Appearing in a suggestive advertisement for an online game in which your breasts are shown swaying as you ride an undulating exercise machine can put a wannabe on the fast track to superstardom. That, at least, has been the case for “big-breasted bodacious baby face” (童顏巨乳) Yaoyao (瑤瑤), real name Kuo Shu-yao (郭書瑤), who last week was spotted having a business dinner with representatives from Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate.
Yaoyao’s record company Seed Music (種子音樂) — yes, her debut album is slated to hit record stores next month — said there is indeed a plan for the sex kitten to become a pop star in Japan in the manner of Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄).
Seed Music appears to be on to something. Given the warm reception Yaoyao has received among Taiwan’s zhainan (宅男) community, it is not a stretch to imagine the 19-year-old winning the hearts of Japanese otaku as well.
Meanwhile, former superstar Joey Wang (王祖賢) was in the news again this week after it was reported that the 42-year-old recluse has become a Buddhist nun.
Wang rose to fame after starring in 1987 blockbuster A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) and enjoyed a notable career throughout the 1990s. She retired in 2002 and has led a low-profile life in Canada ever since, where she is said to have donned the habit last month.
Gossip observers think Wang’s sudden ability to “see through the vanity of the secular world” (看破紅塵) has something to do with her two failed relationships. One was a 16-year-long romance with musician Chi Chin (齊秦), the other an extramarital affair with Hong Kong entertainment mogul Peter Lam (林建岳).
One of the few openly gay celebrities in Taiwan has aggravated members of the TV-watching public by referring to homosexuals as niang (娘), the Chinese equivalent of “sissy,” on a popular television show, reports the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Over the past month or so Kevin Tsai (蔡康永) of Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了), which he co-hosts with Little S (小S), has been using the word niang to address gay celebrities such as Kuo Hsin (郭鑫), Ti Chih-chieh (狄志杰) and Hsu Chien-kuo (許建國) when they appear on his show.
Viewers angered by his use of the term, which when used by a stranger is considered demeaning, posted angry comments on the Internet like the following: “The sissy host should think of himself before calling other people sissies.”
In other gay-related news, pop diva A-mei (阿妹), real name Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), will introduce her new persona A-mit (阿密特) to gay fans at a party on July 18 at Riverside Live House (西門紅樓展演館) in Taipei. Unlike A-mei, A-mit is said to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to saccharine ballads and KTV-friendly tunes. Those who have seen A-mit perform say the black-clad rocker screams, hisses and howls, but never croons.
To catch A-mit at Riverside, partygoers have to be biologically male or identified as male on their ID cards, and wear something “rainbowy.”
Professing concern that the star’s female fans will feel left out, A-mit’s record company, Gold Typhoon (金牌大風), promises a women-only A-mit party if the gay pa (gay趴) goes well.
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.
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
It was just before 6am on a sunny November morning and I could hardly contain my excitement as I arrived at the wharf where I would catch the boat to one of Penghu’s most difficult-to-access islands, a trip that had been on my list for nearly a decade. Little did I know, my dream would soon be crushed. Unsure about which boat was heading to Huayu (花嶼), I found someone who appeared to be a local and asked if this was the right place to wait. “Oh, the boat to Huayu’s been canceled today,” she told me. I couldn’t believe my ears. Surely,
This is a deeply unsettling period in Taiwan. Uncertainties are everywhere while everyone waits for a small army of other shoes to drop on nearly every front. During challenging times, interesting political changes can happen, yet all three major political parties are beset with scandals, strife and self-inflicted wounds. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is held accountable for not only the challenges to the party, but also the nation. Taiwan is geopolitically and economically under threat. Domestically, the administration is under siege by the opposition-controlled legislature and growing discontent with what opponents characterize as arrogant, autocratic
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