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.
Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 508 meters, Taipei 101 dominates the skyline. The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. Tomorrow morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo style — without ropes or protective equipment. And Netflix will broadcast it — live. The event’s announcement has drawn both excitement and trepidation, as well as some concerns over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavor on live broadcast. Many have questioned Honnold’s desire to continues his free-solo climbs now that he’s a
As Taiwan’s second most populous city, Taichung looms large in the electoral map. Taiwanese political commentators describe it — along with neighboring Changhua County — as Taiwan’s “swing states” (搖擺州), which is a curious direct borrowing from American election terminology. In the early post-Martial Law era, Taichung was referred to as a “desert of democracy” because while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was winning elections in the north and south, Taichung remained staunchly loyal to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). That changed over time, but in both Changhua and Taichung, the DPP still suffers from a “one-term curse,” with the
Jan. 26 to Feb. 1 Nearly 90 years after it was last recorded, the Basay language was taught in a classroom for the first time in September last year. Over the following three months, students learned its sounds along with the customs and folktales of the Ketagalan people, who once spoke it across northern Taiwan. Although each Ketagalan settlement had its own language, Basay functioned as a common trade language. By the late 19th century, it had largely fallen out of daily use as speakers shifted to Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), surviving only in fragments remembered by the elderly. In
Lines between cop and criminal get murky in Joe Carnahan’s The Rip, a crime thriller set across one foggy Miami night, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Damon and Affleck, of course, are so closely associated with Boston — most recently they produced the 2024 heist movie The Instigators there — that a detour to South Florida puts them, a little awkwardly, in an entirely different movie landscape. This is Miami Vice territory or Elmore Leonard Land, not Southie or The Town. In The Rip, they play Miami narcotics officers who come upon a cartel stash house that Lt. Dane Dumars (Damon)
RSS