Last week the DPP raised eyebrows with what seemed like a sexually charged pro-referendum advertisement in which a girl in a school uniform says with a furtive pointing gesture: "My first time. The whole world is watching." The wording of that ad was nebulous enough to make one question one's own decency in reading a sexual double entendre into it. But this week, the KMT-PFP cast all subtlety aside in a similarly laid-out ad in The Great Daily News, with the same text fonts featuring a slinky model, hands on hips, casting an icy glance at the reader and a line at the top that reads: "I won't just give away my first time to you." Luckily, the election is tomorrow, or who knows in what tasteless territory this tit-for-tat will end up.
Keeping in step with the political tensions, the media has been in a frenzy over the past week trying to expose the voting tendencies of Taiwan's stars. Those who would vote for Chen Shui-bian
TVBS Weekly (TVBS
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
candidate puts up NT$1 million. Not surprisingly, the actor known as Andy (
In his first ever overtly political statement, director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) said he has watched Taiwan's domestic political tensions heat up during the presidential campaign with, what he has described, as "growing unease," in a report in the Apple Daily (蘋果日報). In response he established an ethnic group equality alliance and announced plans on Tuesday to shoot a series of documentaries that look at the life experiences of people in Taiwan from various ethnic backgrounds.
All the election-related news -- even in the gossip columns -- has gotten a bit heavy, which is why Pop Stop is grateful to Canto-pop singer Edison Chan
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Then, Steven Chow
Romance was in the air, as well, this week, when Next Magazine
Taiwan can often feel woefully behind on global trends, from fashion to food, and influences can sometimes feel like the last on the metaphorical bandwagon. In the West, suddenly every burger is being smashed and honey has become “hot” and we’re all drinking orange wine. But it took a good while for a smash burger in Taipei to come across my radar. For the uninitiated, a smash burger is, well, a normal burger patty but smashed flat. Originally, I didn’t understand. Surely the best part of a burger is the thick patty with all the juiciness of the beef, the
The ultimate goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the total and overwhelming domination of everything within the sphere of what it considers China and deems as theirs. All decision-making by the CCP must be understood through that lens. Any decision made is to entrench — or ideally expand that power. They are fiercely hostile to anything that weakens or compromises their control of “China.” By design, they will stop at nothing to ensure that there is no distinction between the CCP and the Chinese nation, people, culture, civilization, religion, economy, property, military or government — they are all subsidiary
Nov.10 to Nov.16 As he moved a large stone that had fallen from a truck near his field, 65-year-old Lin Yuan (林淵) felt a sudden urge. He fetched his tools and began to carve. The recently retired farmer had been feeling restless after a lifetime of hard labor in Yuchi Township (魚池), Nantou County. His first piece, Stone Fairy Maiden (石仙姑), completed in 1977, was reportedly a representation of his late wife. This version of how Lin began his late-life art career is recorded in Nantou County historian Teng Hsiang-yang’s (鄧相揚) 2009 biography of him. His expressive work eventually caught the attention
This year’s Miss Universe in Thailand has been marred by ugly drama, with allegations of an insult to a beauty queen’s intellect, a walkout by pageant contestants and a tearful tantrum by the host. More than 120 women from across the world have gathered in Thailand, vying to be crowned Miss Universe in a contest considered one of the “big four” of global beauty pageants. But the runup has been dominated by the off-stage antics of the coiffed contestants and their Thai hosts, escalating into a feminist firestorm drawing the attention of Mexico’s president. On Tuesday, Mexican delegate Fatima Bosch staged a
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