The media has been closely following the trials and tribulations of Taiwanese baseball sensation Wang Chien-ming (王建民), who last week became the center of attention after revelations surfaced that he had an extramarital affair with an Asian American woman two years ago. Efforts to give the story legs have been largely unsuccessful, as Wang’s wife, Wu Chia-ling (吳嘉姈), though keeping a low profile, is said to have forgiven him this transgression. Rumors that Wang may have been the victim of blackmail sparked interest for a while, putting the spotlight on Cyndi Cho, Wang’s erstwhile lover.
This week, Next Magazine published a report dealing with Cho’s side of the story, and concluded, “after interviews with the principals and extensive investigation,” that Cho is innocent of any wrongdoing.
The affair came to light after the publication of photos of Wang together with Cho taken when the pitcher was recovering from a shoulder injury in 2009.
Photo: Taipei Times
According to the report, Cho had in fact used the publicizing of photos on her cellphone as a threat when seeking to maintain a relationship that Wang was trying to break off. It added that the leaked photos did come from Cho’s cellphone, but that this phone had been lost and Cho was not the person who tried to sell the photos to the media. Cho said she had never extorted money from Wang, though he had always been generous in his gifts of jewelry and designer fashion accessories.
There remain suspicions that the person who leaked the photos was someone close to Cho, or who was familiar with her background. Next revealed that the blackmailer had originally sought a payoff from Wang of US$180,000 (approximately NT$5.24 million), but having been refused, had hawked the pics to media outlets for US$10,000 (NT$290,000). Cho is quoted in the magazine as saying that she felt Wang was both a “good man and a good father to his son.” That and other positive aspects of Wang’s acceptance of blame and apology seem to have ensured that he will emerge from this crisis unscathed.
Pop star Edison Chen (陳冠希) is still hurting from the effects of his sex scandal. It is hard to believe that it is nearly three years since graphic details of his sexual exploits with a number of celebrities, some married, hit the Net. Since then, Chen has been in the wilderness, trying every possible means to get back into the charmed circle of Asian celebrity life from which he was expelled for his impropriety. He is not without strong supporters, including Taiwan’s pop superstar Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Hong Kong singer Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文). He is now hanging on the skirt of Lady Gaga, who is visiting the region for her sellout Born This Way Ball tour, posting photos of himself with the pop star.
“You see, I consort with the biggest stars in the business,” he seems to be saying to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, he still seems a long way from being welcomed back as a prodigal son.
Another person who seems unable to stay out of the media is TV entertainer Frankie Kao (高凌風). His separation from his third wife Chin Yu-chuang (金友莊) kept entertainment editors busy until February, after which Kao has been relatively quiet. Last week, he burst onto the pages of the gossip rags once again after announcing to media in China that since February he has had two one-night stands, and talking expansively about the profound impact of these encounters. When subsequently contacted by the China Times for confirmation, Kao denied these exploits, saying that he thought the Chinese media would be too conservative to print this material and he had made up the encounters so he would not look like he had lost his virility. Whether they are true or not, the whole affair seems to suggest that Kao is losing his grip. The situation is given an ironic twist by the fact that Kao is in China as a regular guest of the dating show whose title translates as Mad About Marriage (結婚也瘋狂).
Ukrainian-born model and wannabe actress Larisa Angela Bakurova (瑞莎) may not be making a huge impact in her professions of choice, but her active love life has certainly drawn media attention. Next Magazine’s intrepid paparazzi have been on her heels and have come up trumps as they caught her getting it on with former boyfriend Jiro Wang (汪東城) after seeing current boyfriend Mike off in the morning of the same day. Bakurova has no scruples about playing the field, and why should she: the boys are fair game.
On Facebook a friend posted a dashcam video of a vehicle driving through the ash-colored wasteland of what was once Taroko Gorge. A crane appears in the video, and suddenly it becomes clear: the video is in color, not black and white. The magnitude 7.2 earthquake’s destruction on April 3 around and above Taroko and its reverberations across an area heavily dependent on tourism have largely vanished from the international press discussions as the news cycle moves on, but local residents still live with its consequences every day. For example, with the damage to the road corridors between Yilan and
May 13 to May 19 While Taiwanese were eligible to take the Qing Dynasty imperial exams starting from 1686, it took more than a century for a locally-registered scholar to pass the highest levels and become a jinshi (進士). In 1823, Hsinchu City resident Cheng Yung-hsi (鄭用錫) traveled to Beijing and accomplished the feat, returning home in great glory. There were technically three Taiwan residents who did it before Cheng, but two were born in China and remained registered in their birthplaces, while historians generally discount the third as he changed his residency back to Fujian Province right after the exams.
With William Lai’s (賴清德) presidential inauguration coming up on May 20, both sides of the Taiwan Strait have been signaling each other, possibly about re-opening lines of communication. For that to happen, there are two ways this could happen, one very difficult to achieve and the other dangerous. During his presidential campaign and since Lai has repeatedly expressed his hope to re-establish communication based on equality and mutual respect, and even said he hoped to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) over beef noodles and bubble tea. More dramatically, as explored in the May 2 edition of this column,
Tiffany Chang (張芳瑜) is a force to be reckoned with. Crowned Miss Taiwanese American in 2022, she made history last year as the first Taiwanese winner of Miss Asia USA. She’s also a STEM student at Stanford and an aspiring philanthropist — the kind of impressive accolades that has earned her the moniker “light of Taiwan.” At the end of March, Chang returned to Taipei, to “see the people that support me because ultimately that’s what made me win.” She says her Taiwanese supporters shower her with praise: “you inspire us, and you make us feel proud of our Taiwanese heritage,”