Netizens have been busy this past week, watching Jeremy Liu’s (劉子千) excruciating music video for his track Nian Ni (唸你), the title of which loosely translates as “thinking of you,” and making unflattering comments about it. The music video has amassed a huge number of hits and according to reports in the United Daily News, the album that contains the single has sold more than 470,000 copies in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, and shops around the country are being stripped of existing stock.
Liu is the son of the massively prolific songwriter and singer Liu Chia-chang (劉家昌), whose songs have helped establish the fame of divas such as Teresa Teng (鄧麗君) and Ouyang Feifei (歐陽菲菲), and crooners Fei Yu-ching (費玉清) and Bobbie Chen (陳昇). This has been a mixed blessing now that Liu Senior has turned his mind to giving his son a leg up the entertainment ladder. Nian Ni harks back to an older style of singing, and Junior’s talents, on first impression, seem rather inadequate for its demands. The Apple Daily describes him as singing “like a duck.”
Still, his performance on the music video of Nian Ni is remarkable. At first it seems merely inept, but then the very earnestness of the singing and his evident disconnect from the lyrics make it enormously humorous. Worse still, the song itself seems to have lodged in the national consciousness. On the nominally serious talk show This Is It (關鍵時刻), host Liu Pao-chieh (劉寶傑) even suggested that the singing might cause a few deaths and suggested that it should be played to dogs to see if it causes anguish in sentient beings. It must be said that a cover of the song by SpongeBob SquarePants, also posted on YouTube, is actually much better than the original.
Photo: Taipei Times
Liu’s mother, with the kind of sympathy that only a mother could command, is quoted as saying, “There are other songs on the album that show he can sing well. The way he sings Nian Ni is a deliberate choice.”
According to the Apple Daily, father and son fought bitterly over the release of the album and the younger Liu had gone off to write songs of his own to show he would not live in his father’s shadow. The rift was mended when Liu Senior threatened to cut the purse strings and Junior came back to heel.
He is now launched in the public eye in a way he probably never hoped to be, but as another Pop Stop favorite, Edison Chen (陳冠希), has discovered, notoriety is almost as good as celebrity for making it in the entertainment industry. On This Is It, one of the panelists praised Liu Senior for his “genius” in creating a song that is so jarring that it could not but lift his son into celebrity stardom.
Speaking of notoriety, entertainment industry bad boy Jackie Wu (吳宗憲) has stepped out of line in ways he may not have intended, and was earlier this week charged with fraud. The funnyman could face up to five years in prison if found guilty of shady financial deals related to his ownership of an LED company. The company is reportedly facing financial difficulties. Wu, one of the country’s most highly paid entertainers, has faced a string of business failures. In a tearful interview on Wednesday, he was quoted as saying, “I might make mistakes, but I don’t commit crimes. I may have lied to myself, but I would never lie to my fans.” Wu maintained that he was innocent, but swore that if he were found guilty, he would retire from the entertainment industry forever. We’ve heard that one before.
Just after 6am, I walked up to the ticket gate at Taipei Main Station and entered the Taiwan Railway platform without scanning any ticket; instead, I flashed the Sanrio Fun Rail pass on my phone to the gate worker and was admitted. I found my train and prepared to board. My destination? This very same station. I was embarking on a 13-hour journey on one of two round-the-island trains operated by ezTravel. They run each day, one counterclockwise around the island and one clockwise. They differ in a number of ways from an ordinary Taiwan Railway train and can make for
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
On Thursday, former Taipei mayor and founder of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Seven others related to the case were also handed prison sentences, while two were found not guilty. It has been a bad week for the TPP. On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Chinese immigrant Xu Chunying (徐春鶯) with suspicion of taking part in Beijing-directed election interference. Xu has strong links to the TPP, which once offered her a party list legislator nomination. Tuesday also
RSS