It was bound to happen sooner or later, but supermodel Lin Chih-ling's (
Equally big-headed, but proud of it, Chang Chen-yue (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
More language lessons were on display this week when Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (
She was in Toronto with Zhang Yimou (張藝謀), who's basking in the stunning box-office take of Hero (英雄) in the neighboring US, where ticket sales topped US$40 million last weekend. This brought the movie's total worldwide take to US$146 million, according to the International Movie Database, making it far and away the highest-grossing Chinese movie ever. This is the movie that theater audiences in China laughed at. And House of Flying Daggers, which was similarly panned in China, hasn't even made it out of the festival circuit in North America. If we're working on the principle that Western audiences love what Chinese audiences find ludicrous, Zhang may be sitting on another golden egg.
For his next project, Zhang told reporters at the festival that he's considering returning to politically sensitive topics with a story about the Cultural Revolution. His film may provide some counterweight to the movie now showing some success in China titled Zhang Side (張思德), which tells the story of the title character whose sacrifice in the early days of the Communist revolution inspired Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) famous epigraph, "Serve the People" (為人民服務).
Meanwhile in Hong Kong on Saturday, Andy Lau (
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
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,
Mongolian influencer Anudari Daarya looks effortlessly glamorous and carefree in her social media posts — but the classically trained pianist’s road to acceptance as a transgender artist has been anything but easy. She is one of a growing number of Mongolian LGBTQ youth challenging stereotypes and fighting for acceptance through media representation in the socially conservative country. LGBTQ Mongolians often hide their identities from their employers and colleagues for fear of discrimination, with a survey by the non-profit LGBT Centre Mongolia showing that only 20 percent of people felt comfortable coming out at work. Daarya, 25, said she has faced discrimination since she
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