The Mando-pop world just can’t get enough of the good ol’ days. Following concerts honoring the 30th anniversary of Rock Records (滾石) last month that featured some 80 performers, 44-year-old Stella Chang (張清芳) returned to the stage for two evenings at the Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) last weekend.
Chang was queen of the Mando-pop world in the 1980s and 1990s before she got hitched to investment banker Sung Hsueh-jen (宋學仁) and retired from showbiz in 2005. During her 25-year-long career, the chart-topping singer released 30 albums that sold over 13 million copies in Taiwan, according to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
Chang’s return was designed to impress, with NT$7 million (US$235,000) spent solely on seven outfits designed by William Chang (張叔平). The shows were grand and attended by her bigwig buddies including Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Acer Group founder Stan Shih (施振榮) and Morris Chang (張忠謀), chairman and chief executive of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Guest appearances included heavyweight celebrities like Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) and Richie Ren (任賢齊).
Photo: Taipei times
Stella Chang and her lavish wardrobe are due to appear on stage in Kaohsiung tomorrow and Taichung on Sunday.
The movie industry isn’t immune from a touch of nostalgia either. Jay Chou (周杰倫) held a press conference in Taipei this week to promote the upcoming film The Green Hornet, which is slated to hit local theaters on Jan. 28. The Chairman stars as Kato, the Hornet’s loyal sidekick played by young Bruce Lee (李小龍) in the 1966 version of the movie.
The linguistically challenged Chou reportedly told gossip journos that one of the high points of making the sci-fi action flick involved the crew complimenting him on the wonderful job he did with shouting “‘huh” and “ha” while filming.
The Asian heartthrob, however, didn’t have much luck building real-life friendships with the film’s hot-shot Hollywood actors. Chou said he made an effort to break the ice with Seth Rogen, who plays the Green Hornet, by talking about cars, but the topic didn’t interest the Canadian actor. Then Chou — an avid fan of magic tricks — pulled out all his routines to try to amuse leading lady Cameron Diaz, but found the actress unimpressed.
Chou couldn’t fathom why he failed to interest Diaz until local media reminded him that one of the Hollywood star’s erstwhile lovers was American illusionist and magician Criss Angel.
“No wonder she knew every one of my tricks,” Chou was quoted as saying.
Perhaps the Mando-pop king has more to worry about than perfecting his magic routines. According to the Apple Daily, Show Luo (羅志祥) beat out Chou and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) for the first time to become the best-selling singer of the year, with his album Rashomon (羅生門) selling 154,218 copies. Chou came in second with his The Era (跨時代) and S.H.E secured third place with Shero. Tsai, last year’s champion, came in fourth with her Myself 2010, which sold 65,000 copies.
Exhilarated by the news, the newly crowned Luo promised that he would take the 200 employees working at his street-fashion venture on a vacation to Hawaii and dish out very generous yearly bonuses totaling NT$15 million.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
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Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated