Taiwanese Mandopop star Jay Chou (周杰倫) is to release his first album in nearly four years this week, yesterday unveiling its lead single accompanied by a music video in which he battles a vampire.
Chou’s signature fusion of Western R&B and hip-hop with distinctly Taiwanese and Chinese influences has earned him a devoted, at times obsessive, following across Asia since his 2000 debut, Jay (杰倫).
His new album, Children of the Sun (太陽之子), is his 16th studio release and features 13 tracks. The digital version arrives today, with a physical edition to follow next month.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The video for the title track, almost seven minutes long and filmed in Taipei and Paris, shows him battling a vampire in a church, whom he ultimately kills by driving a giant cross through its heart.
Chou told fans and reporters in Taipei that he hoped to send “positive energy” with the lead single, recalling earlier occasions of stage fright before concerts.
“There is a dark side in everyone’s heart; how to control it, live in peace with it or to destroy it,” he said.
Taiwan has an outsized influence in the Chinese-speaking world, in part due to a creative environment unconstrained by censorship.
Raised in suburban Taipei by his mother, Chou failed his college entrance exam and once considered becoming a piano teacher.
He was discovered by a TV host at a singing competition, although he started his career by writing songs for other performers. Unusual in the Mandopop industry, he writes much of his own material.
Chou is also an actor, appearing in Chinese-language films as well as the 2010 Hollywood movie version of The Green Hornet, in which he played Kato, sidekick to the vigilante crime fighter played by comedian Seth Rogen.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS