There’s nothing like a strong comeback, and Chu Ko Liang’s (豬哥亮) return to form after over a decade on the run from creditors is as spectacular as could be hoped for. Recording for his new variety show Chu Ko Hui She (豬哥會社) for FTV (民視) began this week, with co-host Rene Hou (侯怡君). Suggestions that he would present the program alongside Little Pig (小豬) (also known as Alan Luo or Show Luo, 羅志祥), who is a self-professed admirer of Chu Ko Liang and has imitated his acting style, came to nothing because of conflicting schedules.
Chu Ko Hui She is expected to be a massive hit, and Chu Ko Liang, despite his decade out of the limelight, has gone straight to the top, commanding NT$300,000 an episode. According to Yam News, Chu Ko Liang’s payment is only marginally less than top earner Chang Fei (張菲), who gets NT$320,000 an episode for his Variety Big Brother (綜藝大哥大) program. Responding to this report, Chang said he thought Chu Ko Liang should be paid twice as much, because his talent, having matured over 10 years, would now be like a bottle of old wine: all the better for having been put aside.
Next Magazine also reported this week that Chu Ko Liang has agreed to become the spokesman for the Web-based game AC Online (明星三缺一). According to Next, game operator International Game Systems has been trying to get Little S (小S) to take over spokesperson duties from Stephanie Hsiao (蕭薔) for the last three years, but has been turned down because the game has associations with gambling. Little S, also known as Dee Hsu (徐熙娣), is quoted as saying she feared any connection with the game would tarnish her reputation. Chu Ko Liang, who is still in the process of paying off his gambling debts, seems to have no such qualms, and has pocketed the NT$4 million endorsement. Next calculates that in the three months since he returned to show biz, Chu Ko Liang has signed contracts worth a total of NT$9.6 million. Nice work, if you can get it.
While Chu Ko Liang is working hard to revive his bank balance, martial arts superstar Jackie Chan (成龍) is trying hard to give away his money, saying that he wants to achieve a personal bank balance of zero. According to a report in the United Daily News, Chan had already donated half his assets to charity 10 years ago, only retaining the other half because he was still responsible for his son Jaycee Chan (房祖名) and a number of employees.
He has also announced that he will donate three historic buildings (one to three centuries old) in Taipei County to the government for the establishment of a Jackie Chan Historic Building Display Center (成龍古建築展示區). In conjunction with this donation, Taipei County Government plans to build a Jackie Chan Film Museum (成龍電影展覽館). According to Taipei County’s tourism chief, Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠), the museum will hold a collection of props from Chan’s movies, and possibly also his collection of red wine.
At a rather less elevated level, Little S has shown just how far she is willing to go to top up her coffers, without tarnishing her reputation, by having picked up an endorsement contract for Summer’s Eve, a brand of feminine hygiene products. The actress, who is known for her uninhibited manner, opened the product launch Tuesday with the words: “Good afternoon, I have the best vagina in Taiwan” (各位好，我是台灣第一私處).
According to a report in Sina.com, she said that as someone who often wore extremely tight-fitting clothes for her work, she had experienced considerable benefits from using the firm’s cleansing wipes and washes. Such were the benefits, she added, that when kissing her now, her husband didn’t know where he should start. The endorsement is said to be worth NT$3 million.
From the last quarter of 2001, research shows that real housing prices nearly tripled (before a 2012 law to enforce housing price registration, researchers tracked a few large real estate firms to estimate housing price behavior). Incomes have not kept pace, though this has not yet led to defaults. Instead, an increasing chunk of household income goes to mortgage payments. This suggests that even if incomes grow, the mortgage squeeze will still make voters feel like their paychecks won’t stretch to cover expenses. The housing price rises in the last two decades are now driving higher rents. The rental market
July 21 to July 27 If the “Taiwan Independence Association” (TIA) incident had happened four years earlier, it probably wouldn’t have caused much of an uproar. But the arrest of four young suspected independence activists in the early hours of May 9, 1991, sparked outrage, with many denouncing it as a return to the White Terror — a time when anyone could be detained for suspected seditious activity. Not only had martial law been lifted in 1987, just days earlier on May 1, the government had abolished the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist
When life gives you trees, make paper. That was one of the first thoughts to cross my mind as I explored what’s now called Chung Hsing Cultural and Creative Park (中興文化創意園區, CHCCP) in Yilan County’s Wujie Township (五結). Northeast Taiwan boasts an abundance of forest resources. Yilan County is home to both Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area (太平山國家森林遊樂區) — by far the largest reserve of its kind in the country — and Makauy Ecological Park (馬告生態園區, see “Towering trees and a tranquil lake” in the May 13, 2022 edition of this newspaper). So it was inevitable that industrial-scale paper making would
Hualien lawmaker Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) is the prime target of the recall campaigns. They want to bring him and everything he represents crashing down. This is an existential test for Fu and a critical symbolic test for the campaigners. It is also a crucial test for both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a personal one for party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫). Why is Fu such a lightning rod? LOCAL LORD At the dawn of the 2020s, Fu, running as an independent candidate, beat incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and a KMT candidate to return to the legislature representing
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