For those in the business of singing about love, Valentine’s Day is likely to be more business than love. Stuck in Beijing for a television appearance last Saturday, pop singer A-mei (張惠妹) wasn’t able to celebrate Valentine’s with her beau, Super Basketball League star Sam Ho (何守正), reports The Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper.
During the taping of the Chinese program, A-mei was asked what her ideal Valentine’s would be: “Two people spending the day together, of course.” Perhaps that had the diva rushing to a midnight flight back to Taipei so she could at least make it in time for Ho’s birthday, which happens to be Feb. 15.
Another beloved female songstress, indie singer-turned-star Cheer Chen (陳綺貞), spent Valentine’s dishing out love to Kaohsiung fans at a CD signing event by autographing 1,800 copies of her new album, Immortal (太陽). But Chen’s boyfriend, musician and producer Chung Cheng-hu (鍾成虎), probably didn’t notice, suggests the Liberty Times. He was just as busy fulfilling his duties as manager for Chen’s fellow star Crowd Lu (盧廣仲), who was holding a Valentine’s concert of his own.
And there’s not much love coming Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) way lately, who has suffered a few “injustices” in the eyes of the Apple Daily. The paper reports that Chou and his mother got a bum deal on two luxury apartments totaling 260-ping (860m²) now under construction on Taipei’s Aiguo West Road (愛國西路). Apparently the more than NT$300 million they’re paying is almost twice as much as former first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) paid at the same building. To add fuel to the fire, pop singer Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) has recorded a new song about suffering “betrayal from a boyfriend,” which the Apple Daily presumes is aimed at the Chairman.
But Chou may have his mind on other things, like the silver screen. The Liberty Times published a rumor that Hong Kong action flick director Wilson Yip (葉偉信) wants to cast Chou as Bruce Lee (李小龍) in his next film. Chou’s record company, JVR Music (杰威爾音樂), says it has yet to receive a formal invitation and the singer is already committed to shooting a film this year.
Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based auteur Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) is back from Paris to promote his upcoming film Visages (臉), a film about a Chinese filmmaker who goes to the Louvre to shoot a film about a lurid biblical myth. At a press conference earlier this week, Tsai said the film, which was shot both at the Louvre and in Taipei, would be his “most controversial,” according to the Liberty Times.
But the press were likely more dazzled by the presence of iconic French actress Fanny Ardant, who plays a film producer in Tsai’s movie. Fresh off a plane, a tired and jet-lagged Ardant kicked off her heels during the press conference and said that despite the flight she had already been “conquered” by Taiwan’s charms.
Singer Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) remains tight-lipped about his apparently imminent divorce with actress Annie Yi (伊能靜), who was caught on camera holding hands with Victor Huang (黃維德) last year. Yu dodged questions about the divorce at a charity event for Taiwan’s Deaflympics cycling team earlier this week, speaking only of his bicycling habits as a spokesperson for the team: once or twice a week for two hours on mountain roads and unaccompanied by his son.
Taiwan’s box office smash Cape No. 7 (海角七號) has finally crossed the strait and will be shown in theaters in a censored version with 30 minutes chopped out. The parts that were cut out contained “slang and vulgar language with a uniquely Taiwanese flavor,” reports the Apple Daily. But no reason to fear for our “mainland compatriots” missing out on the good jokes — black market DVDs of the full version are available in China for 5 renminbi (NT$25), says the paper.
— COMPILED BY DAVID CHEN
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One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
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