Singer and actor Alien Huang (黃鴻升) was found dead at his home in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) yesterday. He was 36.
Huang was also known by the nickname Xiao Gui (“little ghost”).
His body was found when his father went to check on him after being unable to reach him by telephone, and called emergency services to the house at 11am, the Taipei City Police Department said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Huang’s body, which was discovered just outside the bathroom, showed no signs of a physical struggle, and he appeared to have been dead for some time, police said, adding that no drugs or alcohol were found at the scene.
Huang had returned home at about 7pm on Tuesday and later that evening posted an Instagram story showing him playing with his pet dog, authorities said.
The exact cause and manner of his death are being investigated, police said.
Huang was a graduate of Taipei Hwa Kang Arts School, and classmates included actress Hsu Wei-ning (許瑋甯) and singer Rainie Yang (楊丞琳).
He got his first big break in 2002 as a member of the short-lived boy band HC3 and founded his own band, Cosmo (丸子), the following year.
Huang transitioned into roles as an actor in television dramas and hosted variety shows, with the latter earning him nominations in 2015 and last year at the annual Golden Bell Awards for television production.
News of Huang’s death was met with an outpouring of tributes from friends and colleagues.
Yang — who dated Huang for several years — said via her agent that she “cannot describe how much it hurts” to lose Huang, who was “like family” to her.
Hsu wrote on Instagram that she and other Hwa Kang graduates had been planning to hold a reunion today, although Huang had said that he would be unable to attend because of his work schedule.
Variety show host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) said he was “shattered” by the news of his friend’s death, adding that he had promised to present Huang with a Golden Bell Award at next year’s ceremony.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a