The Golden Horse Film Festival (金馬獎), which will climax on Nov. 24 when Taiwan’s version of the Oscars are given out, remains the biggest film industry event for the country and the one with the most significant international profile, (despite all the negative coverage it is often able to bring on itself). And this year, even before the first warm up events are underway, the Golden Horse organizers have brought down a torrent of abuse due to their selection of Chinese actor Huang Bo (黃渤) as one of the hosts. Irate netizens are asking: “Have all Taiwanese male celebrities suddenly died?”
Well, its not like the Golden Horse Awards were an exclusively Taiwanese affair. That’s probably why no eyebrows where raised when Bowie Tsang (曾寶儀) and Eric Tsang (曾志偉), a father and daughter duo from Hong Kong, took on hosting duties last year, with notable success. It seemed no more than appropriate when one of the big winners of 2011 was A Simple Life (桃姐), with Hong Kong screen legend Deannie Yip (葉德嫻), picking up Best Actress.
Bo, meanwhile, has perfectly good credentials to serve as a host. He won Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards back in 2009, subsequently served on the jury and starred in the massive Taiwanese big screen police soap opera Black and White (痞子英雄首部曲：全面開戰).
Photo: Taipei Times
This year, Bo will be working together with Bowie Tsang, who is back for a return engagement.
A report on China Economic Net (ce.cn) said that Bo not only did not feel bad about this reception, but went out of his way to welcome questions, saying that people should have a right to express themselves. There is something deeply ironic about this, but Pop Stop will leave readers to draw their own conclusions. Supporters of Bo’s selection, that include Tsang father and daughter, welcome this line up as a way of injecting greater variety into what had become an often stilted affair. Although Bo is the first person from China to take on host duties at the Golden Horse, Chinese films have increasingly featured in the award ceremony. “It’s a great honor for me to be a host at Chinese-language cinema’s big party. The Golden Horse Awards are an event full of suspense, and I am excited to see what we can do to make it even more appealing through our efforts.”
The gossip media is also all aghast with news that supermodel Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) is possibly showing signs of age, and has gone so far as to admit to being 38 years old. Lin has been working hard in Japan and China, only making occasional visits back to Taiwan, and local media have become mesmerized by the issue of whether she has undergone plastic surgery, a topic that is in danger of becoming more important than speculation about when she will marry Jerry Yan (言承旭).
Photo: Taipei Times
In reports earlier this week, Lin showed her media savvy, palming away media questions with lighthearted banter. “Everyone has become so familiar with the way I look over the last 10 years,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to change anything, and if I did, ‘old father heaven’ would need to give me a spanking.” She added that she has been working very hard and that her body has been telling her to slow down.
While Lin continues to look pretty good on and off the screen, songstress Sally Yeh (葉蒨文) has a harder fight on her hands in trying to look young … or at least to project youthfulness. Pop Stop would hate to discriminate on grounds of age, but it just needs to be said that the 51-year-old Yeh really does not need to show quite so much buttock, crotch or breast. In her Intimately Yours 2012 concert in Hong Kong earlier this week, she made some audience members feel that intimacy had got slightly out of hand, dressing in a selection of revealing costumes that just got a little bit too much in your face.
Even Now.com, not particularly known for its restraint, suggested that she had a perfectly good voice, and that an entertainer of such years did not have to resort to giving it away in such a fashion. At the end of the show, Yeh said she was not totally satisfied. “The audience was so enthusiastic that I messed up on some of the dance steps,” she said. There were clearly plenty in the audience who weren’t complaining.
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
On May 2, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), at a meeting in support of Taipei city councilors at party headquarters, compared President William Lai (賴清德) to Hitler. Chu claimed that unlike any other democracy worldwide in history, no other leader was rooting out opposing parties like Lai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). That his statements are wildly inaccurate was not the point. It was a rallying cry, not a history lesson. This was intentional to provoke the international diplomatic community into a response, which was promptly provided. Both the German and Israeli offices issued statements on Facebook
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday delivered an address marking the first anniversary of his presidency. In the speech, Lai affirmed Taiwan’s global role in technology, trade and security. He announced economic and national security initiatives, and emphasized democratic values and cross-party cooperation. The following is the full text of his speech: Yesterday, outside of Beida Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), there was a major traffic accident that, sadly, claimed several lives and resulted in multiple injuries. The Executive Yuan immediately formed a task force, and last night I personally visited the victims in hospital. Central government agencies and the
RSS