This week’s tabloids were dominated by rumors of romantic reunions and new affaires d’amour. On home turf, Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) continue to make headlines after their sultry duet at the end of the Mando-pop king’s Taipei concert on June 13. Local tabloids have since generated plenty of titillating content for gossip hounds to chew on. One story that seems to have gained the most traction involves a diamond ring from a well-known luxury brand and an alleged marital proposal from Chou to Tsai after the concert.
Fans have greeted the Double-Js’ (雙-J) rumored reunion with great enthusiasm. A composite photo showing the pair cuddling together circulated on the Internet and was quickly picked up by the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) and the Apple Daily.
Both Tsai and Chou say the reports are rubbish. According to the Liberty Times, Chou responded to the question of why he chose to perform with Tsai by saying, “I just wanted to freak everyone out.” Meanwhile, Tsai was quoted as saying: “Getting back together? Thanks, but I’m not crazy.”
One man who is surely freaked out by the possibility of the two getting back together is Tsai’s agent Chen Tse-shan (陳澤杉). The Warner Music (華納音樂) impresario has not been on good terms with the Chairman after the two bickered over a chart-rigging controversy last year. Chen risks losing his cash cow to Chou’s record company, JVR Music (杰威爾音樂), if the Double-Js get really friendly with each other.
Having recovered from two year’s of depression and found Jesus, erstwhile Hong Kong pop diva Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) is making a comeback with a Mandarin-language gospel album, Faith (信). Chinese-language media outlets also report that Cheng’s old flame Andy Hui (許志安) is back in the 38-year-old star’s life.
A series of snapshots and a chart published by the Liberty Times last Friday detailed Hui and Cheng’s itineraries in Taipei last week, which involved them staying at the same hotel, shooting music videos at the same studio and flying back to Hong Kong on the same plane. But according to their agents, the two are just good friends.
In other celebrity romance news, Chinese heartthrob Huang Xiaoming (黃曉明) and 21-year-old model Angelababy have become the hottest new item on the tabloids’ front pages after Huang publicly acknowledged their relationship in front of the media in Shanghai last week.
Hailed as Hong Kong’s new “sex goddess” (性感女神), Angelababy, whose real name is Yang Ying (楊穎), has quickly risen to stardom in the last couple of years based on nothing more than her looks.
A widely circulated batch of photos seems to indicate that Yang Ying had to go through plenty of revamping before she became the Angelababy we know now. But this has done nothing to dim Huang’s ardor. His public confession of love included an admission that he pampers his woman “as if she were a princess.” China’s most bankable actor is also reported to have introduced his sweetheart to Hong Kong entertainment mogul Peter Lam (林建岳), who, according to rumors, is planning to make Angelababy the next Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝).
After being arrested on drug-related charges for the third time, Taiwanese entertainer Da Bing (大炳), real name Yu Bing-hsian
(余炳賢), was baptized at the Home of Christ church in Taipei last Saturday. The disgraced entertainer said he wants to find inner strength through God’s love.
But will his sexual orientation get between him and God? Da Bing was quoted by the Apple Daily as saying, “That’s between God and me.”
In Pop Stop’s opinion, the quickest way for Da Bing to resolve this issue is to join the Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church (同光同志長老教會), Taiwan’s first church for gays and lesbians.
Oct. 27 to Nov. 2 Over a breakfast of soymilk and fried dough costing less than NT$400, seven officials and engineers agreed on a NT$400 million plan — unaware that it would mark the beginning of Taiwan’s semiconductor empire. It was a cold February morning in 1974. Gathered at the unassuming shop were Economics minister Sun Yun-hsuan (孫運璿), director-general of Transportation and Communications Kao Yu-shu (高玉樹), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) president Wang Chao-chen (王兆振), Telecommunications Laboratories director Kang Pao-huang (康寶煌), Executive Yuan secretary-general Fei Hua (費驊), director-general of Telecommunications Fang Hsien-chi (方賢齊) and Radio Corporation of America (RCA) Laboratories director Pan
The consensus on the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chair race is that Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) ran a populist, ideological back-to-basics campaign and soundly defeated former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), the candidate backed by the big institutional players. Cheng tapped into a wave of popular enthusiasm within the KMT, while the institutional players’ get-out-the-vote abilities fell flat, suggesting their power has weakened significantly. Yet, a closer look at the race paints a more complicated picture, raising questions about some analysts’ conclusions, including my own. TURNOUT Here is a surprising statistic: Turnout was 130,678, or 39.46 percent of the 331,145 eligible party
The classic warmth of a good old-fashioned izakaya beckons you in, all cozy nooks and dark wood finishes, as tables order a third round and waiters sling tapas-sized bites and assorted — sometimes unidentifiable — skewered meats. But there’s a romantic hush about this Ximending (西門町) hotspot, with cocktails savored, plating elegant and never rushed and daters and diners lit by candlelight and chandelier. Each chair is mismatched and the assorted tables appear to be the fanciest picks from a nearby flea market. A naked sewing mannequin stands in a dimly lit corner, adorned with antique mirrors and draped foliage
The older you get, and the more obsessed with your health, the more it feels as if life comes down to numbers: how many more years you can expect; your lean body mass; your percentage of visceral fat; how dense your bones are; how many kilos you can squat; how long you can deadhang; how often you still do it; your levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol; your resting heart rate; your overnight blood oxygen level; how quickly you can run; how many steps you do in a day; how many hours you sleep; how fast you are shrinking; how
RSS