This week, after three wildly successful years in the business, Sun Yanzi (
The Singaporean-born, Taiwan-based singer released six albums in the three years since she burst onto the scene seemingly from out of nowhere. Last week she released her seventh record, called The Moment, which is a compilation with five new tracks and made her farewell concert at last week's MTV show in Taipei.
In the Liberty Times Yanzi has written a farewell journal-style series addressed to her fans in which she says her main reasons for stepping out of the business for a period of time are personal. That's really not surprising at all, considering she's released an album at a rate of one every six months and has been tirelessly jetting around the region for concerts and endorsements.
In her own words, she says "there have been many things" she hasn't been able to savor, and many bad things she hasn't "been able to fully digest."
Fair enough. It's not every star that makes a graceful exit from the business, although Yanzi insists she'll be back.
A going away gift for Yanzi would be her nomination for best female singer in the International Chinese Music Charts (
Curiously, Karen Mok (
On the men's side, the category is crowded with big names like Andy Lau (
If album sales are a factor in determining who wins, then the smart money will be on Jay Chou, whose newest album moved 80,000 copies in two weeks in Taiwan, which is a lot these days.
One band that isn't on the nomination list for any award is F4, that discardable flash-in-the-pan boy band of last summer. Not that the members care. They've mostly made smooth segues into TV. Last week, Tsai Tsai (
Audiences also got to see a lot more of TV host Chang Fei (
As spellbinding as Chang Fei going nude sounds, most people will probably be more eager to see the match-up of Chang Chen (
About a month ago, Pop Stop reported on the sad romantic fate of Lin You-wei (
Well, shed no more tears, because Lin has rebounded nicely by having a date with Little S (
To that, Little S turned and asked Lin if he had a big bed. He didn't answer then, but maybe now she knows.
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
Though the total area of Penghu isn’t that large, exploring all of it — including its numerous outlying islands — could easily take a couple of weeks. The most remote township accessible by road from Magong City (馬公市) is Siyu (西嶼鄉), and this place alone deserves at least two days to fully appreciate. Whether it’s beaches, architecture, museums, snacks, sunrises or sunsets that attract you, Siyu has something for everyone. Though only 5km from Magong by sea, no ferry service currently exists and it must be reached by a long circuitous route around the main island of Penghu, with the
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