Hong Kong's hottest couple Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) dropped a bombshell last week by announcing they had secretly tied the knot in the Philippines. After years of wavering between Cheung and Wang Faye (王菲), the playboy quickly decided to end his bachelor life three months after the two got back together. Gossipmongers say the reason behind the quickie nuptials was because Cheung has a bun in the oven.
Friends, colleges and families all extended courteous congratulations to the two except for Cheung's unfailing admirer Jordan Chan (陳小春). When asked how he felt about the news, the pop star said in a begrudging tone, “when people get married, you have to congratulate them. What else do you expect me to do? Jump from a building?”
Tse's mother was deeply hurt and enraged since the wedding ceremony was so secret that even the bride and groom's parents didn't know about it. Gossip observers believe the mom's grief also stems from divinations made by fortune-tellers that point to Cheung as a jinx on the family and a source of bad luck for her son.
It seems that now her dream to marry a handsome man and start a family seems to have come true, Cheung is entering a new phase in life, joined by a mother-in-law who sees her as a thorn in her side.
While Hong Kong paparazzi were busy chasing the newlyweds, local hacks have been tailing the soon-to be-divorced couple Lily Tien (田麗) and Chen Ting-chung (陳定中), after Chen was caught by information-wired paparazzi spending four hours in a hotel room with a flight attendant in her early 20s last week.
News of Chen's clandestine love affairs came as a big surprise to local showbiz insiders as his wife, a surprisingly well-preserved actress who is always ready to dazzle with her femme fatale facade, had carefully crafted a public image of a happily married couple and had been lauded as an ideal wife who gave her man boundless freedom and an erotically-charged sexual life. When informed of the news by members of the local press last weekend, Tien was first taken aback but quickly composed herself and said, “I don't believe it but I will ask him about it. If it can't be solved, then we'll get divorced.”
Chen's alibi: the tryst was an innocent seafood feast in a hotel room with a long-legged beauty. Chen also revealed that he and his wife have been planning to divorce since last year and he will become single again before Christmas. “A battle is about to begin,” Chen said to the local press.
Since Chen is estimated to have assets of NT$400 million, the direct translation of the “battle” is a fight over alimony.
Pro-independence heavy-metal combo Chthonic (閃靈樂團) has quietly made a diplomatic move by releasing its second album in the US last week.
An English-language version of Seediq Bale (賽德克巴), the record take its lyrics from the legendary story of the heroic Seediq tribe that mounted an anti-Japanese revolt in 1930 that later became known as the Wushe incident (霧社事件).
Signed to the rock label Megaforce, the local black metal outfit is all set to woo crowds with their faces painted like the Eight Generals (八家將). The group goes on tour in the US early next year.
David Tao (陶吉吉), on the other hand, is a less music-driven musician who regularly dominates the gossip rags with his rapacious advances on young beauties. After commenting on his dinner dates with local supermodel Pai Hsin-huai (白歆惠) to the local press, the star was spotted last weekend doing the splits (劈腿) by getting cozy with a PR worker at a pub in Shanghai.
However, the swarm of paparazzi outside the pub alerted the star who then skillfully disengaged himself from the girl and was adroitly escorted out of the place by security guards.
Common sense is not that common: a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania concludes the concept is “somewhat illusory.” Researchers collected statements from various sources that had been described as “common sense” and put them to test subjects. The mixed bag of results suggested there was “little evidence that more than a small fraction of beliefs is common to more than a small fraction of people.” It’s no surprise that there are few universally shared notions of what stands to reason. People took a horse worming drug to cure COVID! They think low-traffic neighborhoods are a communist plot and call
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
The sprawling port city of Kaohsiung seldom wins plaudits for its beauty or architectural history. That said, like any other metropolis of its size, it does have a number of strange or striking buildings. This article describes a few such curiosities, all but one of which I stumbled across by accident. BOMBPROOF HANGARS Just north of Kaohsiung International Airport, hidden among houses and small apartment buildings that look as though they were built between 15 and 30 years ago, are two mysterious bunker-like structures that date from the airport’s establishment as a Japanese base during World War II. Each is just about
The female body is a horror movie waiting to happen. From puberty and the grisly onset of menstruation, in pictures such as Brian De Palma’s Carrie and John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps, to pregnancy and childbirth — Rosemary’s Baby is the obvious example — women have provided a rich seam of inspiration for genre film-makers over the past half century. But look a little closer and two trends become apparent: the vast majority of female body-based horror deals with various aspects of the reproductive system, and it has largely been made by men (Titane and The First Omen, two recent examples
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