One would think that after having his most intimate moments splashed across countless tabloids, his genitalia picked apart in minute detail by thousands, if not millions of strangers, and gangsters threaten him with mutilation (or worse), Edison Chen (陳冠希) would be happy to hole up in a monastery and dedicate himself to a lifetime of celibacy. But, no.
Hong Kong gossip rag Oriental Sunday (東方新地) reports that the pop star, who is gradually emerging from his self-imposed exile, enjoyed a hot night out in Malaysia a few days before arriving in Taiwan on Tuesday. Chen was in Kuala Lumpur for the grand opening of his clothing store and celebrated afterwards by throwing a bash at a nightclub, where he was photographed with scantily-clad revelers clinging to him, despite a strict ban on cameras at the party. Apparently, female guests had managed to stuff mini-cameras down their (presumably just as tiny) panties to take souvenir photos with Chen.
The Hong Kong actor and singer spent the early part of the evening chatting with his male friends and studiously avoiding contact with the opposite sex. But a few drinks later, he was unable to resist temptation and, judging by his wide grin in the snaps, didn’t mind being photographed in the act.
A few days later, Chen (and his four bodyguards), looking none the worse for wear, discreetly arrived in Taipei to film a commercial for a certain brand of jeans. Ironically (or perhaps intentionally), the clothing company that hired him also counts Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) among its roster of celebrity models. Followers of Chen’s sexcapades might remember that Tsai was briefly sucked into the photo scandal when pictures of a woman resembling the pop singer in a compromising position found their way onto the Internet. The lingerie-clad beauty was dismissed as a look-alike, but Tsai continued to battle rumors that she’d made sex videos with Chen, a rumored ex-boyfriend. Gossip rags reported that the two will not be appearing in commercials together anytime soon.
Despite Chen’s recent efforts, the Liberty Times [the Taipei Times’ sister paper] somewhat prudishly speculated that the shots from Malaysia might undo his attempts at rehabilitation in the Hong Kong media. He can take heart that the gossip rags there might be too busy, however, with their strange and somewhat morbid fascination with the miscarriages (real and alleged) of female stars. The glossies, which breathlessly covered pop queen Faye Wong’s (王菲) miscarriage last year, are now targeting actress and singer (and former Chen paramour) Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝), who they say lost what would have been her second child with husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒).
A Hong Kong news outlet said that the star has been depressed since the alleged miscarriage and refuses to leave the house. But Tse and his mother both angrily denied the rumors. In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, Tse snapped to a reporter, “if my wife were pregnant, don’t you think I would know?”
In somewhat happier news, Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) and her venture capitalist fiance Aviv Nevo are still very much in love, even though the two have no time to get married. The peripatetic duo had originally planned to get hitched next month on a private island in Italy, but have now postponed their nuptials indefinitely because of their work obligations. The Liberty Times reported that Zhang gave an interview last year to a Chinese newspaper where she expressed some trepidation about matrimony, despite her happy relationship. “What do you do if the marriage goes wrong?” she asked. “I want mine to last a lifetime, because the person I am with is wonderful.”
Zhang and Nevo may still be going strong, but it seems that Taiwanese-American basketball star James Mao (毛加恩) and model Bianca Bai (白歆惠) have finally split for good. Tittle-tattle has been rife about the status of the duo’s (known collectively in the media as Bai Mao, or white fur) on-off relationship, but Mao seemed eager to proclaim his single status at a nightclub last weekend, reports NOWnews. He was cavorting with an assortment of lamei (辣妹), or hot chicks, allegedly nibbling on one lady’s ears. The 196cm tall Mao had to stoop to talk to many of his admirers, but NOWnews cheekily reported that he stooped so low — figuratively and literally — that his eyeballs were hovering mere centimeters away from his conversation partners’ buntlines.
Bai’s reaction? “Whatever,” she said. “If that’s what makes him happy, then that’s fine.” She added that she’s so busy shooting a new movie she barely has time to think about her ex and his earlobe-loving ways.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government in May last year agreed to allow the activation of a spent fuel storage facility for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門). The deal ended eleven years of legal wrangling. According to the Taipower announcement, the city government engaged in repeated delays, failing to approve water and soil conservation plans. Taipower said at the time that plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) remained stuck in legal limbo. Later that year an agreement was reached
What does the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) era stand for? What sets it apart from their allies, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? With some shifts in tone and emphasis, the KMT’s stances have not changed significantly since the late 2000s and the era of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) current platform formed in the mid-2010s under the guidance of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and current President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity. Though their ideological stances may be a bit stale, they have the advantage of being broadly understood by the voters.
In a high-rise office building in Taipei’s government district, the primary agency for maintaining links to Thailand’s 108 Yunnan villages — which are home to a population of around 200,000 descendants of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) armies stranded in Thailand following the Chinese Civil War — is the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). Established in China in 1926, the OCAC was born of a mandate to support Chinese education, culture and economic development in far flung Chinese diaspora communities, which, especially in southeast Asia, had underwritten the military insurgencies against the Qing Dynasty that led to the founding of
It’s fairly well established that strength training is helpful at every age: as well as building muscle, it strengthens tendons and ligaments, increases bone density and seems to have protective effects against everything from osteoporosis to dementia. But a new study based on data collected over two decades in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, suggests that another physical attribute might be just as important — and it’s one that declines even faster than strength as the years go by. The good news? It might also be less uncomfortable, and even slightly safer, to improve. Also, it will probably make you better
RSS