The big news this week was the re-emergence of pop star Selina Jen (任家萱). Not that she’s really been out of the picture since she suffered burns to 54 percent of her body after an accident while shooting a film in Shanghai. The traumatic nature of her injuries and the passionate support that her circumstances have generated among fans have given the whole episode the air of a soap opera. For her first appearance in public after 88 days on Wednesday, the media was geared up for a feeding frenzy.
Chen Ming-chang (陳銘章), the director of I Have a Date With Spring (我和春天有個約會), the film which was being shot when the accident took place, has maintained a low profile since the mishap. This has not proven a particularly effective strategy, for he has been accused of shirking his responsibilities and generally acting like a wimp. He recently made matters worse by posting an extended 2,000 word public apology online. Jen’s friends and fans have jumped on this as a further example of his spinelessness — he has yet to stand forth and face the full wrath of the press pack — but he has also managed to anger fans of Yu Haoming (俞灝明), Selina’s costar who was also injured in the incident. Yu remains in Shanghai undergoing treatment.
Chen has responded by saying that he didn’t make sufficient mention of Yu in the apology simply because it was written in response to reports of Jen’s imminent release from hospital. Fans of both victims are far from appeased. Nevertheless, Chen may lose his position as arch villain after online posts by the assistant director, cameraman and others dismissing Jen’s fans as “crazy people.”
Photo: Taipei Times
It has been suggested that Chen already has another project in the works, and the apology was just his way of moving on from what he probably hopes is just a hiccup in his career.
TV show host and Chen Ming-chang’s friend Chen Wei-min (陳為民) fanned the flames with an ill-advised blog posting that contained comments like: “I know you’re famous. I know you’ve had a hard time. But is it right to attack people like that?” and “He is at fault, but the fault is not all his. Are you going to make accusations at his superiors?” Although the posts made no reference to Jen or Chen Ming-chang, the timing has made the association unavoidable. Chen Wei-min has since denied that the posts referred to Jen, but this hasn’t stopped him from coming under attack for using the incident to gain media exposure for himself.
Subsequent speculation has suggested that the posts might actually have been directed at Ella Chen (陳嘉樺), Selina’s bandmate from S.H.E, who has been particularly harsh in her criticism of Chen Ming-chang for his delay of nearly three months before making a public apology. Will the truth ever be known? The way all those involved are micro-blogging their every thought and action, there is plenty of grist for the gossip mill.
On the bright side, Jen’s fiance Richard Chang (張承中) has stood steadfastly by her through this difficult time. According to Now.com, Jen’s father even broached the subject of calling off the engagement in the light of his daughter’s terrible injuries, but Chang wasn’t looking for a way out. Although Chang was not at Jen’s side for her first press conference, her father was full of praise for his future son-in-law.
At the press conference, Linda Ho (何燕玲), general manager of HIM International Music (華研國際音樂), said that negotiations were still in progress with Hunan TV (湖南衛視), the Chinese TV station who had commissioned I Have a Date With Spring, about compensation.
Although Jen is now out of hospital, Chinese media quoted hospital authorities as saying she will have to return for checkups every week for the next six months and that they would not rule out the possibility of further surgery.
Meanwhile, Jay Chou (周杰倫) was in Beijing this week promoting his latest film The Green Hornet, which judging by reviews coming in from the US and UK, is going to need all the promoting it can get. (It is scheduled to open here next week.) Roger Ebert gives it just one star and describes it as “an almost unendurable demonstration of a movie with nothing to be about.” This sentiment is widely supported by other established critics. Chou gets neither praise nor blame, for he is not able to stand out amid the barrage of criticism directed at lead actor and cowriter Seth Rogen and director Michel Gondry. In fact, according to Sina.com, the Internet Movie Database even had Chou confused with a South Korean actor at one stage, though the error now seems to have been corrected. In an interview, the Chairman said he was unperturbed by his lack of recognition in the West. “This is the way into the Western market,” he said, “Why else would I act in a Hollywood film?”
Chou, Taiwan’s most eligible bachelor, also announced in the interview “that he has been single for too long.” “I sometimes get lonely,” he said. Behind every good businessman, there has to be a good woman, he said, or words to that effect. The news is out: J-girl wanted! His minimum requirement is that she must understand his music. “We need to understand the same language,” he said.
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that would limit semiconductor
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
RSS