This year was notable for its slew of showbiz weddings, one particularly nasty celebrity divorce and Edison Chen’s (陳冠希) continued lack of luck with keeping his private photos under wraps. Read on for more of this year’s juiciest gossip.
Celebs who tied the knot include TV personality Patty Hou (侯佩岑), singer Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿) and S.H.E member Selina Jen (任家萱), who wed 39-year-old lawyer Richard Chang (張承中) after enduring a year of medical treatments for burns she sustained while filming in China last year. The marriage of Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛, aka Big S) and multimillionaire Wang Xiaofei (汪小菲) was just one in a string of high-profile nuptials that took place last year, but the ceremony on China’s Hainan Island was noteworthy for its lavishness. The Apple Daily reported that the event cost NT$30 million. Hsu’s wedding dress and three reception gowns were worth more than NT$2 million, while a flight the couple chartered for guests set them back NT$4 million. Companies eager for publicity gifted other expenses, including hotel rooms and catering. Even the ring Wang placed on his bride’s hand was reportedly a freebie from sponsors.
While some of their entertainment industry peers were celebrating, the union of Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) crashed in spectacular fashion after Cheung was photographed with her ex-lover Edison Chen while on an airplane.
Photo: Taipei Times
The duo infamously appeared in sexually explicit poses in photos taken by Chen and leaked on the Web in 2008, resulting in a career-busting scandal. Tse was reportedly enraged that Cheung was on friendly terms with Chen again. Rumors of marital strife between Tse and Cheung proved to be true with the announcement of their split in September after several months of bitter wrangling that reportedly centered on the couple’s real estate holdings and custody arrangements for their two sons.
Chen has been slowly trying to rebuild his career over the past three years with a scattering of appearances and promotional deals, but incriminating photos of him just keep popping up.
In addition to the “airplane incident” (機上事件) with Cheung, which took place in May, the 31-year-old Chen was also seen snuggling with 16-year-old model Cammi (real name Hsieh Chih-hui, 謝芷蕙) in a series of intimate, but not sexually explicit, snaps. The photos were allegedly leaked after Cammi lost her cell phone. She vehemently denied media reports that a raunchier two-minute video existed, and insisted that she is still a virgin.
Photo: Taipei Times
Jay Chou (周杰倫) also did his fair share of challenging the media. He has steadfastly denied rumors that he is in a relationship with teenage model Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌), but the two were spotted together on several occasions. Quinlivan was seen cruising around Taipei in one of Chou’s sports cars, which reporters took as a sign that the 18-year-old’s status as “J-wife” (J嫂) is official.
Chou, 32, told the media, however, that speculating about his marital status is pointless, because he has no plans to tie the knot until he is at least 35-years-old.
Meanwhile, the relationship between Chou’s most famous ex, pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), and male model Vivian Dawson (錦榮) appears to still be going strong, though rumors about the latter’s wandering eye appear from time to time.
Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) turned 37 this year, adding a new intensity to speculation about when the supermodel will finally get hitched. One possible contender for her hand is an ex, actor Jerry Yan (言承旭). Another is Scott Chiu (邱士楷), the son of a wealthy toilet manufacturer, but Lin has repeatedly insisted that their relationship is over. The media continue to bring up Chiu’s name, however, probably because it is fun to refer to him as the “toilet prince” (馬桶王子), as reporters occasionally do.
The media’s attempts to goad Chou and Lin into firm answers about their private lives were unsuccessful, but they scored with Hong Kong screen idol Andy Lau (劉德華) who finally confirmed last month that he and wife Carol Chu (朱麗倩) are expecting a baby. The famously discreet long-term couple managed to prevent the paparazzi getting shots of them together for 24 years before photos of the two holding hands hit newsstands in 2009.
Lau announced the pregnancy by thanking God for the “miracle” on his official Web site. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) remarked that it is indeed a miracle that the 45-year-old Chu managed to get knocked up. It appears that the pregnancy will be the gift that keeps on giving in 2012 as reporters keep their eyes locked on Chu’s belly.
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
It is jarring how differently Taiwan’s politics is portrayed in the international press compared to the local Chinese-language press. Viewed from abroad, Taiwan is seen as a geopolitical hotspot, or “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” as the Economist once blazoned across their cover. Meanwhile, tasked with facing down those existential threats, Taiwan’s leaders are dying their hair pink. These include former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), among others. They are demonstrating what big fans they are of South Korean K-pop sensations Blackpink ahead of their concerts this weekend in Kaohsiung.
Taiwan is one of the world’s greatest per-capita consumers of seafood. Whereas the average human is thought to eat around 20kg of seafood per year, each Taiwanese gets through 27kg to 35kg of ocean delicacies annually, depending on which source you find most credible. Given the ubiquity of dishes like oyster omelet (蚵仔煎) and milkfish soup (虱目魚湯), the higher estimate may well be correct. By global standards, let alone local consumption patterns, I’m not much of a seafood fan. It’s not just a matter of taste, although that’s part of it. What I’ve read about the environmental impact of the
Oct 20 to Oct 26 After a day of fighting, the Japanese Army’s Second Division was resting when a curious delegation of two Scotsmen and 19 Taiwanese approached their camp. It was Oct. 20, 1895, and the troops had reached Taiye Village (太爺庄) in today’s Hunei District (湖內), Kaohsiung, just 10km away from their final target of Tainan. Led by Presbyterian missionaries Thomas Barclay and Duncan Ferguson, the group informed the Japanese that resistance leader Liu Yung-fu (劉永福) had fled to China the previous night, leaving his Black Flag Army fighters behind and the city in chaos. On behalf of the
RSS