Pop Stop readers will know that Van Ness Wu (吳建豪) has recently gotten very cozy with God. The Taiwanese-American heartthrob called on his new best friend for support last week when his production company became embroiled in a drug scandal. Wu hauled a copy of the Bible to a press conference where he and Smash and Grab Productions
(天地仁和電影公司) co-founder Jimmy Hung (洪天祥) both denied any wrongdoing.
The trouble started when a police raid of the film company’s office uncovered a baggie of marijuana in an employee’s belongings. Apple Daily described 29-year-old Chou Ichuan (周毅銓) as Wu’s “clingy assistant,” but Wu’s manager insisted that her client had only known the alleged pothead for one or two weeks. Chou’s three roommates were also arrested on charges related to drug trafficking.
Hung and Wu appeared at a joint press conference after the arrests. Despite being clad in black leather and sporting a tough-looking buzz cut, Wu appeared very pious — and, indeed, demure — as he clutched the Good Book. He dismissed rumors that he’d shaved his head to avoid a drugs test, saying that his new coif was for an independent film he shot last month in the US. Both men distanced themselves from Chou and his alleged herbal remedy. “I told him not to bring that kind of stuff to work and he said he wouldn’t touch it again,” said Hung. “One of our employees made a mistake, it doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the rest of the company.”
Hung went on to kvetch about the police officers who’d searched Smash and Grab, complaining that he’d been ordered to leave the premises. “They acted like we were all drug traffickers,” Hung wailed to reporters, before adding that if urine samples could prove Hung and Wu’s innocence, both men would be more than happy to step up to
the cup.
According to Apple Daily, Chou admitted to possessing marijuana but insisted he didn’t sell it (his roommates also say they are innocent of the drug trafficking charges). While being questioned by police, Chou claimed he’d gotten drunk in the East District’s (東區) Room 18 and bumped into a blonde man outside the nightclub, who offered him the baggie of marijuana. Zhou said that the bag cost him NT$2,000 and that all he wanted to do was go home, have something to eat and drink and then “relax.”
TV producer Chen Yulin (沈玉琳) appeared to be on something at his wedding last week, but the only thing he was high on was life ... or his 25-year-old wife Wu Hsiao-chun (吳曉純), also known as Yaya (芽芽), who is 17 years Chen’s junior. According to reports in the Apple Daily, 700 guests attended the lavish 81-table banquet. Chen entertained the gathering with a failed attempt at hula-hooping, some very moist tongue wrestling with Wu and touching proclamations of love: “[Wu’s] a good daughter, she takes care of me, her bedroom kung-fu skills [床上功夫] are excellent and, most importantly, she’ll never bash me on television!”
The last part was a jab at Chen’s ex-girlfriend, television host Peajen (佩真), who he dated for eight years. The two climbed to the top ranks of show business (or at least the top ranks of the B-list) together before splitting up. Peajean has referred to Chen on her talk show as a heartless two-timer. Nonetheless, she put in an appearance at the banquet with a NT$8,000 hongbao in hand, telling reporters that she and Chen remained good friends.
Before the wedding, Wu’s friends ribbed Chen by forcing him to enter the hotel in a pair of high heels and sing while hula hooping (the toy fell almost instantly, crashing into a coffee table). At the banquet, Chen praised Wu for her skill at preparing instant noodles. The 700 guests, who caused a traffic jam in front of the reception venue, included semi-celebs, such as actors Ma Kuo-hsien (馬國賢), Jonathan Chang (張克帆),Ting Kuo-lin (丁國琳) and Riva Zhang (張芳奕). TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) was Chen’s best man and joked during his speech that the groom’s father was only interested in Ding’s cleavage.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
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Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50