Media personality Sisy Chen (陳文茜) yesterday called on the public not to take her interview on Monday with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien (侯孝賢) out of context amid criticism that Chen was making the filmmaker’s humble background and appearance an object of ridicule.
Chen said her seemingly cutting remarks on Hou’s background and juvenile misconduct were an attempt to heap praise on Hou by invoking a contrast between his former obscurity and the international renown he now has.
The interview, part of a forum targeting young people, sparked public contention after a transcript of the interview by film critic Wonder Weng (翁煌德) went viral, with Chen’s off-the-cuff remarks perceived as disrespectful of Hou.
Chen focused the interview on Hou’s delinquent teenage life, digging up the director’s gambling habit, poor education and academic performance, before discussing Hou’s award-winning film The Assassin at the end of the interview.
Chen said on Tuesday on Facebook that all she wanted to do was emphasize how a naughty boy like Hou could win the best director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — the holy grail of directorship.
Chen’s efforts apparently misfired. Hou did not use the occasion to boast about his success, but instead spoke modestly and factually, critics said.
When Chen asked Hou if he was worried about not winning an award at the festival, he said that he was not, because he knew his work was not mature enough and that it usually depends on luck to bring home such awards.
Chen then asked Hou if he read the film reviews after it was screened at the festival and Hou said: “No. The papers were in French.”
Chen said: “Hou spoiled all my punchlines, making it seem like I ruined the interview.”
Writer Chang Da-chun (張大春) said Chen “made a massive faux pas without even knowing it,” adding that she is “an incurable snob,” and was exploiting Hou’s gentle nature and tolerance.
Screenwriter and author Neil Peng (馮光遠) said that he burst out laughing when he saw the interview, adding that “Chen should be the first when it comes to Taiwanese women who feign friendship [with celebrities],” a reference to Chen’s interview with two-time Oscar-winning Taiwanese director Ang Lee (李安).
Peng said Chen claimed to have a friendship with Lee, who barely knew her.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
CASE COUNT: The deceased had advised law enforcement agencies regarding 60 fraud cases this year, leading to the confiscation of NT$9.3 billion in alleged illegal proceeds Prosecutors yesterday launched an investigation into the death of cryptocurrency expert Miffy Chen (陳梅慧), who died in a car crash on Wednesday under what some consider to be suspicious circumstances following her work with law enforcement to track down NT$9.3 billion (US$286.97 million) in alleged illegal proceeds. Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) tasked the Hsinchu District Prosecutors’ Office with investigating the incident following requests from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and other agencies with which she worked to crack several prominent cases involving financial fraud and money laundering. Chen was killed in a six-car pileup near Hsinchu in the northbound lanes of Sun
RSS