Show Luo’s (羅志祥, also known as Alan Luo) new album Count on Me (有我在) is a bestseller, cementing his status as one of the country’s top hearthrobs, but the pop star and actor has an Achilles’ Heel: his foot fetish.
Luo is currently filming romantic comedy Heartbeat Love (再一次心跳) with his best friend and frequent acting partner Rainie Yang (楊丞琳). The two recently made a joint appearance on popular talk show Here Comes Kangxi (康熙來了). During taping, Yang taunted Luo for his interest in feet, announcing to the audience that her buddy loves looking at women’s toes. She even kicked off one of her pink high heels and shoved her bare foot into Luo’s face while he giggled hysterically and blushed.
Yang let slip that even though Luo loves looking at other people’s toes, he always keeps his own feet hidden away.
Photo: Taipei Times
“My toes are short, like tempura,” Luo confessed, adding that he always wears socks, even in the privacy of his own home. If he has to bare his feet when filming, Luo forbids close-ups of his tootsies.
Heartbeat Love is the third film that will show Yang and Luo swapping spit. The Apple Daily reported that when they first acted together three years ago, Luo bragged that Yang had declared him a good kisser. On Here Comes Kangxi, however, the two claimed that there was zero possibility of any romantic chemistry between them.
Meanwhile, some disgruntled fans took to Facebook to lodge complaints against Luo, but it wasn’t because of his foot fetish. A page was set up to protest Luo’s participation in the Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), saying that his appearance would “defile” the “sacred” award ceremony. It denounced Luo’s promotional tactics, which included offering personal photos or hugs in exchange for album purchases at a recent signing event, and accused him of treating music like a “moneymaking tool.” So far, however, it seems like Luo is the one laughing all the way to the bank. The Facebook page has fewer than 200 fans despite media exposure in major papers like the Apple Daily and the United Daily News.
Gossip rags were also busy covering the continuing saga of Edison Chen’s (陳冠希) photogenic misadventures. The scandal-beleaguered star was rumored to have split up with model Cammi Tse (謝芷蕙) after he was spotted partying with 20-year-old makeup artist Suki Huang (黃雪瑩) at last week’s Coachella music festival in California. Huang posted photos on her Facebook, which quickly made their way to the rest of the Internet.
Chen has been hard at work trying to revitalize his career by recording a new album and working on a film in Beijing. His love life, however, continues to take center stage. One of Huang’s photos showed her soaking in a bubble bath. Though there was no proof, netizens wondered if Chen took the snapshot. Reporters have not been able to confirm a romance, but they have managed to suss out Huang’s alleged height (163cm), weight (46kg) and even her bra size (32B).
When not scouring the Web for Edison Chen photos, the media spent the past week diligently monitoring Stefanie Sun’s (孫燕姿) belly for signs of a baby bump. The singer has been married to Dutch-Indonesian Nadim Van Der Ros for a year, but has yet to announce a pregnancy. Van Der Ros recently participated in an environmental awareness event, vowing to film himself biking while wearing one of his wife’s dresses. Nadim kept his promise, uploading a video of him cycling while sporting a bright red dress Sun had previously worn to an awards ceremony, reported the United Daily News.
But the couple’s unique spin on drag racing only managed to distract the media for a little bit. Rumors have ramped up that Sun is pregnant and will give birth during the Year of the Dragon, but the singer has steadfastly kept mum on the matter.
Also keeping a low profile is baseball star Wang Chien-ming’s (王建民) wife Wu Chia-ling (吳嘉姈). Wang recently admitted in a press conference to having an eight-month-long affair two years ago, but said his wife had since forgiven him. Wu did not appear at the conference, but she was spotted by the Liberty Times, (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) dropping Wang off at a practice, where she hugged him and spoke a few words of encouragement before driving off.
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.
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
I was 10 when I read an article in the local paper about the Air Guitar World Championships, which take place every year in my home town of Oulu, Finland. My parents had helped out at the very first contest back in 1996 — my mum gave out fliers, my dad sorted the music. Since then, national championships have been held all across the world, with the winners assembling in Oulu every summer. At the time, I asked my parents if I could compete. At first they were hesitant; the event was in a bar, and there would be a lot