Is it just us or does Taiwan’s paparazzi have a strange obsession with the racial makeup of Vivian Dawson? Reports in most of the vernacular media since Dawson hooked up with pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) 16 months ago commonly refer to him as “mixed race” (混血). Is it a harmless tag used in second references to the New Zealand-Singaporean hunk, or something more insidious? Pop Stop readers will have to draw their own conclusions on that one.
It appears not everyone is thrilled with Tsai and Dawson’s romance. Rumors surfaced a few months back that he was a man about town after pictures appeared on the Internet showing him cavorting in Thailand with Hong Kong model Hidy Yu (余曉彤). Though he denied they were an item, some of Tsai’s close friends have called on her to dump the hunk.
This follows earlier reports insinuating Dawson was only dating Tsai to boost his modeling career — which has apparently gone from NT$10,000 per shoot pre-Tsai to NT$100,000 today.
Photo: Taipei Times
And two weeks ago, Next Magazine reported that Tsai’s mother is unsatisfied with Dawson because she can’t communicate with him in a mutually comprehensible language (Dawson isn’t fluent in Mandarin or Hoklo, commonly known as Taiwanese), allegedly going so far as to use matchmakers to find her daughter a more suitable man (presumably one similar to the fabulously wealthy and multi-talented Jay Chou (周杰倫), who has been romantically linked to her daughter).
Dawson, for his part, has kept his cool — at least in public. He told gossip hounds last week that the Tsai family likes him. The next day, reporters approached Papa Tsai and asked if the family liked Dawson.
“No,” was the blunt response, according to Apple Daily, but he quickly caught himself, adding: “I haven’t seen him in awhile.”
Papa Tsai denied earlier gossip that the family was using a matchmaker to find other men. In a further attempt to draw him out, the assembled paps asked if Dawson calls him father-in-law.
“Mr. Tsai,” he said.
According to NOWnews, when reporters asked if he was surprised that Jolin’s boyfriend is of “mixed blood,” the father said it was par for the course, citing, somewhat oddly, past relationships with Eddie Peng (彭于晏) and Chou.
“[Peng] returned from abroad, too,” he said. (Peng’s family moved to Canada when he was a teenager. He studied economics at the University of British Columbia.)
Asked whom he prefers, Eddie, Jay or Vivian, Papa Tsai wisely said it was entirely his daughter’s choice.
Not all relationships, however, are holding up under the weight of media scrutiny. Next reported the romance between singer-actress Ariel Lin (林依晨) and her boyfriend Cheng Chia-yao (鄭家堯) was cooling off.
The gossip rag reported that Cheng is fed up with constant media attention, and has allegedly given Lin an ultimatum: Give up her career or give up their relationship. Lin has refused to comment on the issue.
It seems Cheng is not the only one annoyed with Taiwan’s intrusive paparazzi. The Central News Agency reported that Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee (李安) is reluctant to return to Taiwan to reshoot scenes for his forthcoming movie, Life of Pi, because he fears for the safety of his staff.
Earlier this year, a vehicle struck a member of his production crew while trying to avoid the pap’s cameras, said Shih Ching-wen (石靜文), head of Greater Taichung’s Government Information Office. Shih said the added stress of working with the close attention Lee receives in Taiwan also makes it difficult for the fabulously popular director to film at home.
Finally, Hong Kong actors Benny Chan (陳浩民) and Joe Ma (馬德鐘) are learning the hard way that women aren’t toys to be played with. The 42-year old actors initially denied rumors that they had acted inappropriately toward starlet Rose Chan (陳嘉桓), who turned 19 earlier this month, at a boozy KTV party last week.
Sina.com reported that having just wrapped up a movie shoot in China, the cast and crew went out for dinner and singing, where Rose Chan was hectored to drink. Later Joe and Benny were alleged to have forcibly kissed and hugged her while drunk. (Perhaps this is a good time to note that the two Chans are not related.)
Rebuffing the rumors, Benny stated on his microblog that he was just being “playful.”
If Benny thought he was just being a little frisky, Rose sure didn’t. At a press conference on Tuesday attended by her agent and her lawyer, she failed to hold back tears as she announced plans to sue.
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