Life is not all roses for the Queen of Mando-pop, and just as her career hit a new high note with the success of her Tokyo concert, in which she unleashed her bad-girl persona A-mit (阿密特) on Japan, boyfriend Sam Ho (何守正) was caught by paparazzi checking into a Sindian motel with a woman in a white hat. Next Magazine assures us that the couple remained there for two hours.
The report goes on to speculate that the woman in question may have been Ho’s former girlfriend “Little Cutie” (小可愛), and that his romance with a, let’s face it, vastly more successful older woman, was beginning to weigh on the young stud.
In a little aside, Next reports that Ho, on discovering the paparazzi on his heels, drove through nine red lights. Despite “speeding” at more than 80kph, the basketball star wasn’t nimble enough behind the wheel to shake off the tail.
Why he should have been so flustered is something of an open question, for not long after evidence of his alleged infidelity hit the media, A-Mei (張惠妹) told NOWnews that the relationship had come to an end nearly six months ago and that it was no concern of hers who Ho was seeing. It probably helped that her Tokyo concert on April 18, her first in Japan, has been considered a big success, drawing a crowd of 1,400 and running for nearly three hours. Rumors of suitors in the wings mean that A-mei is unlikely to be lonely for long.
Other women who are getting lots of lovin’ in the news this week include model Liz (aka Yang Li-si, 楊俐思), who made headlines with rumored relationships with singer David Tao (陶喆), and male model Chen Chih-chiang (陳志強). While Liz has proved adept at revelation, disrobing in a more than obliging fashion for the camera, what got uncovered this time was a bit of history, which ain’t nearly as pretty. It has emerged, if Next Magazine is to be believed, that the half-Paraguayan model, who has courted the media with her boldly flirtatious behavior, is already married to a Brazilian national. This news came to light when photos of the couple, including one of Liz in full matrimonial white, were sent to the magazine by a reader disgruntled with her raunchy behavior. With fans like these, who needs enemies.
The release of Adult Ceremony/Grown UP (成人禮) by By2, a girl group made up of twins, in the No. 1 spot on the charts has added some spark to the predictable lineup of chart-toppers. The Singaporean twins, Peh Wei-fen (白緯芬) and Peh Wei-ling (白緯玲), who go by the names Miko and Yumi, have proved a huge hit here. An incident earlier this week, when there was a fire in the building they live in, only enhanced their reputations. According to a report in the Apple Daily, when a record company executive alerted them to the fire and told them to evacuate the building, they found time to dress in their promo outfits and don high heels before leaving. “It’s not as if they were making an appearance. It’s really too much,” the staffer is quoted as saying.
The professional and personal rivalry between Vic Chou (周渝民), aka Tsai Tsai (仔仔), and Mark Chao (趙又廷) has intensified with the approach of the Golden Horse Awards. The two actors, who came to prominence with the somewhat inexplicable success of the police drama Black & White (痞子英雄), began their rivalry after Chao pipped Chou to the post for a Golden Bell Award in October last year.
Since then, Chou’s career has been in the doldrums, with a number of scheduled projects being put off and his professionalism coming into question after spats with Black & White director Tsai Yueh-hsun (蔡岳勳). He also refused to participate in a group photo at a classmate’s wedding, priggishly citing contractual obligations.
The only bright spot had been the August release of Love You for a Thousand Years (愛你一萬年), which will put him in contention for a Golden Horse nomination. Unfortunately, given Chao’s involvement in the hugely successful release of Monga (艋舺) last month, Chou’s chances of outdoing his rival are slim.
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