Invitations for Lin Yu-chun (林育群), a local talent show winner who has been described by international media as “Taiwan’s Susan Boyle,” have been flooding in from Japan, the US and South Korea, the staff at a local talent training school said yesterday.
A-List Entertainment, a company that represents top singers, stars, models and entertainers, said it had been inundated with calls from people looking for Lin.
The invitations included offers from three major US TV groups, asking for interviews and performances from Lin.
Lin became an Internet hit after his performance of I Will Always Love You on local talent show One Million Star (超級星光大道) was posted on YouTube on April 6.
However, before his overnight celebrity, 24-year-old Lin had endured slights for four years, said his mentor Hsu Nai-chung (許乃中), better known by his nickname “Blue.”
In 2006, both Lin and Blue’s daughter took part in a music competition, winning in the creative and singing categories respectively.
They later signed a six-year contract with an agency, which is how Blue, who is also president of the Pure Music company, got to know Lin.
Blue said he saw Lin’s potential and thought his ability to sing in a girlish falsetto, as well as his baby-faced appearance, made him stand out, so he coached Lin.
Under Blue’s encouragement, Lin took part in several local TV talent shows, but failed to gain much notice. In addition, his agency failed to support him and poured cold water on his desire to take part in TV talent shows.
Lin finally terminated his contract with the agency last year and enrolled with A-List Entertainment last October.
His rendition of I Will Always Love You, made famous by Whitney Houston, has spread fast across the Internet, allowing him a taste of success for the first time.
Listening to Lin sing another of Houston’s signature songs, Saving All My Love for You, people may start to see why he is called the “male Whitney Houston,” with his “near exact” rendition of Houston’s version, said Blue, adding that Lin might sound like a sissy, but this is perfect for his singing style.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
‘MISGUIDED EDICT’: Two US representatives warned that Somalia’s passport move could result in severe retaliatory consequences and urged it to reverse its decision Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has ordered that a special project be launched to counter China’s “legal warfare” distorting UN Resolution 2758, a foreign affairs official said yesterday. Somalia’s Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday cited UN Resolution 2758 and Mogadishu’s compliance with the “one China” principle as it banned people from entering or transiting in the African nation using Taiwanese passports or other Taiwanese travel documents. The International Air Transport Association’s system shows that Taiwanese passport holders cannot enter Somalia or transit there. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) protested the move and warned Taiwanese against traveling to Somalia or Somaliland
SECURITY: Grassroots civil servants would only need to disclose their travel, while those who have access to classified information would be subject to stricter regulations The government is considering requiring legislators and elected officials to obtain prior approval before traveling to China to prevent Chinese infiltration, an official familiar with national security said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) in March announced 17 measures to counter China’s growing infiltration efforts, including requiring all civil servants to make trips to China more transparent so they can be held publicly accountable. The official said that the government is considering amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to require all civil servants to follow strict regulations before traveling to China.
RSS