A special guest checked us out this week. Taiwanese movie godfather, Hou Hsiao-hsien (
After sending the sketchy information to our film expert for analysis, Pop Stop concluded that the film could be Hou's long-awaited project The Best of Our Time (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Now back to the bitchy side of show biz. Nationally acclaimed as ``the most beautiful woman in Taiwan,'' age-resistant Stephanie Hsiao (
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
After 15 years in the entertainment industry, Hsiao is now tapping into the Mando-pop music scene and introduced her first album earlier this month. Since then, the musical freshwoman has been running around, popping up at as many events as she can in the hope of boosting her not-so-promising record. Judging from the reviews and sales so far, the star still has a long way to go.
But another foxy lady is on the rise. Despite a previously plump figure (plump by the industry's standards), Little S (
Not only is she the spokesperson for a body-sculpting cosmetic brand, but Little S also got a big fat red envelope from a Taiwanese diet-drink manufacturer for endorsing its products.
Local media put the super-model Lin Chih-ling (
When asked whether she has the confidence to win back the title of ad queen by the end of the year, the sweet, well-cultivated lady Lin gave her typical response, ``I always put 100 percent effort in each and every job. Titles to me are not important at all.''
While Little S will use her fat check to take her whole family abroad for a luxurious vacation, Singaporean pop singer Stefanie Sun (
(
During this time of happiness when everyone is preparing for the New Year break, show biz is still able to generate miserable break-up news. Chang Chen (張震) -- the actor who has frequently starred in works by Ang Lee (李安) and Wong Kar Wai (王家衛) -- has broken up with his singer girlfriend Lu Jia-Hsin (路嘉欣) after six years of their low-profile relationship. Chang chose to remain silent after the news broke, but Lu made a brief and ambiguous comment: ``Right now, I feel everything is illusion.''
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
Perched on Thailand’s border with Myanmar, Arunothai is a dusty crossroads town, a nowheresville that could be the setting of some Southeast Asian spaghetti Western. Its main street is the final, dead-end section of the two-lane highway from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city 120kms south, and the heart of the kingdom’s mountainous north. At the town boundary, a Chinese-style arch capped with dragons also bears Thai script declaring fealty to Bangkok’s royal family: “Long live the King!” Further on, Chinese lanterns line the main street, and on the hillsides, courtyard homes sit among warrens of narrow, winding alleyways and
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