Last week, after much pre-arrival hype on the part of Universal Taiwan, French pop star Alizee hit the tarmac at CKS International Airport and within minutes was chased by Taiwan's notorious TV and newspaper camera crews into the women's toilets, where she hid for almost half an hour. When she finally emerged from the facilities covering her face under her clothes, she attempted to rush through immigration, but didn't get far before she was yelled at to get to the back of the line. A number of newspapers the following day cast the ugly episode as yet another case of a foreign star not paying proper respect to Taiwan's media. The Liberty Times (
impression."
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
As it turns out, the French starlet had a case of "le poo-poo" and was forced to cancel all her appearances on TV shows, all interviews and autograph sessions and leave Taiwan in under 24 hours to recuperate back in France. Before landing in Taiwan, Alizee was doing a promotional sweep through South Korea, where she allegedly picked up a bug that triggered a violent purging of her system. Having rooted out the culprit, The Great Entertainment Daily (
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
Alizee wasn't the only French person to get under people's skin last week. The Apple Daily (
Speaking of groping, last week Pop Stop reported on the recent phenomenon of Ken Chu (
On a more wholesome note, Vivian Hsu (
A marriage set for next year, according to Next Magazine's (
Apple Daily's (
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
Toward the outside edge of Taichung City, in Wufeng District (霧峰去), sits a sprawling collection of single-story buildings with tiled roofs belonging to the Wufeng Lin (霧峰林家) family, who rose to prominence through success in military, commercial, and artistic endeavors in the 19th century. Most of these buildings have brick walls and tiled roofs in the traditional reddish-brown color, but in the middle is one incongruous property with bright white walls and a black tiled roof: Yipu Garden (頤圃). Purists may scoff at the Japanese-style exterior and its radical departure from the Fujianese architectural style of the surrounding buildings. However, the property
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