Chu Ko Liang’s (豬哥亮) commercial for consumer electronics retailer Tsann Kuen Enterprise Co (3C, 燦坤) has proven to be a hit. The advert, for air conditioners, makes use of Chu’s talents for impersonation and double entendre.
It seems that the comedian cannot help but sail close to the wind, and Jerry Fan (范可欽), a friend of Chu’s who helped negotiate this comeback gig, said he hoped that the National Communications Commission (國家傳播通訊委員會) would not take exception to the incorporation of a line in the commercial that is almost an exact homophone for a Chu catchphrase the funnyman had previously been warned off using on air. The sentence “leng liang ka hou” (冷涼卡好), sounds, as spoken in the ad, almost identical to the banned catch phrase “lin nia ka hou“ (恁娘卡好), which can be translated as anything from “how’s your mother?” to “your mother’s alright!” and the connotations that might arise from this statement.
Apple Daily quoted Tsann Kuen Enterprise general manger Jerry Yen (閻俊傑) as saying that sales of air conditioners had doubled in the week since the television advertisement went to air.
The commercial has found favor on video-sharing Web sites, with viewer comments predominantly supporting Chu’s return to the entertainment world. A post on YouTube by Stare7500 put it nicely: “We’ve had so many titty ads, finally a Taiwanese ad that is the real thing. Great.” (看了那麼多乳的廣告,終於看到台灣拍一點像樣的廣告了,讚.) This refers to the flurry of debate over advertising slots by sex kittens Yaoyao (瑤瑤) and Shushu (舒舒), both of whom rely on their bongos’ powers of persuasion rather than acting prowess to promote products.
Chu would do well to remember, however, that the world of celebrity endorsements is a fickle one. Take aspiring model Liz Yang (楊莉思) for example. The Guatemalan-Taiwanese model, who attained some prominence through a short-lived involvement with singer David Tao (陶喆) and as spokeswoman for Taipei’s Breeze Center (微風廣場), is being threatened with a lawsuit for failing to meet her contract obligations to the retail outlet, which Next Magazine partially ascribes to Yang having turned down a dinner invitation from Breeze boss Henry Liao (廖鎮漢). She reportedly faces the prospect of shelling out NT$7 million for violating her contract, a sum her agent says vastly exceeds what Breeze paid her.
Yang, who was much touted for her “boldness” in photo shoots, has also suffered from a comparison with Maria Ozawa, the Japanese porn star who was recently in Taiwan to promote the new slasher flick Invitation Only (絕命派對). Yang was supposed to engage in some girl-on-girl action with Ozawa, but according to Next the scene was shot using a different actress because the two fostered a mutual dislike for each other. Yang is also reported to have been somewhat shocked by Ozawa’s hard-core credentials, which go very much further than flashing a bit of thigh in a fashion shoot.
It’s not all hard slog for those working in the entertainment industry, though. One woman who seems to be getting the breaks is 44-year-old Pauline Lan (藍心湄). The homely TV host likes her men young, and her relationship with 28-year-old pretty boy Anthony Kuo (郭彥均) might go someway to showing that not everyone in the celebrity firmament is fixated on age. And this is hardly a one-off coup, for Lan has a solid track record in the cradle-snatching department. The relationship doesn’t seem to be doing Kuo’s career much harm either and his modus operandi isn’t unique.
Basketball star Sam Ho (何守正), who has signed on as a new spokesman for Taiwan Beer, could be reading from the same rule book as Kuo as he is reportedly riding the skirt tails of a successful woman to fame and fortune. His long rumored association with Mando pop diva A-mei (張惠妹) has never been fully acknowledged or denied by either party, but according to observers at Next, Ho has been holding to the straight and narrow recently. His good behavior has brought him fully into A-mei’s charmed circle, and if nothing else, his career in showbiz is looking up.
In other romantic news, Next has revealed its report on the divorce between actress Annie Yi (伊能靜) and Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) being finalized was based on false information, which was “leaked” to get the media off their backs. Whether it’s official or not, the two seem now to be well and truly embarking on their separate romantic paths with Sina.com (新浪) running photos of Yi snapped enjoying a late night out with an unnamed man and Next reporting that Yu has found consolation “in the arms of a mature woman (熟女).”
The unexpected collapse of the recall campaigns is being viewed through many lenses, most of them skewed and self-absorbed. The international media unsurprisingly focuses on what they perceive as the message that Taiwanese voters were sending in the failure of the mass recall, especially to China, the US and to friendly Western nations. This made some sense prior to early last month. One of the main arguments used by recall campaigners for recalling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers was that they were too pro-China, and by extension not to be trusted with defending the nation. Also by extension, that argument could be
Aug. 4 to Aug. 10 When Coca-Cola finally pushed its way into Taiwan’s market in 1968, it allegedly vowed to wipe out its major domestic rival Hey Song within five years. But Hey Song, which began as a manual operation in a family cow shed in 1925, had proven its resilience, surviving numerous setbacks — including the loss of autonomy and nearly all its assets due to the Japanese colonial government’s wartime economic policy. By the 1960s, Hey Song had risen to the top of Taiwan’s beverage industry. This success was driven not only by president Chang Wen-chi’s
Last week, on the heels of the recall election that turned out so badly for Taiwan, came the news that US President Donald Trump had blocked the transit of President William Lai (賴清德) through the US on his way to Latin America. A few days later the international media reported that in June a scheduled visit by Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) for high level meetings was canceled by the US after China’s President Xi Jinping (習近平) asked Trump to curb US engagement with Taiwan during a June phone call. The cancellation of Lai’s transit was a gaudy
The centuries-old fiery Chinese spirit baijiu (白酒), long associated with business dinners, is being reshaped to appeal to younger generations as its makers adapt to changing times. Mostly distilled from sorghum, the clear but pungent liquor contains as much as 60 percent alcohol. It’s the usual choice for toasts of gan bei (乾杯), the Chinese expression for bottoms up, and raucous drinking games. “If you like to drink spirits and you’ve never had baijiu, it’s kind of like eating noodles but you’ve never had spaghetti,” said Jim Boyce, a Canadian writer and wine expert who founded World Baijiu Day a decade
RSS