Popular cartoonist “Wan Wan” (彎彎) made a public apology to her legions of fans yesterday, after reports of an alleged extramarital affair made the news.
Wan Wan, whose real name is Hu Chia-wei (胡家瑋), faced the media in Taipei at about noon, and bowed in apology. Wearing a mask over her mouth, she refused to speak or answer questions from journalists, as the publisher of her books read out her written statement.
She attended a previously scheduled promotional event in the afternoon, where she also refused to answer reporters’ questions about the alleged affair, less than three weeks after her high-profile marriage on May 17, which was extensively covered by the press.
Photo: CNA
At the end of the promotional event, she ran to catch a taxi after being pursued by photographers and reporters, and was seen covering her face with tears in her eyes.
Highly popular with the younger generation for her humorous cartoons, which are widely posted on social media, the 32-year-old Wan Wan is a celebrity who has appeared in TV commercials and had a guest role in the hit 2011 movie You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們ㄧ起追的女孩).
The revelation of the alleged extra-marital affair is said to have done irreparable damage to her clean, wholesome image, and many of her fans wrote to express their shock and disappointment at the news.
In the Chinese-language Next Media Weekly yesterday, paparazzi photographs showed her out with a man surnamed Huang (黃), who is reported to be her old flame of some years ago.
Wan Wan and Huang, who is a fellow blogger and cartoonist, were seen dining together, enjoying each other’s company and kissing, before they took a night drive to a mountain park on the outskirts of Taipei, according to the report.
Taiwan’s online communities were abuzz over the “Wan Wan affair” yesterday.
Many netizens said they were shocked, especially because she is a newlywed.
“Wan Wan should apologize to her husband, and not to us,” one wrote.
“If this is true, then she should get a divorce. She has set a very bad example to others,” another posted.
Some of her fans defended her, saying that it was Wan Wan’s private business, which was probably a misjudgement on her part, but that they would continue to support her.
Other netizens lamented what they described as a breakdown of morality in society, saying that by carrying on secret liaisons with another man, “she is ruining the sacred tradition of marriage.”
Another disappointed fan surnamed Chang wrote: “I used to be a big fan of yours, and bought many of Wan Wan’s funny cartoons. It’s very disappointing to read about your news. I will not be able to view your cartoons in the same way as before.”
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS