Boy bands are supposed to be filled with doe-eyed cuddly hunks, right? Not necessarily, as proven by the disconcerting news last week that Chang Shu-wei (張書偉) of the band Energy, finalized an out-of-court settlement with an ex-girlfriend, whom he beat in November of 2002. According to a report in the Liberty Times (自由時報), Chang's ex-girlfriend, surnamed Hsieh (謝), came to Chang's house to wake him for class and for doing that favor was beaten in the head, neck and back by Chang, who was reportedly still drunk from the previous night's revelry and did not want to get out of bed. Chang reportedly threw his comforter over Hsieh, trapping her underneath it, and beat and kicked her. Hsieh was treated at Renai Hospital for minor cuts and bruises. The two sides reached a settlement for NT$160,000.
After pseudo-alternative rock singer Chang Chen-yue's (張震嶽) stunt comparing Taiwanese and Western sausage sizes (Taiwanese are much bigger) last week for the media, as reported in Pop Stop, the singer aimed a sharp comment at Jay Chou (周杰倫) on TVBS-G this week. On the station's entertainment news show, A-yue (阿嶽) said Jay's songs sucked and that the supposed king of Mando-pop hadn't improved since coming onto the scene some four years ago. The China Times (中國時報) followed up with a call to Jay's label Alfa, which indulged with a simple barbed rebuke that album sales should speak for themselves. Chang sells a fraction of Jay's total album sales.
Last weekend Lee Hom Wang (王立宏) showed his ambitions of climbing the ladder toward becoming the biggest star in Mando-pop with a huge concert in Shanghai attended by 80,000 fans. Wang set a record for a Taiwanese pop star putting on a show in China by spending NT$20 million on the stage, sound system and lights. Even the misty rains that fell all month in Shanghai let up for the show, a stroke of luck attributed in reports to Wang's lucky pair of black underwear that he wears for shows. Not in attendance at the concert was Wang's buddy A-mei (阿妹), but the crowd chanted her name nevertheless. If Chinese fans of A-mei were upset she couldn't make Wang's Shanghai show, they'll be vindicated in Beijing at the end of this month when she puts on a concert in Beijing -- barring any last-minute
PHOTO: LIBERTY TIMES
complications.
Hebe of the red-hot girl band S.H.E. revealed something new about herself in Sunday's Apple Daily (蘋果日報). In a tender reminiscence to a moment in elementary school, the singer said she accidentally let rip with a fart that was audible to the entire school amassed at the morning flag-raising ceremony. Hebe said she tried to play it off as though nothing had happened.
Always ready to rub salt in wounds, Next Magazine (壹週刊) made a cover story this week of Little S' reaction to the reported love affair between TV news anchor Hou Pei-tsen (
TV host and crooner Chang Fei (張菲) has been ultra-busy lately, having released an album of old lounge tunes and doing the voice-over for the Chinese version of the animated Garfield movie due out July 23. At the press conference announcing the movie's upcoming release, Chang said he was perfect for the role because, like Garfield, he is "humorous, interesting, smart, lazy and lecherous."
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
When the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces 50 years ago this week, it prompted a mass exodus of some 2 million people — hundreds of thousands fleeing perilously on small boats across open water to escape the communist regime. Many ultimately settled in Southern California’s Orange County in an area now known as “Little Saigon,” not far from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, where the first refugees were airlifted upon reaching the US. The diaspora now also has significant populations in Virginia, Texas and Washington state, as well as in countries including France and Australia.
On April 17, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) launched a bold campaign to revive and revitalize the KMT base by calling for an impromptu rally at the Taipei prosecutor’s offices to protest recent arrests of KMT recall campaigners over allegations of forgery and fraud involving signatures of dead voters. The protest had no time to apply for permits and was illegal, but that played into the sense of opposition grievance at alleged weaponization of the judiciary by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to “annihilate” the opposition parties. Blamed for faltering recall campaigns and faced with a KMT chair
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
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