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.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless