The unrelenting character assassination of Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) by the Hong Kong media seems to have rubbed off on the kids who should be her fans. On Monday night she and Andy Lau (劉德華) held a press conference to publicize the new movie Big Guy (
Not long ago, Cecilia was the media's sweetheart. So what brought about this spectacular fall from grace? Pop Stop recently reported that Hong Kong paparazzi had snapped shots of her with a voodoo doll, which was presumed to represent her ex Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒). She's also been spotted dressed in bombastic clothes and made a big splash at a concert in China two weeks ago where she provocatively spread her legs in a choreographed routine not unlike Madonna's fabled Like a Virgin performance at the MTV Music Awards.
Given the chauvinistic standards of the gossip rags, her supposedly unseemly behavior has been attributed to her breakup. But the only truly odd behavior on her part, as far as Pop Stop can discern, was her retraction this week of an earlier announcement that she had a foreigner boyfriend, which was reported in Hong Kong's edition of the Apple Daily (蘋果日報) and in The Great Daily News (大成報) as yet another case of her having gone off the rails. It was all a joke, she said. Ha ha.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) was reported in the current edition of Next Magazine (壹週刊) as having turned down a part in the next Johnny To (杜琪峰) film after the director had openly criticized her lackluster performance in Turn Left, Turn Right (向左走向右走), which he directed.
No matter how poorly He Li-hsiu (河莉秀) acts, the sultry South Korean starlet, whose main gimmick is that she started her life as a boy [and had a sex change], always overshadows the other actresses. Her limelight snatching rubbed actress Wu Pei-tsi (吳佩慈) up so badly this week that at a press conference about the show they both star in called Honey (親愛的), Wu lashed out complaining that she was, in fact, the star. "Why are her photos always so pretty [on the promotional posters] and the other actors' just ones taken at rehearsal?" Wu said. She even snapped at He's tendency to wear revealing blouses and dresses. "Ai ya, her chest can be made as big as she wants it to be."
This weekend's major pop event will be Lee Hom Wang's (
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
Tonight in front of the Presidential Office Shunza (順子) is billed to take the stage as part of the Double Ten Day celebrations. The selection of singers for any event related to celebrating Taiwan has been sensitive ever since A-mei (阿妹) was barred for a year from performances and product endorsements in China after she sang the national anthem at President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) inauguration in 2000. But Shunza was quoted in local papers as saying she's "not scared at all" of any repercussions from across the strait. Easy for her to say, she has an American passport.
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
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