Jerry Yan (言承旭) is back in the game after a half-year absence, which is practically an eternity in the entertainment world. Throughout his time off, rumors circulated about the heartthrob actor’s “dejected and thin” appearance, which led to speculation of a “mystery illness,” according to the United Daily News.
Yan’s management company explained that “stomach troubles” had prompted him to take some time off, but now the boy band singer-turned-TV idol has recovered and is getting ready to shoot an advertisement in Japan. The Apple Daily, concerned about Yan’s financial health, estimated that he lost some NT$470 million in missed opportunities, as he had to reject a role on the soap opera Material Girl (拜金女王), in addition to a number of movie characters and public appearances.
Money apparently isn’t everything to Mando-pop singer Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), at least when it comes to material desires. In a one-on-one interview with TVBS, the American-born superstar pooh-poohed sports cars, telling the show host that they were for the “nouveau riche” (暴發戶) and “I think they’re meaningless.” Both the Liberty Times and Apple Daily took the remark to be a thinly veiled shot at celebrity sports car lovers such as pop stars Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Show Luo (羅志祥) and Hong Kong actor Aaron Kwok (郭富城).
Photo: Taipei times
As for his own wheels, Wang says he drives a used van that he bought in Taipei for NT$60,000. And what about all that cash he makes from his stadium-packing concerts in the Chinese-speaking world? Wang says he spends it on supporting 20 children through charity group World Vision (世界展望).
The nation continues to gawk at cram school owner Kao Kuo-hua (高國華), who dumped his news anchor wife Tsai Yu-hsuan (蔡郁璇) for a teacher at one of his schools, Chen Tzu-hsuan (陳子璇). The 54-year-old Kao declared his love for the 37-year-old Chen soon after the two were snapped playing tonsil hockey in his Mercedes Benz by paparazzi.
Kao and Chen were caught smooching on camera again last weekend, but this time it was out in the open and the pair seemed to relish the attention, according to one of Apple Daily’s top-ranking stories this week. The newspaper regaled readers with spy shots of the pair at a Tianmu (天母) restaurant. As the wine flowed, so did the French kisses, according to Apple’s reporter, who recorded “as many as nine instances” of their passion.
Kao and Chen greeted reporters outside the restaurant, and denied rumors that Kao had ruled out marriage. As for having their public display of affection caught on camera again, Kao said: “I’m not an actor, there’s no need to hide anything. We truly have feelings for each other ... can we just look at this whole incident with a healthy attitude?”
Tsai, Kao’s ex-wife, is keeping up her healthy attitude by dishing out wisecracks. After being told that Chen once claimed that she and Kao had made love for three hours straight, Tsai quipped: “The woman perhaps has a problem, then, because she’s not enchanting enough.”
According to Now News (今日新聞網), Tsai also mocked Kao’s declaration of Chen as his “true love,” saying she’s heard this line “hundreds of times.” Tsai offered an example of Kao’s untrustworthiness: the electric “massage stick” he gave her as a gift just a month before their divorce. According to Tsai, it came with a message written on the box that said, “Yu-hsuan baby, I will love you for a lifetime.”
Meanwhile, Faye Wong (王菲) fever spread uncontrollably earlier this week among Taiwanese fans, some of whom lined up at 5am on Monday to buy tickets for the singer’s shows at Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) scheduled for January next year. Tickets for all three shows, which cost up to NT$8,000 each, were almost sold out by the end of the day, according to a report by the Liberty Times. Some fans reportedly left the line in tears after finding out tickets priced at NT$4,800 and lower had sold out; other fans flooded the Internet to purchase tickets, causing the ERA ticketing system to crash twice, the report said.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
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Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless