What do Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), Big S (real name Barbie Hsu, 徐熙媛), Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝), Fan Bingbing (范冰冰), Fish Leong (梁靜茹), Raymond Lam (林峰), and Angelababy (aka Yang Ying, 楊穎) all have in common? Nips and tucks, ladies and gentlemen, nips and tucks.
Or so claims Taiwanese celebrity makeup artist Ray Chen, according to NOWnews and the United Daily News. Chen made the “revelation” (as if we didn’t all know anyway) last week on a variety show in Thailand, where he declared that he was tired of hearing celebrities tout their makeup artists as the reason why they look so good.
“We aren’t miracle workers,” Chen said.
Photo: Taipei Times
He said that there was nothing wrong with going under the knife, but celebrities should own up to it if they do. And so, what have they done?
Chinese actress Fan has fixed her double eyelids and chin, Big S has a penchant for Botox, and Malaysian singer Leong has had work done on her eyes, nose and chin, the reports said.
Chen criticized Elva Hsiao’s (蕭亞軒) surgeon — or surgeons — for making her look “more horrifying with every surgery,” while Tsai’s doctor(s) came in for praise because she looks “more and more beautiful” with every cut of the knife.
But Chen reserved his tastiest comments for Hong Kong “sex goddess” (性感女神) Angelababy.
“Baby’s the most astounding,” Chen said of the model and actress. “Wherever it’s possible to have work done, she’s done it,” he said.
Cheung came in for special scrutiny as well.
“Her breasts are too perfect,” Chen said. “Usually, women with large breasts have big arms. Her arms are too skinny. The proportion is wrong. She’s either had breast implants, or she’s done upper arm liposuction,” he said.
As if Cheung doesn’t have enough problems. Her marital woes with Nicolas Tse (謝霆鋒) continue to go from bad to worse to, er, worser. It looks as though the divorce that gossip hounds have been predicting since the “airplane incident” (機上事件), which refers to a chance encounter between ex-lover Edison Chen (陳冠希) and Cheung on a flight in May, will come to pass. At least, that is, if fan predictions are correct.
A recent poll revealed that 64 percent of respondents believe the two will divorce, with 57 percent saying they supported Cheung, according to NOWnews.
Chinese Television System (中華電視公司), meanwhile, reported that the Hong Kong glitterati are throwing their support behind Tse, while Taiwan’s celebrities are backing Cheung. Well, not all of them.
Singer, producer, director and actor Jay Chou (周杰倫) defended Tse when asked for a comment. “He’s got a high EQ … If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to stand all the media scrutiny,” Chou said, referring to the scrum of paparazzi who have kept an endless vigil outside Tse’s door over the past month.
And it would seem that Tse still has feelings for Cheung. At a press conference in Beijing earlier this week, a haggard-looking Tse admitted that though there are problems with his marriage, he is standing by Cheung, if only for his two boys.
“It makes me sad when my wife is accused of being bad because it reflects negatively on my children,” he said. “I still love and miss her. But at this point I really don’t know how to carry on.”
Sina.com reported a rumor that Tse served Cheung with divorce papers before she left for a trip to Europe. She returned to Hong Kong on Tuesday, but refused to comment. Stay tuned for updates on the ongoing saga.
And finally, Pop Stop ends this week on a positive note: Web site xinmsn.com reported that Selina Jen (任家萱) of popular band S.H.E will marry sweetheart Richard Chang (張承中) on her Oct. 31 birthday, according to comments made by her father, Jen Ming-ting (任明廷). We wish her the best of luck.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not