Huang Pin-yuan (黃品源) has been married for 16 years — but all bets are off that the singer and actor will make it to his 17th anniversary after he was spotted taking 19-year-old model Yang Chia-hsin (楊佳欣) to a roadside motel.
Nicknamed “Motel Girl” (摩鐵女) by the media, Yang has attempted to keep a low profile since news of the alleged tryst broke last week, but the previously obscure model’s online photo album, featuring shots of her competing in a bikini contest, quickly climbed to Wretch.cc’s list of the top-five most visited Web sites hosted on its blogging platform.
After news of the scandal first emerged, Huang said that he would hold a press conference to clear the air, but since then has remained mum on the matter. His manager, however, has been busy trying to salvage Huang’s reputation, first by insisting that Yang is like a “niece” to his client and that Huang was innocently taking her to the motel to introduce her to a director. Both Huang and Yang are graduates of Ling Tung University (嶺東科技大學) in Taichung. As gossip reporters excitedly discovered, Yang has addressed her supposed lover as “Teacher Huang” (黃老師) in Facebook postings.
Photo: Taipei Times
Huang’s manager also said that Motel Girl is acquainted with Huang’s wife Wu Ruo-ping (巫若萍), also known as Mi-er (蜜兒).
News of Huang’s supposed dalliance hit Wu by surprise, reports the Apple Daily. After learning about the motel incident on the news, she angrily demanded a divorce.
Also waging an increasingly unsuccessful battle to keep her love life out of the news is pop singer Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹) aka A-mei (阿妹), who has been spotted several times over the past year with a bartender known to the media as Sam.
A-mei has steadfastly denied rumors of a relationship, but she is finding it more difficult to “hide the flames of her love,” reported the Apple Daily. At a press conference in Hong Kong, A-mei let slip that she is dating someone but quickly clammed up. “I really can’t talk about it,” she told reporters.
Earlier at the event, A-mei had divulged that she has to buckle down and start dieting because she indulged herself during a three-week vacation. When asked whom she had been indulging with, A-mei said, “It’s a secret!” She had been spotted watching Sam shoot hoops at a basketball court, however, during her time off.
When pressed about the many photos of her out and about with the bartender, A-mei chastised reporters for getting overexcited.
“It’s normal to have friends and I have a normal life,” she insisted.
According to the Apple Daily, A-mei, who has been previously linked to basketball star Sam Ho (何守正) and fellow pop star Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), met Sam the Bartender in November of 2010 while he was mixing up drinks at a whiskey bar. Taken by his good looks and cocktail making skills, A-mei got further acquainted with Sam through a series of long phone chats and the two were soon inseparable.
After A-mei acknowledged that she is seeing someone, her manager tried to backtrack, insisting that his client was confused by the question because of the reporter’s Cantonese accent. But A-mei has yet to issue (yet another) denial of her fledgling relationship.
In other news, Hong Kong’s Oriental Sunday (東方新地) reported that movie idol Andy Lau (劉德華) has moved his pregnant wife Carol Chu (朱麗倩) into a luxury apartment located in a relatively quiet neighborhood of Kowloon. The change of residence was prompted after paparazzi descended on Chu while she was out grocery shopping. Lau made sure that the new apartment complex is near a park and a market so that Chu, who enjoys cooking, can pick out her own fresh vegetables.
But Lau’s precautions won’t stop media intrusion. Reports have already stated that 46-year-old Chu has planned a cesarean section for her June delivery.
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.
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