Supermodel Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) is getting an image makeover with her role in Treasure Hunter (刺陵), a big-budget action flick scheduled to open next week. This is her second role in a feature movie. Clearly Lin is making the right kind of moves because Treasure Hunter stars Jay Chou (周杰倫), features a high-profile cast including Eric Tsang (曾志偉) and Chen Dao-ming (陳道明) and is directed by Kung Fu Dunk (功夫灌籃) director Chu Yin-ping (朱延平). This is a significant shift from Lin’s previous role as Xiao Qiao in John Woo’s (吳宇森) Red Cliff (赤壁). In Treasure Hunter, Lin casts off her demur demeanor and takes up sword and spear in a martial role akin to that of Angelina Jolie’s Laura Croft.
At a press conference in Singapore to promote the film, Lin said that she gave herself a seven out of 10 for her performance. Lin garnered mixed reviews for her presence in Red Cliff, but on this occasion she has certainly impressed other cast members, including Chou, with her energy and eagerness to learn. The United Daily News quoted Chou as saying: “When a beautiful woman fights, it looks good no matter what. That’s the important point.” Perhaps Chou wasn’t being so complimentary about Lin’s talent after all. Lin also took it upon herself to write the lyrics for the film’s theme song. Chou, who composed the music, dispensed with the services of Vincent Fang (方文山), the much sought-after lyricist, after seeing Lin’s efforts. “Next time we won’t have to book Fang,” Chou said. “He always has so much work on hand.”
With Treasure Hunter, Chou’s bid to make it in the movie business, on both sides of the camera, is clearly being established. Another singer who has dabbled in acting — and who now wants to take the director’s chair — is Wang Lee-hom (王力宏). According to the United Daily News, Wang has quietly begun shooting in China for a new feature film and has received support and advice from mentors Ang Lee (李安) and Jackie Chan (成龍). Chan’s own new feature film Big Soldiers (大兵小將), staring Wang, is scheduled for release early next year. In regard to his directorial style, Wang said he wanted to be a director like Ang Lee, someone who didn’t have to resort to shouting at people on set. “I’m not very good at telling people off,” he was quoted as saying.
Wang — once regarded as one of the hottest men in the Chinese-language entertainment industry — is nowhere to be seen in the Apple Daily’s poll of best looking men, with heartthrob Vic Chou (周渝民) of boy band F4 fame taking the top spot. Singer Jerry Yan (言承旭) took second place, and Ethan Ruan (阮經天) third. Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) placed fourth. The 36-year-old actor is doing well to have kept his place in the top five lookers despite his age. Fifth place went to Mark Chao (趙又廷) of the recent hit cop shop series Black & White (痞子英雄).
On the romantic front, Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) is back on the prowl and Next Magazine reports that following her traumatic breakup with Eddie Peng (彭于晏), she has picked up with model Godfrey Kao (高以翔). According to Next, Kao is keeping a low profile on his conquest as Tsai’s former boyfriend Peng is a buddy. This hasn’t prevented the paparazzi from catching the two flagrantly trying to avoid public scrutiny by leaving various nightspots surreptitiously, and by different exits.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated