Jacky Wu (吳宗憲), who's made a career as a TV comedian, dropped probably the biggest joke of his life last week when he announced his possible contention on an independent ticket for a legislative seat to represent Taipei's southern district in elections set for November. The only things holding him back at this stage, he told media this week, were his father's and wife's objections.
As for his colorful record of public philandering and most recently driving drunk without a license, these don't seem to raise any questions in his mind about possible doubts voters may have about his trustworthiness when it comes to formulating national policy and handling their tax money. In fact, he has a couple of policy ideas of his own. He's quoted as telling media that his first mission, if elected, will be to get all paparazzi kicked out of Taiwan, singling out Next Magazine (壹週刊) and Apple Daily (蘋果日報) as targets of his impending media purge.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Part of what prompted his legislative bid is Jacky's current court case against a fan named Linda, who revealed an affair to Next Magazine, she alleges to have had with the TV host. So far, the case remains undecided, but if that one fails, there's always the one brought by his wife against Linda, who once wrote a song for pop singer Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒), that accuses Linda of trying to harm the Wu family.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
This week Ella of the pop group S.H.E. spent several days refuting a report on a Chinese Web site that "revealed" that she was previously a boy until a sex change made her a girl. Responding to the minor storm kicked up over the report, she told the Liberty Times (自由時報): "Yeah, I'm a boy. Why don't I just pull it out right here and pee on the floor?" She was joking, of course, but the tom-boyish Ella has been deflecting rumors about her sexual orientation since the group was formed a couple years ago.
More sex organs were in the news this week when Hong Kong singer/actor Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) was reported to have had a diamond stud penis ring. In an odd echo of Ella's comment, Nicholas sarcastically quipped to The Great Daily News (
Tse is currently in Beijing on the set of Chen Kaige's (陳凱歌) next film The Promise (無極), which will also star his erstwhile lover Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝). According to the Taiwan Daily, Cheung will mark a first in her film career in this movie with two full nudity scenes that she insisted on filming herself instead of having a body double. Tse won't be the man shooting the nude scenes with Cheung, though. That task will fall on the broad, tanned shoulders of South Korean actor Jang Dong-kun (張東建) and Hiroyuki Sanada.
Last week, TV hostess Big S proved that it's not just poor people who play the lottery when she hit a jackpot worth NT$140,000. It wasn't the NT$900 million that was up for grabs, but it still made her feel rich enough to give assistants at the studio NT$20,000 and use the rest to take her long-time boyfriend Lan Cheng-long (
If one asks Taiwanese why house prices are so high or why the nation is so built up or why certain policies cannot be carried out, one common answer is that “Taiwan is too small.” This is actually true, though not in the way people think. The National Property Administration (NPA), responsible for tracking and managing the government’s real estate assets, maintains statistics on how much land the government owns. As of the end of last year, land for official use constituted 293,655 hectares, for public use 1,732,513 hectares, for non-public use 216,972 hectares and for state enterprises 34 hectares, yielding
The small platform at Duoliang Train Station in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) served villagers from 1992 to 2006, but was eventually shut down due to lack of use. Just 10 years later, the abandoned train station had become widely known as the most beautiful station in Taiwan, and visitors were so frequent that the village had to start restricting traffic. Nowadays, Duoliang Village (多良) is known as a bit of a tourist trap, with a mandatory, albeit modest, admission fee of NT$10 giving access to a crowded lane of vendors with a mediocre view of the ocean and the trains
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools. Yet the policy was never solely about English education. The government’s official plan also calls for bilingualization in Taiwan’s government services, laws and regulations, and living environment. The goal is to make Taiwan more inclusive and accessible to international enterprises and talent and better prepared for global economic and trade conditions. After eight years, that grand vision is due for a pulse check. RULES THAT CAN BE READ For Harper Chen (陳虹宇), an adviser
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
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