VIEW THIS PAGE Hong Kong singers Jill Vidal (衛詩) and Kelvin Kwan (關楚耀) were arrested in Tokyo on Feb. 24 over alleged possession of cannabis, according to a report in Sina.com earlier this week.
The arrest allegedly came after the pair was busted for shoplifting at a discount shop and getting into a verbal altercation with an employee. When the cops arrived they searched Kwan and reportedly discovered a joint.
The two celebs, both of whom have taken part in anti-drug campaigns, remain in custody as of press time and face a maximum five-year prison sentence and could be barred from Japan. But what shocks Pop Stop most is that it took so long for the paparazzi to break the story.
Celebs busted for drugs may be old hat in Taiwan, which has seen starlets such as Suzanne Hsiao (蕭淑慎) repeatedly caught using cocaine and ketamine, but the Kelvin/Jill bust got Hong Kong in a tizzy. Perhaps this will provide some relief from the ongoing Edison Chen (陳冠希) sex scandal that continues to make headlines. Don’t count on it though.
Last Friday, a Hong Kong actress caught up in the Internet sex photo scandal finally spoke with the media about the incident in a two-part interview with Hong Kong network i-Cable, the first segment of which was a tirade against the luckless lothario Chen. Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) said during the interview that since the scandal broke, she has taken to writing a diary about her youthful transgressions, which she plans to give her son when he turns 18. Let’s hope it doesn’t serve as a guidebook for the young man.
“I’m sure he’ll be very understanding by the time he is 18 years old,” she said, implying that he is not very understanding now.
A better course for Cheung, Pop Stop suggests, would be to take a page out of Canto-pop singer and actress Niki Chow’s (周麗淇) book. Chow plans to release a work teaching people how to recycle, according to a report in the Oriental Daily. Perhaps Cheung could pen a book on protecting endangered species or, better yet, produce a guide on sexual mores for distribution by the Singaporean government.
Anyway, the second part of the Cheung interview has itself become grist for the rumor mill because Cheung insists that i-Cable not broadcast it.
Unsurprisingly, and in an ironic twist of history repeating itself, the contents of the second part were leaked on to the Internet. In a case, however, of history not repeating itself, it was mostly mundane chatter about how the case has affected Cheung’s family.
Back home, Jay Chou
(周杰倫) is packing on the pounds, according to a report in the United Daily News. The Chairman was in southern Taiwan filming a television drama when fans said they couldn’t help but notice that the crooner has beefed up. Perhaps he ate too much cake for his 30th birthday celebration, which just passed.
In a gesture of love that would make any parent proud, Chou celebrated his birthday with his mother, grandmother and 800 fans. And what did Chou want for his birthday? A limited-edition Lamborghini Reventon. Price tag: NT$44 million. VIEW THIS PAGE
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