We first start out with the curious case of Lei Hong (雷洪) as an extreme symbol of the bizarre marital trends of Taiwan’s celebrity firmament in 2009. The star of the popular FTV soap opera Mom’s House (娘家) and winner of last year’s Golden Bell Award (金鐘獎) for best male actor had a complaint of four “wives” that wouldn’t look out of place in Big Love or The Last Emperor.
That’s right, four wives. And they all live together under the same roof in Taipei. To maintain harmony, Lei says, he refuses to spend an entire night with just one wife. But not all was roses and chocolate at the Lei homestead. When the 61-year-old announced that he had decided to take a fifth “wife” in a public ceremony, his mother, the media and his other four wives went nuts, as holding a public wedding ceremony in Taiwan comes dangerously close to making the nuptials legally binding. In a mea culpa to the vernacular media, Lei bowed and slapped his face several times in penance for being a bad influence on society. He eventually canceled the ceremony. It should be noted that the character Lei plays on TV only has two wives — proving once again that truth is stranger than fiction.
Not to be outdone by Lei Hong’s shenanigans is the ongoing saga of plastic surgeon and alleged lothario Li Jin-liang (李進良) who tied the knot in June with Hu Ying-chen (胡盈禎), daughter of entertainer Hu Gua (胡瓜). Before getting hitched to Hu Ying-chen, Li allegedly carried on an affair with starlet Mao Mao (毛毛). His past misadventures also include charges of sexual harassment by a Japanese porn star and an all-night party with two friends and three hostesses at a Taipei hotel.
But Li may have turned out to be an even bigger boob than either of the Hus imagined. The plastic surgeon was recently fined NT$150,000 and ordered to stop working for three months after illegally inserting silicone breast implants into a patient. Through thick and thin, however, Hu Ying-chen has decided to stay with her man.
Meanwhile, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Wu Yu-sheng’s (吳育昇) extramarital tryst with 40-something piano teacher Rebecca Sun (孫仲瑜) saw TV anchors devoting much of their primetime news slots to yapping on about the matter like rabid Chihuahuas — which only died down amidst rumors that Chung Yiu-kwong (鍾耀光), the married director of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra (臺北市立國樂團), was doing the dirty with Ma Tsui-yu (馬翠妤), a 26-year-old musician with the orchestra.
After the latter two were spotted holding hands and cuddling in the East District (東區), the 52-year-old Chung defended himself by saying he was helping Ma relax after work. Ma was more creative, saying it was only natural for her to snuggle up with her gay friends.
Gay is certainly not the word to describe the public marital problems between singer Rachel Fu (傅天穎) and Charles Chen (陳子強), which reached a denouement when Fu was admitted to hospital after allegedly slashing her wrist. Fu later denied reports that she had tried to commit suicide, telling reporters that 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.
Even less endearing were the boozy and drug-addled shenanigans of the celebrity firmament in 2009.
Starlet Pei Lin (裴琳) may be out of rehab for puffing the magic dragon but she’s still a girl who wants to have fun. These days, though, the high jinks are fueled by booze. According to local media reports, she has 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.
Golden Melody Award-winning singer Gary Tsao (曹格), on the other hand, upheld his reputation as a psychotic drunk by beating up his friend, Canto-pop singer Justin Lo (側田), in an extended brawl that started at a bar, continued in a taxi and ended on the street.
Tsao’s past drunken indiscretions include kicking a sign (2006), scowling at reporters (October last year), scaring his friends (same month) and getting bitten (November last year). Small wonder that Tsao’s wife doesn’t let him hold their baby when he’s drinking.
From booze to bud, former Channel V presenter Henry Lu (呂良基) was arrested for marijuana possession along with six other suspects — most of whom grew up in either Canada, Australia or the US. Intrepid journalists were quick to point out the correlation between drug use and having been born or studied abroad.
And going one better than former US president Bill Clinton (who claims he pretended to smoke a joint but “didn’t inhale”), perhaps in an effort to protect themselves in the event that the fuzz decides to play another round of “Celebrity Drug Bust,” singer and wannabee director David Tao (陶吉吉) and pop idol Mark Chao (趙又廷) both volunteered information that they had involuntarily inhaled “secondhand marijuana” smoke (二手麻). Pop Stop trusts that these two actors won’t encounter the same problems as entertainer Da Bing (大炳), the stage name of Yu Bing-hsian (余炳賢), who became a poster boy for the anti-drug movement only to later be busted for amphetamines in a hotel while allegedly watching porn.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and