Sparks continue to fly over a rumored romance between singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) and model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), co-stars of the recently released film The Treasure Hunter (刺陵). The two were spotted together by Next Magazine several weeks ago on a late night outing at a hot pot restaurant on Civil Boulevard (市民大道). Reports have also circulated on the Internet of a Chou-Lin sighting at Shilin night market (士林夜市).
Fueling speculation even further was a birthday ode to Chou (who just turned 31) written by his close friend and fellow pop singer Devon Song (彈頭). On his blog, Song posted an eight-line poem in Mandarin which sneaks in a vague reference to Lin: The poem was written to be read from left to right, but the first character of each line also forms a sentence, which reads, “Director Chou is fucking cool, Chi-ling knows it.” (周導好屌,志玲知道.)
But it seems Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) can’t be left out of the picture when it comes to “The Chairman,” at least on the gossip pages. Just last weekend, Chou and his former sweetheart reportedly went on a bowling date — a development that has left observers “in the dark,” as our sister paper, The Liberty Times, put it.
As for one of Lin’s past flames, pop heartthrob Jerry Yan (言承旭) has been dodging questions as usual regarding romance. Yan, who was last rumored to be dating actress Terri Kwan (關穎) but supposedly still holds a candle for Lin, recently made an appearance on Variety Big Brother (綜藝大哥大) — but not without a fuss.
According to the Liberty Times, the taping of the show was delayed by Yan’s management, which insisted that host Chang Fei (張菲) refrain from asking questions about his love life. Chang relented, but lightly prodded Yan on the show: “[Jerry], this is the first time that as a host, I’ve been restricted from asking certain questions.”
The reporters on the set, on the other hand, didn’t let Yan off the hook. They grilled him on the Chou-Lin rumors. “I’ve heard about it,” he replied with a “rigid” smile. Had he seen the The Treasure Hunter? “It’s actually a good movie.”
A movie that’s actually good, James Cameron’s hit Avatar, is getting trumped in China by Confucius (孔子). Chinese authorities have told theaters across the country to pull the sci-fi epic to make way for a biopic on the venerated philosopher starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發). The Apple Daily reports that high-level Chinese officials have been concerned that local films would lose market share to Avatar, which opened at the beginning of the month and is already the highest-grossing movie in Chinese film history, having earned US$76 million thus far. But all is not lost for our friends across the strait, who can still see the 3D IMAX version, which has yet to be pulled from theaters.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese Internet users have been feeding their craze for Avatar by drawing comparisons between Neytiri, the film’s lead female character, with several pop singers, according to another Apple Daily report. Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) was in the running for the best look-a-like, but Angela Chang (張韶涵) took the prize with her “eye-to-nose ratio.”
Ouyang Fei-fei (歐陽菲菲), the Taiwan-born singer who found stardom in Japan as a disco diva, will be appearing at Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) tomorrow night. The 55-year-old, who sports a Tina Turner-esque hairdo and is sometimes called the Taiwanese Cher, shared with the Liberty Times the secret to maintaining her svelte figure: everyday she does 30 minutes of “exercise in bed” (床上運動) — that is, leg lifts and waist twists.
And perhaps to prove that she also remains young at heart, Ouyang has been rehearsing Madonna’s Like a Virgin as part of the Western pop segment of her show. But the song is not really her, she says. “I can’t sing something so restrained, I’m too wild.”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not