tissue to her beau and exclaim, “I got this pack of really nice tissues, they are beyond soft. See for yourself.” The smitten Tony plucked the delicate sheet from Leong’s slender fingers and tenderly dabbed his mouth with it before going back to making goo-goo eyes at his ladylove. Simple pleasures, indeed.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby