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.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s