Tattletale flames old and “new” have been spewing up grist for the rumor mill over the past week.
Pop idol-turned-B-list actor Wing Fan (范植偉) climbed into bed with the China Times Weekly (時報周刊) for a pillow talk session, the results of which were published two weeks ago, and got more than he bargained for — or maybe not.
Fan reminisced about his past romance with pop idol Cyndi Wang (王心凌), which ended five years ago, and gave her dirty laundry a thorough public airing.
With unusual candor, Fan confessed to subjecting Wang to domestic violence on two occasions. And if that weren’t enough to persuade his most ardent of fans that the man’s a complete cad, when the interviewing journo asked if the two had lost their virginity to one another, seeing as they married young (Fan was 19, Wang 17), Fan replied: “I had two girlfriends before her so it was not my first time. I thought it would be her first time, but it wasn’t. I was a bit disappointed and surprised, because after all she was only 17.”
Wang, acknowledged as the founder of Mando-pop’s Cult of Sweetness (甜心教主), reportedly cried for two days and went into hiding.
In the face of snowballing criticism, Fan cut off contact with the media. But before making a French exit, he publicly apologized to Wang and said that he was gravely mistaken in trusting a reporter during a “casual chat.”
Far be it from Pop Stop to suggest that, with a new album coming out, Fan’s disclosure could be yet another Mando-pop attempt at creating a succes de scandale.
Amid the brouhaha, Wang’s first love, C-list actor Ou Ting-hsing (歐定興), reaped some media exposure. When interviewed by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Ou said he had only got to first base with Wang when they dated. And since Wang started seeing her former husband after they broke up, Ou speculated that Wang lost her virginity to Fan.
Meanwhile, starlet Hu Jia-ai (胡嘉愛), who quickly rose from the D-list to gossip rag headline material because of her rumored romantic involvement with pop star Stanley Huang (黃立行) — though he dismissed her as a mere acquaintance — continues to fuel speculation about the pair’s true status.
After Hu claimed on popular television show Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了) that she hangs out at Huang’s house watching movies and playing with his “bird” — not a euphemism, but a real one, apparently — Next Magazine recently published English-language text messages sent between Hu and a guy, alleged to be Huang, on March 1.
Judge for yourself:
Hu: Take shower already
Huang: Hehe Can I see?
Hu: No
Huang: Okok ... Can I touch?
Hu: Yes next time take shower with u haha
Huang: Don’t have too much dirty of a dream! save it for later haha
When asked about how the messages could have ended up in the media, Hu said she had lost her cellphone, rather conveniently, a few days previously.
As for whether or not the message sender is the star in question, Hu said she has many friends named Stanley.
As mega K-pop group BTS returns to the stage after a hiatus of more than three years, one major market is conspicuously missing from its 12-month world tour: China. The omission of one of the group’s biggest fan bases comes as no surprise. In fact, just the opposite would have been huge news. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 under an unofficial ban that also restricts movies and the country’s popular TV dramas. For some Chinese, that means flying to Seoul to see their favorite groups perform — as many were expected to do for three shows opening
A recent report from the Environmental Management Administration of the Ministry of Environment highlights a perennial problem: illegal dumping of construction waste. In Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅) and Hsinchu’s Longtan District (龍潭) criminals leased 10,000 square meters of farmland, saying they were going to engage in horticulture. They then accepted between 40,000 and 50,000 cubic meters of construction waste from sites in northern Taiwan, charging less than the going rate for disposal, and dumped the waste concrete, tile, metal and glass onto the leased land. Taoyuan District prosecutors charged 33 individuals from seven companies with numerous violations of the law. This
Apr. 13 to Apr. 19 From 17th-century royalty and Presbyterian missionaries to White Terror victims, cultural figures and industrialists, Nanshan Public Cemetery (南山公墓) sprawls across 95 hectares, guarding four centuries of Taiwan’s history. Current estimates show more than 60,000 graves, the earliest dating to 1642. Besides individual tombs, there are also hundreds of family plots, one of which is said to contain around 1,000 remains. As the cemetery occupies valuable land in the heart of Tainan, the government in 2018 began asking families to relocate the graves to make way for development. That
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry consumes electricity at rates that would strain most national grids. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) alone accounted for more than 9 percent, or 2,590 megawatts (MW), of the nation’s power demand last year. The factories that produce chips for the world’s phones and servers run around the clock. They cannot tolerate blackouts. Yet Taiwan imports 97 percent of its energy, with liquefied natural gas reserves measured in days. Underground, Taiwan has options. Studies from National Taiwan University estimate recoverable geothermal resources at more than 33,000 MW. Current installed capacity stands below 10 MW. OBSTACLES Despite Taiwan’s significant geothermal potential, the
RSS