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.
The depressing numbers continue to pile up, like casualty lists after a lost battle. This week, after the government announced the 19th straight month of population decline, the Ministry of the Interior said that Taiwan is expected to lose 6.67 million workers in two waves of retirement over the next 15 years. According to the Ministry of Labor (MOL), Taiwan has a workforce of 11.6 million (as of July). The over-15 population was 20.244 million last year. EARLY RETIREMENT Early retirement is going to make these waves a tsunami. According to the Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the
Many will be surprised to discover that the electoral voting numbers in recent elections do not entirely line up with what the actual voting results show. Swing voters decide elections, but in recent elections, the results offer a different and surprisingly consistent message. And there is one overarching theme: a very democratic preference for balance. SOME CAVEATS Putting a number on the number of swing voters is surprisingly slippery. Because swing voters favor different parties depending on the type of election, it is hard to separate die-hard voters leaning towards one party or the other. Complicating matters is that some voters are
Sept 22 to Sept 28 Hsu Hsih (許石) never forgot the international student gathering he attended in Japan, where participants were asked to sing a folk song from their homeland. When it came to the Taiwanese students, they looked at each other, unable to recall a single tune. Taiwan doesn’t have folk songs, they said. Their classmates were incredulous: “How can that be? How can a place have no folk songs?” The experience deeply embarrassed Hsu, who was studying music. After returning to Taiwan in 1946, he set out to collect the island’s forgotten tunes, from Hoklo (Taiwanese) epics to operatic
Five years ago, on the verge of the first COVID lockdown, I wrote an article asking what seemed to be an extremely niche question: why do some people invert their controls when playing 3D games? A majority of players push down on the controller to make their onscreen character look down, and up to make them look up. But there is a sizable minority who do the opposite, controlling their avatars like a pilot controls a plane, pulling back to go up. For most modern games, this requires going into the settings and reconfiguring the default controls. Why do they
RSS