The hubbub over Zhang Ziyi’s (章子怡) recent sandy sweethearting has prompted considerable moralizing in China. As Pop Stop reported a few weeks back, Zhang and her Israeli fiance, Aviv “Vivi” Nevo, were caught noshing up the beaches of St Barts, a French territory in the Caribbean. A paparazzo snapped pictures of the Memoirs of Geisha and 2046 star in what one blogger from China described as Zhang’s “unpatriotic behavior,” for exposing herself in public so brazenly.
Song Zude (宋組德) blogged that Zhang did this because she was “only interested in her career and money.” Pop Stop must protest. Starlets only expose themselves when their careers are faltering, not when they are at the pinnacle of the celebrity firmament, as Zhang currently is.
Time passes, however, and it seems that nationalistic zeal has taken a backseat to criticism of Zhang’s body — particularly her “tiny” bust size. Which is hardly surprising, given the tabloids’ obsession with this particular part of a woman’s anatomy. This week’s edition of Next Magazine even published a detailed report on why an ageing model wants to have cosmetic surgery done on her breasts. (It’s because they “droop,” if you must know.)
Meanwhile, yWeekend, the online version of the Beijing Youth Daily, caught up with “Fred,” the mystery man from France behind the Zhang photos, who described for readers what he saw.
“Nevo kept rolling his body back and forth. Then he caressed Zhang Ziyi’s back. He caressed it again and again. His hand then slid further and further down. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. It was getting too hot. Then they went into the ocean to swim. My guess was that they got too ‘hot’ and they had to cool down by jumping into the ocean.”
So this is what constitutes steamy behavior: a man and a woman who plan to marry caressing each other on a beach. Fred probably would have had a heart attack if he’d snapped last year’s photos of Edison Chen (陳冠希) with his coterie.
And speaking of marriage, Hong Kong director and one of the “Four Heavenly Kings of Canto-pop” Andy Lau (劉德華) said that Taiwanese actress Shu Qi (舒淇) would be worth marrying because she is good to her family, according to reports in Apple and the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper).
His comments at a press conference for the release of his new movie Look for a Star (游龍戲鳳) plus a wedding ring on his ring finger predictably sent the assembled gossip hounds into a frenzy. But Lau burst their bubble when he pointed out that the ring was the property of a certain French fashion house and that he and Shu were just old friends.
In other “Heavenly Kings of Cantopop” news, “God of Songs” (歌神) crooner Jacky Cheung (張學友) ended his one-year hiatus from the music industry with a press conference at Hong Kong Disneyland. He said he’ll release a new album, film a movie and hold a concert within the year, according to a report in the Oriental Daily News. He also lamented the lack of solidarity in the music industry and how he was powerless to remedy the situation.
It looks as though pop singer Wen Lan (溫嵐) has hooked up with another woman’s man — again, according to a report in Next. The saga began in July when Wen sent a flurry of text messages to dancer Lin Chun-che (林群哲), who had been in an 11-year relationship with fellow dancer Chen Hsien-he (陳仙禾). Both dancers have collaborated with Wen, and Chen and the singer had been close friends for years. Fast-forward six months and Lin dumps Chen to be with Wen. Par for the course for Lin, really, because the Casanova has allegedly cheated on Chen a number of times.
And finally, no Lunar New Year would be complete without a celebrity prediction. According to a report on Yahoo, a fortune-teller says that Jolin Tsai’s (蔡依林) career will tank this year and that she will be luckless in love because she devotes too much time to her career.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under
RSS