Last week, the results of the 2009 Miss Asia Pageant were announced and the dust is yet to settle over the upset that saw favorite Erica Liu (劉伊心) relegated to fourth place. To add insult to injury, she was pipped to the post for a top-three place by rival Hsu Chia-huei ( 許嘉惠), who took third. Hsu, 21 years old and still a student, had been defeated by Liu in the Taiwan district qualifiers.
Liu, a professional model and winner of the 2007 International Bikini Queen competition, wept when the results were read out. Apple Daily quoted her as saying, “I have always won first or second in the past.”
First place was taken by Chinese contestant Xu Ying (許瑩), with second place taken by 26-year-old Hong Kong/Macau contestant Wang Xiyao (王希瑤). Allegations of breast enhancement surgery have been made against Wang, in response to which Liu said her own 34Ds were the real deal.
Both the first and third place winners were less well endowed than Liu, a fact that seems to have utterly bowled over Taiwanese media. Could it be that cup size isn’t the ultimate arbiter of beauty?
Last week, Taipei councilman Hou Kuan-chun (侯冠群) made accusations of sexual harassment against a police officer who had conducted a Breathalyzer test on a then unnamed celebrity. On Tuesday, Kelly Kuo (郭靜純) identified herself as the person whom the policeman had asked, presumably salaciously, to “get down and give it a blow” (妳先下來吹一下).
Kuo said that as a married woman she had been unwilling to be identified, but had subsequently felt that she was not the only woman to face this kind of harassment, and by getting the incident noticed in the media, she could help prevent this happening to others.
The shock waves from Mark Chao’s (趙又廷) unexpected victory at the Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎) continue to reverberate this week with the accusation that his tearful acceptance of the award, which had been expected to go to Vic Chou (周渝民), the more experienced member of the Black & White (痞子英雄) cop shop duo, had all been an act. If so, it is tempting to suggest that it was a much better one than anything seen on set.
Rumors that Chao’s friendship with Chou had suffered following the awards ceremony and that the planned feature film version of Black & White is in jeopardy starring the two original leads only fed speculation. Midweek reports in the United Daily News and other media suggested that the two were in contact via MSN, but their relationship is under close scrutiny for any signs of further tension.
Moving from work to play, it seems that while starlet Pei Lin (裴琳), now out of rehab, might have kicked the magic dragon, Next Magazine confirms with a slew of grainy late-night photos that she’s still a girl who wants to have fun. These days, though, the high jinks are fueled by alcohol. The magazine says that she has already lost two jobs, one as a co-host for Go Go Japan and the other on the TTV drama Niang Jia (娘家), because of alcohol-related issues. Scenes of simulated sex on the roadside and a vicious physical attack against a suspected romantic rival for the attentions of Go Go Japan host Toku (李育德) have done nothing for her reputation, but certainly have ensured plenty of column inches.
Another celebrity who can’t seem to keep on the straight and narrow is Suzanne Hsiao (蕭淑慎), who is back in the news for all the wrong reasons. While many of the stars caught up in the spate of celebrity drug busts in late 2007 have bounced back to achieve even greater success in the entertainment industry, Hsiao has kept a low profile, but is now suspected of drug use once again. Next reports that the former beauty, now 11kg heavier than in her glory days, tested positive for Class 2 drugs after visiting a clinic for tests following an abortion last month. She claims the positive drug tests are the result of using anti-depressants, but if this claim proves as hollow as previous excuses, she’ll be looking at some real jail time for what would be her third drug offense.
Google unveiled an artificial intelligence tool Wednesday that its scientists said would help unravel the mysteries of the human genome — and could one day lead to new treatments for diseases. The deep learning model AlphaGenome was hailed by outside researchers as a “breakthrough” that would let scientists study and even simulate the roots of difficult-to-treat genetic diseases. While the first complete map of the human genome in 2003 “gave us the book of life, reading it remained a challenge,” Pushmeet Kohli, vice president of research at Google DeepMind, told journalists. “We have the text,” he said, which is a sequence of
On a harsh winter afternoon last month, 2,000 protesters marched and chanted slogans such as “CCP out” and “Korea for Koreans” in Seoul’s popular Gangnam District. Participants — mostly students — wore caps printed with the Chinese characters for “exterminate communism” (滅共) and held banners reading “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party” (天滅中共). During the march, Park Jun-young, the leader of the protest organizer “Free University,” a conservative youth movement, who was on a hunger strike, collapsed after delivering a speech in sub-zero temperatures and was later hospitalized. Several protesters shaved their heads at the end of the demonstration. A
Every now and then, even hardcore hikers like to sleep in, leave the heavy gear at home and just enjoy a relaxed half-day stroll in the mountains: no cold, no steep uphills, no pressure to walk a certain distance in a day. In the winter, the mild climate and lower elevations of the forests in Taiwan’s far south offer a number of easy escapes like this. A prime example is the river above Mudan Reservoir (牡丹水庫): with shallow water, gentle current, abundant wildlife and a complete lack of tourists, this walk is accessible to nearly everyone but still feels quite remote.
In August of 1949 American journalist Darrell Berrigan toured occupied Formosa and on Aug. 13 published “Should We Grab Formosa?” in the Saturday Evening Post. Berrigan, cataloguing the numerous horrors of corruption and looting the occupying Republic of China (ROC) was inflicting on the locals, advocated outright annexation of Taiwan by the US. He contended the islanders would welcome that. Berrigan also observed that the islanders were planning another revolt, and wrote of their “island nationalism.” The US position on Taiwan was well known there, and islanders, he said, had told him of US official statements that Taiwan had not
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