A kiss wasn’t just a kiss for Chinese fans of Alan Luo (羅志祥), aka Little Pig (小豬), who has been in Hangzhou filming the CTS drama series Hi My Sweetheart (海派甜心).
Admirers watching the shoot got into a tizzy during one scene in which co-star Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) forces Luo into a passionate kiss. Some of the 40 fans “wailed” and started to cry as they watched Yang plant her lips upon Luo’s. The reaction startled Yang, who tried to assure the distressed fans by telling them, “We’re just like siblings, please
don’t misunderstand.”
But it took Little Pig to bring about quiet on the set. “Be good,” he said. “Your husband [honey] (老公) is filming right now. You can’t get upset with Rainie over this.”
That soothed his admirers, who obediently fell silent, but not Yang. She was visibly “frightened” and made sure to apologize to the fans before later kissing scenes, according to the Taipei Times’ sister paper, the Liberty Times.
Rumors have resurfaced of a romance between actress and high society belle Terri Kwan (關穎) and pop star heartthrob Jerry Yan (言承旭), as the two were reported to have spent a romantic getaway in Koh Samui last week.
Mobbed by reporters at Taoyuan International Airport last weekend, Yan only smiled when asked if he and Kwan had “secretly met” in Thailand. Yan and Kwan’s managers also dodged similar questions.
Speculation has see-sawed about a Yan-Kwan relationship ever since the two met at the beginning of the year as co-stars of the TV drama series Starlit (心星的淚光). A Liberty Times report speculated that Koh Samui was a “reconciliation” trip after a supposed break-up in June that culminated in a heated quarrel in Yan’s car.
This wouldn’t be Kwan’s first hot-and-cold relationship. She dated male model Jerry Huang (黃志瑋) for more than four years before their romance fizzled in the midst of ongoing reports that her wealthy parents were urging her to find a partner with a more respectable pedigree.
As for Yan, who knows? The Liberty Times noted that he made a recent television appearance where he spoke at length about “a love letter never sent” to another rumored flame, supermodel Lin Chih-ling (林志玲).
It looks like hot-headed crooner Gary Tsao (曹格) has been at it again. Last Friday, the Malaysian Mando-pop star was reportedly banned from the posh Traders Hotel in Kuala Lumpur for smashing a television in a fit of rage during his stay there.
But at least Kuala Lumpur didn’t get it as bad as Hong Kong, where Tsao got blind drunk and beat the daylights out of his friend, Canto-pop singer Justin Lo (側田), during a night out on the town. The bad publicity forced Tsao to cancel a string of upcoming concerts and Hong Kong police are investigating the incident.
As for the smashed TV, Tsao’s manager has denied the story, while an exasperated Tsao remarked that even in Malaysia, “people were out to get me.”
In other news, the Chairman has died — once again, in a rumor.
A tipster pointed the Liberty Times to a Facebook group page with a discussion thread title
that read: “Indonesian media reports that Jay Chou (周杰倫) has died in a foreign country from a drug overdose.”
While it is true that Chou is in a foreign country, says his record label JVR, he’s alive and well in the US filming The Green Hornet, in which he plays the role of Kato.
The hoaxers were only slightly more imaginative this time. The first time Chou supposedly died was in 2004, when a Chinese Web site claimed that the pop star had been run over by a truck.
And it’s official — A-mei (阿妹) is dating. At least according to the Apple Daily, which finally caught the pop diva and her boyfriend of three years, basketball star Sam Ho (何守正) on their first “public” date. One of the paper’s crack photographers managed to sneak his lens into the couple’s private dining room at a Japanese bar and grill in Taipei’s East District.
Ho spotted the camera, and perhaps his basketball skills came in handy, as he promptly used his body to completely block A-mei from the view of the lens. The Apple Daily report noted how sweet and considerate Ho was for “protecting his flower.”
If one asks Taiwanese why house prices are so high or why the nation is so built up or why certain policies cannot be carried out, one common answer is that “Taiwan is too small.” This is actually true, though not in the way people think. The National Property Administration (NPA), responsible for tracking and managing the government’s real estate assets, maintains statistics on how much land the government owns. As of the end of last year, land for official use constituted 293,655 hectares, for public use 1,732,513 hectares, for non-public use 216,972 hectares and for state enterprises 34 hectares, yielding
The small platform at Duoliang Train Station in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) served villagers from 1992 to 2006, but was eventually shut down due to lack of use. Just 10 years later, the abandoned train station had become widely known as the most beautiful station in Taiwan, and visitors were so frequent that the village had to start restricting traffic. Nowadays, Duoliang Village (多良) is known as a bit of a tourist trap, with a mandatory, albeit modest, admission fee of NT$10 giving access to a crowded lane of vendors with a mediocre view of the ocean and the trains
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools. Yet the policy was never solely about English education. The government’s official plan also calls for bilingualization in Taiwan’s government services, laws and regulations, and living environment. The goal is to make Taiwan more inclusive and accessible to international enterprises and talent and better prepared for global economic and trade conditions. After eight years, that grand vision is due for a pulse check. RULES THAT CAN BE READ For Harper Chen (陳虹宇), an adviser
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
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