Pop Stop reported last week that Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) was going to sue the Hong Kong edition of the Apple Daily, and its sister weekly Next Magazine, after both gossip rags said that she allegedly prostituted herself out to wealthy Chinese businessmen. Well, on Monday she made good on her word.
An article in the Apple last month alleged that Zhang “is a prostitute” and had sex with disgraced Chinese official Bo Xilai (薄熙來) and a wealthy associate for money, on numerous occasions, court documents showed.
The daily reported that the 33-year-old Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) and Rush Hour 2 star had sex with other top Chinese officials and had amassed a whopping fortune of close to NT$3.3 billion (US$110 million) as a result. Though the original story was removed from the tabloid’s Web site following Monday’s suit, pretty much every other media outlet in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China continue to report on it.
Photo: Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Chinese actress Fang Bingbing (范冰冰) has sued renowned Chinese playwright and film critic Bi Chenggong (畢成功) and a Guizhou-based news blog over allegations that she was the “mastermind” behind the Zhang sex scandal rumors.
Bi made a post on his microblog that suggested Fang was a notorious rabble rouser and had planned for months to spread the rumors before the release of Dangerous Liaisons (危險關係), a film starring Zhang that was shown at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Netizens speculated that the rumors were behind her absence from the festival.
Repeatedly denying the rumors, Fang has filed a defamation suit against Bi to the tune of NT$2.5 million.
Photo: Taipei Times
While some of Asia’s celebutantes are fighting off rumors of sexual impropriety (surprise, surprise), others are fighting off overzealous fans. S.H.E member Ella Chen (陳嘉樺) was stabbed by a female fan in France last week, reported the United Daily News.
The recently married Chen was in Paris with her cosmetics executive husband Alvin Lai (賴斯翔), who was on a business trip, when a fan approached the 30 year old while posting pictures of her trip on her Facebook account in a cafe.
The “lunatic,” as the popular singer later said, got angry when Chen refused to give her an interview or sign autographs, and lunged at her with a pen, stabbing her in the chest. She then drew on Chen’s left arm.
But Chen took it in her stride. Though shaken by the incident, warning other celebrities to “be careful,” she still took time out to meet up with fans for a photo session.
Crazy fans are something Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) knows something about. After arriving at an airport in Chongqing, China at the end of last month on her way to Beijing, the pop diva was accosted by an overzealous male fan.
“Jolin Tsai, I love you,” he bellowed as he attempted to wrap his arms around the songstress, according to NOWnews.
Though other assembled fans were clearly peeved by the fanboys’ presumptuous behavior, Tsai for her part laughed off the “attack.”
She was later quoted as saying that she was less concerned for her safety than the fan being blacklisted by other fans.
Meanwhile, the vernacular media have been reporting the possibility that bible-thumping chick magnet Van Ness Wu (吳建豪) might be getting hitched to on-again-off-again girlfriend Arissa Cheo (姚之寧).
The couple first hooked up in 2006 when Cheo helped Wu film a music video, but amicably broke up a year later. After getting back together in 2010, Wu allegedly proposed, only to be rebuffed by the Singaporean sweetheart’s parents because of his job as entertainer.
NOWnews reported that Wu had finally proposed to Cheo at the end of last month in Singapore. But he put the kibosh on the rumors this week.
“I’ll share the good news when it comes,” he said in a statement.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built