Netizens and paparazzi were salivating at the prospect that Mando-pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) might have a new man. The rumors began over the weekend when bloggers spotted Tsai holding hands with Vivian Dawson, a 26-year old half-Singaporean, half-New Zealand model, while taking time off to roam the streets of Tokyo.
Dawson, who was named “most eligible bachelor” by CLEO, a women’s magazine based in Singapore, was also said to have attended Tsai’s 30th birthday bash.
The two rumored lovebirds originally met up when the “mixed blood” (混血) Dawson appeared in Tsai’s music video for Love Player (玩愛之徒).
Comically, Dawson’s first name led some bloggers to wonder if Jolin was playing for both teams. Others simply lamented that a Jolin-Jay Chou (周杰倫) reunion now seemed out of the question.
Speaking to the media earlier this week, Tsai admitted going to Japan with Dawson. Later, while appearing on a Chinese-television program, Tsai said, somewhat predictably, “We are just friends.” Brushing off this response, the host asked point blank if she is dating the model. Tsai’s agent stepped in and Tsai clammed up.
Apple, true to form, was having none of this. The gossip rag speculated that the alleged affair must be true because Tsai’s denials weren’t as vehement as they were when rumors surfaced that her and Chou were back together.
In other Jolin news, singer Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) came to Tsai’s defense over allegations last week that she was rude to an airline stewardess, as reported in the United Daily News.
Hsiao, who claimed that Tsai was asleep during the entire episode, said it was the fault of her agent. Hmmm, where would celebrities be without their agents to blame or step in at the right moment? In any event, Hsiao’s discussion of the airplane incident seems well timed to attract attention to her recently released album Miss ELVA (蕭灑小姐).
Singer and actor Wilber Pan (潘瑋柏), who also just celebrated his 30th birthday, expressed regrets over the weekend about a youthful indiscretion. Pan’s shame stems from photo shoot he did completely naked — aside from an object strategically placed to conceal his masculinity.
Pop Stop thinks: What’s the big deal? If Pan, who earlier performed in the drama Spicy Teacher (麻辣鮮師) and more recently in Jay Chou’s flop Pandaman (熊貓人), is worried about his image, he should follow in the footsteps of singer Van Ness Wu (吳建豪) and become a born-again Christian. Then all past indiscretions would be forgiven.
Another celebrity with image issues is singer Jeremy Liu
(劉子千). Following a long and infamous line of celebrities who souse it up and then get behind the wheel, Liu crashed a car on a Hong Kong street in April after one too many.
The accident left his rumored girlfriend, actress Charlize Lin (林亞霖), seriously injured. Fortunately, nobody was killed and Lin has already made a full recovery.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported that Liu received 150 days of community service for DUI and was ordered to pay a fine of HK$8,000 (NT$35,000).
And finally, recriminations over this year’s Golden Bell Awards (金鐘獎) have already begun — and the ceremony is still a few weeks away. The nomination list for the television and radio awards ceremony was announced on Monday and by Tuesday the usual blather about backdoor dealings and unfair judging dominated the gossip pages. This is somewhat of a shame because all the bitching distracted from the fact that many of the nominations went to programming that highlights different aspects of Taiwan’s culture. The ceremony takes place on Oct. 22 at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
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The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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