The rich and famous can usually be counted on to embarrass themselves for our entertainment, especially with the media already antsy about the way they were treated during the March 22 wedding of Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛, aka Big S) and Chinese restaurateur Wang Xiaofei (汪小菲) last week. At the nuptials, Chinese businesswoman Zhang Lan (張蘭), the mother of the groom, made some expansive claims about how good her connections in China were, claiming close ties with businessman Wang Jianlin (王健林), whose Wanda Group (萬達集團) owns the Sanya Sheraton Hotel where the wedding took place.
His son Wang Sicong (王思聰), who is CEO of the financial group, said in an online post that Zhang had never met his father, and while the hotel may have offered discounts for accommodation for the wedding party, it certainly was not free. Fans of Big S have taken to the Internet in defense of their idol, but Zhang and her son haven’t won any points from these accusations of rumormongering.
A number of romantic entanglements were picked up on the celebrity radar over the past week. One involved actress Novia Lin (林若亞) and Edwin Gerard (紀亞文). Lin has strenuously denied any connection with Gerard, a Chinese American male model eight years her junior, but the intrepid paparazzi of Next Magazine caught them on camera this week holding hands and sharing an umbrella. These steamy revelations of public intimacy have led to all kinds of speculation that the 34-year-old actress might be casting off her previously demure facade for something a little more titillating. She is currently promoting the Golden Bell Award-nominated television soap Shan Huen (閃昏), in which she plays a forceful woman with a fondness for sadomasochistic sex, and has also started modeling lingerie.
Photo: Taipei Times
Another romantic entanglement to make the pages of Next Magazine was the seemingly surreptitious meeting between actress Shu Qi (舒淇) and Eddie Peng (彭于晏), who has been quoted as having described Shu as “a goddess.” Shu should have headed back to Shenzhen from the Maldives after attending the March 26 wedding of good friend Kelly Lin (林熙蕾), but she took a detour via Taipei, where she met Peng at the well-known night spot Fucking Place (操場).
Numerous friends and colleagues were there as well, but Next Magazine suggests that there may be something a little more to the meeting than a casual get together. The venue’s name may have sent paparazzi into a frenzy, but the two actors have a long-standing friendship, and while there have been rumors of possible romantic involvement, the sighting last week adds little substance to the case the gossip rags are trying to build.
In other news, Jay Chou (周杰倫) may have reason to congratulate himself. Although he endured many insults as a result of his participation in a subsidiary role in The Green Hornet superhero movie, it got him noticed among young Americans.
Pop Stop felt a rush of patriotic excitement when it saw rumors that Chou had been nominated for the MTV Music Awards. Closer investigation revealed that he has been “nominated to be nominated,” and has joined the likes of Aaron Johnson from Kick-Ass, Arnie Hammer from The Social Network and Alex Pettyfer from I Am Number Four as eligible nominees for the 2011 “Best Male Breakout Star.” Other accolades include his appearance on the nomination list for Time magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people. He’s clearly on the road to becoming Taiwan’s first international star of stage and screen.
From the last quarter of 2001, research shows that real housing prices nearly tripled (before a 2012 law to enforce housing price registration, researchers tracked a few large real estate firms to estimate housing price behavior). Incomes have not kept pace, though this has not yet led to defaults. Instead, an increasing chunk of household income goes to mortgage payments. This suggests that even if incomes grow, the mortgage squeeze will still make voters feel like their paychecks won’t stretch to cover expenses. The housing price rises in the last two decades are now driving higher rents. The rental market
Fifty-five years ago, a .25-caliber Beretta fired in the revolving door of New York’s Plaza Hotel set Taiwan on an unexpected path to democracy. As Chinese military incursions intensify today, a new documentary, When the Spring Rain Falls (春雨424), revisits that 1970 assassination attempt on then-vice premier Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). Director Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢) raises the question Taiwan faces under existential threat: “How do we safeguard our fragile democracy and precious freedom?” ASSASSINATION After its retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime under Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) imposed a ruthless military rule, crushing democratic aspirations and kidnapping dissidents from
July 28 to Aug. 3 Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) reportedly maintained a simple diet and preferred to drink warm water — but one indulgence he enjoyed was a banned drink: Coca-Cola. Although a Coca-Cola plant was built in Taiwan in 1957, It was only allowed to sell to the US military and other American agencies. However, Chiang’s aides recall procuring the soft drink at US military exchange stores, and there’s also records of the Presidential Office ordering in bulk from Hong Kong. By the 1960s, it wasn’t difficult for those with means or connections to obtain Coca-Cola from the
It looks like a restaurant — but it’s food for the mind. Kaohsiung’s Pier-2 Art Center is currently hosting Comic Bento (漫畫便當店), an immersive and quirky exhibition that spotlights Taiwanese comic and animation artists. The entire show is designed like a playful bento shop, where books, plushies and installations are laid out like food offerings — with a much deeper cultural bite. Visitors first enter what looks like a self-service restaurant. Comics, toys and merchandise are displayed buffet-style in trays typically used for lunch servings. Posters on the walls present each comic as a nutritional label for the stories and an ingredient
RSS