Gangsters, gambling, a decade on the lam, a career comeback and now a mystery child: Chu Ko Liang’s (豬哥亮) life is the stuff of soap opera.
For those who have hibernating, Chu Ko Liang rose to stardom and wealth in the 1980s as a stand-up comedian. Off stage, however, he racked up gambling debts to underworld figures and is said to have owed his boss, Yang Tang-kuei (楊登魁), NT$120 million.
So Chu Ko Liang did what any debtor might do and went into hiding, breaking his contract with Yang.
Fast forward to February of this year, when intrepid Apple Daily photographers caught up with Chu Ko Liang in southern Taiwan, where he was reportedly working at a temple. Fellow entertainers Yu Tien (余天) and Kao Ling-feng (高凌風) called for his return to television so that Chu Ko Liang could wipe the slate clean.
Yu brokered a meeting between Yang and Chu, and according to the China Times, the former knocked 80 percent off the total owed, leaving the funnyman with NT$24 million to pay back.
The deal stipulated that Chu Ko Liang, whose disloyalty seems to have been forgotten, has to give Yang 20 percent of his earnings until he clears the lot. He now receives NT$300,000 per show for his new program, Chu Ko Hui She (豬哥會社).
It remains unclear how Chu Ko Liang will repay his other debts.
This past week, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) snapped pictures of Chu Ko Liang’s daughter, singer Jeannie Hsieh (謝金燕), with a boy, identity unknown.
Hsieh later revealed that the 12-year-old was her son, which means she became pregnant at roughly the time her father disappeared.
And who is the father? The Liberty Times speculated that he is none other than Yang Chung-hsien (楊宗憲), Yang Tang-kuei’s son, as the pair were rumored to be an item at the time. The elder Yang reportedly objected to the
relationship because Chu Ko Liang owed him so much money.
When asked why she kept her son out of the public gaze, Hsieh said that any news about her family would invariably mention debt and gangsters.
Chu Ko Liang, meanwhile, said he couldn’t be happier that he is a grandfather and wants to meet the child, and Hsieh, as soon as possible. He also said he hopes that the father is Yang Chung-hsien.
A public reunion is planned.
What does it all mean? Increased TV ratings, for one. The added attention was matched by a jump in viewers for Chu Ko Liang’s show.
In more mundane news, the public marital problems between singer Rachel Fu (傅天穎) and Charles Chen (陳子強) reached a crescendo over the weekend when Fu was admitted to hospital after allegedly slashing her wrist.
According to United Daily News, she showed up at the hospital with a 3cm-long wound on her wrist and smelling of alcohol. Cue innuendo that she tried to take her own life because Chen is rumored to have played away from home.
Fu later denied reports that she had tried to commit suicide, and said she had fallen down and cut herself on broken glass.
When contacted by reporters for comment, Chen said, “She has to be responsible for her own actions,” a response that, needless to say, didn’t endear him to observers.
Perhaps Chen should have shown the kind of remorse that Chu Ko Liang specializes in and blubbered in front of the camera for forgiveness.
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