When rumors emerged last weekend that Jerry Yan
(言承旭) had been born out of wedlock, the TV actor and singer responded with a vague acknowledgement that turned into a tribute to his mother.
“I don’t really know [if the rumors are true] but I don’t think it’s important,” Yan said at a Children’s Day charity event
on Sunday.
“My mother worked hard to raise me, and I never robbed, I never stole. She is my role model,” he said. “No matter what, I’ll support her and I hope when I grow older I can make her even more proud of me.”
The 33-year old heartthrob talked about growing up in a one-parent household that struggled to pay the bills and also revealed he was offered work during high school as a gigolo.
He turned the offer down but admitted that he was highly tempted, especially after watching his friends who got into the business driving expensive cars.
“I remembered what my mother told me: ‘A poor man must keep his integrity. Whatever you do, don’t let yourself down and don’t let others down.’ So I said I wasn’t interested,” said Yan. “Besides, if I really went and did that, my mom would have killed me.”
One of Yan’s former bandmates from boy band F4, Van Ness Wu (吳建豪), was spotted in Hong Kong last weekend with a new girlfriend.
Paparazzi stalked the couple at a shopping mall in Central District and the Apple Daily posted video footage on its Web site, which began with a shot of the Taiwanese American singer and mystery girl looking amorously at each other while riding an escalator.
The pursuit culminated at a clothing boutique when Wu’s sweetheart discovered cameras pointed their way and ducked behind the counter. Aww, isn’t that cute? She’s not used to the media, was the tone of the Apple Daily video report.
Wu played it cool and spoke to the reporters, avoiding their questions about his companion. But later on he confirmed through his manager that she was indeed his new girlfriend.
Wu’s manager wouldn’t reveal her name but offered a few details. Ms “A” (as in Ms “ABC” or American-born Chinese) is 25 years old, 160cm tall, and a Christian. Pop Stop wonders whether Wu, a recent convert, has started to look for a loophole in that “celibacy card” he signed in 2008.
Meanwhile, Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) was in Kenting to perform at a Spring Scream weekend event. The Singaporean pop singer raked in a cool NT$3 million for playing at the Peninsula Pop Music Concert (半島音樂盛世演唱會), according to our sister paper the Liberty Times.
But her singing was the last thing the media was interested in. Reporters were dying to know when Sun is going to finally marry “mustache man” (鬍鬚男), aka Nadim van der Ros, the Dutch beau she’s been dating for three years. Was a secret marriage in the works? “When we have the time, and of course we won’t be telling you when,” said an uncharacteristically shy Sun.
Ethan Ruan (阮經天) has been catching flack lately, not for cheating on his girlfriend as alleged last month, but for being in school.
The star of the hit gangster flick Monga (艋舺) has been enrolled at Hsing Wu College (醒吾科技學院) for six years, prompting speculation that he has avoided graduating in order to stall his compulsory military service.
The Apple Daily did some digging and found that Ruan is in good company. Entertainers Joseph Cheng (鄭元暢), Mike Ho (賀軍翔) and Chang Shu-wei (張書偉) are fellow Hsing Wu students who have also been enrolled for six years.
But the real kings among celebrity draft-dodgers, the report said, are pop idols Matthew Lin (明道), who is entering his ninth year of school, and Bobby Dou
(竇智孔), who has been enrolled in university for 10 years.
Actress Shu Qi (舒淇) has been discovering her inner otaku. The starlet has become addicted to the Facebook game Happy Farm. She fessed up to her obsession in a recent posting on her official blog: “I check [my farm] when I get up in the morning, I check before I go to bed. When I go out to eat, I think about that farm and often find myself saying, ‘I have to go ... you guys keeping eating, I have to get back to my harvest.’”
Pop Stop concludes this week with a nod to Taiwan’s latest YouTube star, Lin Yu-chun (林育群), who has been dubbed by UK newspaper the Daily Mail as “Taiwan’s Susan Boyle.”
Lin, a chubby young man who calls himself “Little Fatty” (小胖), sported a bowl haircut and bow tie while singing a stunning rendition of the Whitney Houston/Dolly Parton hit I Will Always Love You on the TV singing contest show One Million Star (超級星光大道).
The video can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA-tOsM6F4Y&feature=channel
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
It is jarring how differently Taiwan’s politics is portrayed in the international press compared to the local Chinese-language press. Viewed from abroad, Taiwan is seen as a geopolitical hotspot, or “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” as the Economist once blazoned across their cover. Meanwhile, tasked with facing down those existential threats, Taiwan’s leaders are dying their hair pink. These include former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), among others. They are demonstrating what big fans they are of South Korean K-pop sensations Blackpink ahead of their concerts this weekend in Kaohsiung.
Oct 20 to Oct 26 After a day of fighting, the Japanese Army’s Second Division was resting when a curious delegation of two Scotsmen and 19 Taiwanese approached their camp. It was Oct. 20, 1895, and the troops had reached Taiye Village (太爺庄) in today’s Hunei District (湖內), Kaohsiung, just 10km away from their final target of Tainan. Led by Presbyterian missionaries Thomas Barclay and Duncan Ferguson, the group informed the Japanese that resistance leader Liu Yung-fu (劉永福) had fled to China the previous night, leaving his Black Flag Army fighters behind and the city in chaos. On behalf of the
I was 10 when I read an article in the local paper about the Air Guitar World Championships, which take place every year in my home town of Oulu, Finland. My parents had helped out at the very first contest back in 1996 — my mum gave out fliers, my dad sorted the music. Since then, national championships have been held all across the world, with the winners assembling in Oulu every summer. At the time, I asked my parents if I could compete. At first they were hesitant; the event was in a bar, and there would be a lot
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