Sun Yan-tzu (孫燕姿) Jay Chou (周杰倫) are still the queen and king of Mando-pop after the two became the biggest winners at the fourth Global Chinese Song Award (全球華語榜), which was held last Saturday in Taipei.
Sun from Singapore won "Most Popular Female Singer," "Best Album," "Top 20 Songs of the Year" and "Outstanding Artist in the Singapore Region."
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Sun has been the winner in the "Most Popular Female Singer" category for three consecutive years, which is quite a contrast to her situation at another Mando-pop award -- the Golden Melody Award (金曲獎). There, she has been nominated for Best Female Artist for three consecutive years, but has always gone home empty-handed.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
According to Apple Daily (
Jay Chou, who is now called Chou Dong (
Chou held a victory party and celebrated his album Jasmine (
Another Mando-pop star Lee Hom--wang (王力宏) was taking a break last week, sort of. He was caught by Next Magazine (壹周刊) kissing a "mixed-race spice-girl" on a Taipei street. Reportedly, Lee was strolling around Taipei's Zhongxiao East Road district with a young woman called Zoe. The two went into an apartment together and stayed there for two hours. When saying goodbye, Lee was captured kissing the woman's cheek and ears. He later said in a statement that the lady was a good friend from a long time ago and it was simply a courtesy good-bye kiss. But the incident may have ended the long-rumored romance between Lee and pop diva A-mei (張惠妹). Lee wrote a song for A-mei's previous album and now is the producer of her upcoming album. It has been said that the two were found kissing when recording songs in the studio. Wang had also appeared in many of A-mei's concerts as a special guest. A-mei herself declined to comment on Wang's kissing incident. "We have always been friends. He has helped me a lot in music," A-mei was quoted by Apple Daily. Asked how is her love life going, "It could be better," said the singer.
Hong Kong actress Maggie Chueng (
magazine. "There was a period of time I indulged myself in tears and sorrow. But now I'm a different person. I think it was my boyfriend who changed me. I'm really happy being with him," Cheung was quoted as saying. Cheung referred to the time when she went through a divorce with French film director Olivier Assayas. Ironically, in May, Cheung won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for the Assayas-directed film Clean, in which she played a single mom.
After the divorce, a rumor about her being a lesbian was spread in Chinese entertainment circles. "In sex, I am 100 percent heterosexual," Cheung replied. The 40-year-old actress said she has decided not to have a baby. "Not because of divorce, but because after the 9/11 incident, I found the world to be very evil. And I don't want to bring a child to this evil world," Cheung said.
Another woman in love is Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong (王菲). According to Hong Kong magazine Suddenly At Next (
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
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 —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS