Appearing in a suggestive advertisement for an online game in which your breasts are shown swaying as you ride an undulating exercise machine can put a wannabe on the fast track to superstardom. That, at least, has been the case for “big-breasted bodacious baby face” (童顏巨乳) Yaoyao (瑤瑤), real name Kuo Shu-yao (郭書瑤), who last week was spotted having a business dinner with representatives from Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate.
Yaoyao’s record company Seed Music (種子音樂) — yes, her debut album is slated to hit record stores next month — said there is indeed a plan for the sex kitten to become a pop star in Japan in the manner of Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄).
Seed Music appears to be on to something. Given the warm reception Yaoyao has received among Taiwan’s zhainan (宅男) community, it is not a stretch to imagine the 19-year-old winning the hearts of Japanese otaku as well.
Meanwhile, former superstar Joey Wang (王祖賢) was in the news again this week after it was reported that the 42-year-old recluse has become a Buddhist nun.
Wang rose to fame after starring in 1987 blockbuster A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) and enjoyed a notable career throughout the 1990s. She retired in 2002 and has led a low-profile life in Canada ever since, where she is said to have donned the habit last month.
Gossip observers think Wang’s sudden ability to “see through the vanity of the secular world” (看破紅塵) has something to do with her two failed relationships. One was a 16-year-long romance with musician Chi Chin (齊秦), the other an extramarital affair with Hong Kong entertainment mogul Peter Lam (林建岳).
One of the few openly gay celebrities in Taiwan has aggravated members of the TV-watching public by referring to homosexuals as niang (娘), the Chinese equivalent of “sissy,” on a popular television show, reports the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Over the past month or so Kevin Tsai (蔡康永) of Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了), which he co-hosts with Little S (小S), has been using the word niang to address gay celebrities such as Kuo Hsin (郭鑫), Ti Chih-chieh (狄志杰) and Hsu Chien-kuo (許建國) when they appear on his show.
Viewers angered by his use of the term, which when used by a stranger is considered demeaning, posted angry comments on the Internet like the following: “The sissy host should think of himself before calling other people sissies.”
In other gay-related news, pop diva A-mei (阿妹), real name Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), will introduce her new persona A-mit (阿密特) to gay fans at a party on July 18 at Riverside Live House (西門紅樓展演館) in Taipei. Unlike A-mei, A-mit is said to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to saccharine ballads and KTV-friendly tunes. Those who have seen A-mit perform say the black-clad rocker screams, hisses and howls, but never croons.
To catch A-mit at Riverside, partygoers have to be biologically male or identified as male on their ID cards, and wear something “rainbowy.”
Professing concern that the star’s female fans will feel left out, A-mit’s record company, Gold Typhoon (金牌大風), promises a women-only A-mit party if the gay pa (gay趴) goes well.
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
A pig’s head sits atop a shelf, tufts of blonde hair sprouting from its taut scalp. Opposite, its chalky, wrinkled heart glows red in a bubbling vat of liquid, locks of thick dark hair and teeth scattered below. A giant screen shows the pig draped in a hospital gown. Is it dead? A surgeon inserts human teeth implants, then hair implants — beautifying the horrifyingly human-like animal. Chang Chen-shen (張辰申) calls Incarnation Project: Deviation Lovers “a satirical self-criticism, a critique on the fact that throughout our lives we’ve been instilled with ideas and things that don’t belong to us.” Chang
Feb. 10 to Feb. 16 More than three decades after penning the iconic High Green Mountains (高山青), a frail Teng Yu-ping (鄧禹平) finally visited the verdant peaks and blue streams of Alishan described in the lyrics. Often mistaken as an indigenous folk song, it was actually created in 1949 by Chinese filmmakers while shooting a scene for the movie Happenings in Alishan (阿里山風雲) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), recounts director Chang Ying (張英) in the 1999 book, Chang Ying’s Contributions to Taiwanese Cinema and Theater (打鑼三響包得行: 張英對台灣影劇的貢獻). The team was meant to return to China after filming, but