Though the summer saw a slew of celebrity marriages, romance is cooling off in the autumn with several breakups. Receiving top billing, of course, is the hyper-public divorce of actress and singer Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and actor Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒). After months of marital squabbles following the “airplane incident,” — the name given to an encounter in May between Cheung and Canto-pop star Edison Chen (陳冠希) — the couple confirmed that they were calling it quits at the end of last month.
And it would seem that the chance meet between the former lovers has also caused a permanent rift in Chen’s relationship with girlfriend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴), according to NOWnews and the China Times. Although Yeung stood by Chen following the 2008 photo scandal in which shots of him pictured in flagrante delicto were leaked to the public, she is alleged to have been furious about Chen and Cheung’s renewed friendship. Chen’s alleged booty call to lingerie model and ex-flame Gloria Wong (黃榕) in June probably didn’t help either.
Yeung has reportedly stopped following Chen’s microblog and refuses to take his calls.
Photo: Taipei Times
For his part, Chen, who is currently in New York, is trying to salvage the relationship by posting on his microblog cutesy images of himself alone with captions such as “Love” and “Where am I going now?”
Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), meanwhile, continues to fend off rumors that her boyfriend Vivian Dawson is a man about town. Yam News reported that Dawson spent a holiday in Thailand with Hong Kong model Hidy Yu (余曉彤) after pictures of the two frolicking were leaked on the Internet.
“Nothing has changed in our relationship,” Tsai told reporters when queried about the images. She added that she hopes to wed by age 40, according to the Apple Daily. Dawson, for his part, noted that he has been friends with Yu for years and that the photos were snapped years ago.
A storm in a teacup? Probably. Yu, who is also attached, admitted to touring Thailand with Dawson, but said the trip was too short to have sparked love.
In other celebrity squabbles, Hong Kong actress and UNICEF’s Ambassador to China Maggie Cheung (張曼玉) just can’t seem to hang on to her man. NOWnews reported that Cheung, 47, looked frail and drawn last week after rumors emerged that her 40-year-old squeeze of four years, architect Ole Scheeren, had taken an amorous interest in a 30-year-old fashion designer.
Hong Kong’s Oriental Sunday was more pointed. After spotting Cheung at a Hong Kong airport, the magazine reported that she had a “neck of tree roots, skeletal fingers and looked pitiful,” (樹根頸和白骨爪暴現, 實在是我見猶憐), which is a stark contrast to the almost celestial poise she usually displays.
Ole’s alleged indiscretions follow earlier rumors that he was two-timing Cheung with a 20-year-old colleague. The subtext to this news appears to be that Cheung should be dating someone her own age. As the Chinese media pointed out, she’s experienced “eight failed relationships and a broken marriage.”
But not everything is so gloomy on the romance front. At a press conference held last week to promote a jewelry exhibit, 18-year-old Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌) said she was ready for marriage, reported the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). This follows on the heels of a trip to France last month with alleged beau Jay Chou (周杰倫). But Quinlivan was quick to quash rumors they are a couple, stating that they slept in separate beds. She added that it wasn’t fair to assume they were a couple if they weren’t photographed holding hands.
In other wedding news, Selina Jen (任家萱) and fiance Richard Chang (張承中) aren’t sleeping together, sina.com reported. Chang said at a charity auction last week that he’s been sleeping on the couch since the couple moved into new digs. But fans of the couple needn’t be concerned their relationship and betrothal are on the rocks. The gallant Chang has been keeping out of the bedroom because “Selina’s skin is still very fragile,” he said, adding that Jen has to wear a suit that covers her body to help her recover from burns received in an accident last year.
“Her hands are wrapped up like Doraemon,” Chang said, referring to the Japanese manga character that has balloon-like hands. Jen will wear a specially designed bandage at their wedding, scheduled for Oct. 31, so Chang can fit the ring on her finger.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist