Starting with Taiwan's "international top model" Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), who was in the news practically every day this summer despite her not having done anything newsworthy, local media have kicked up what it now refers to as a "model fever"(名模熱) that's sweeping across the land. But since poor Chi-ling has already been deemed cold toast, it's now open season on the rest of Taiwan's contingent of runway models to justify more pictures of beautiful women on their pages and on TV.
The two ladies who stumbled into the media crosshairs this time are Lei Hung (洪曉蕾) and Lin Chia-chi (林嘉綺). And Hung may have already emerged as the prime target, as evidenced by her being the cover story two weeks in a row in Next Magazine (壹週刊) -- last week for doing the "splits" with four rich old men, and this week for having taken half-naked glamor pictures 11 years ago when she was 18. The best that Chia-chi could offer in the way of salacious stories was her kissing her longtime boyfriend and, this was actually part of a headline in The Great Daily News (大成報), rubbing his back. Clearly, Chia-chi is not going to generate titillating headlines for long.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Hung's agent, meanwhile, rose to the bait on Wednesday to denounce the publication of the old semi-nude photos and delivered a promise to sue the magazine, making sure that there will be more reports about Hung to come.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Last Sunday having been Double Ten Day, the usual tension over who will be the lucky/daring person to take the stage in front of the Presidential Office to host the national day festivities was more muted than in previous years, presumably because the government has given up asking popular stars to take part. Much had also been made beforehand of the toning down of the celebrations' "Chineseness" and nowhere was that more apparent than in the final choice of variety show host Peng Chia-chia (澎恰恰) and the self-proclaimed sexy obasan Chen Mei-feng (陳美鳳) to serve as MCs. Both being local icons, especially for the 40-and-up crowd, they drove the point home that there's a new wind blowing through town.
And speaking of blowing wind, Lee Hom Wong (王力宏) spoke in rare harsh tones to the media this week for reporting on criticisms of a song he produced for A-mei's (阿妹) new album that described the track as sounding like a person on the toilet grunting and groaning. Lee Hom said he wanted artists to be respected and for media to avoid "low-class" criticisms that demean the artists and their producers.
In Hong Kong last week, pop singer Eason Chan (陳奕迅) became a father when his girlfriend gave birth to a healthy 3.5kg baby girl. The couple named the baby Constance. The two have been out of reach from the media, but friends have visited the new family and said Constance looks like the father, with one friend remarking the two were so similar that even the baby's farts sounded like the Eason's.
If you are a Western and especially a white foreign resident of Taiwan, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of Taiwanese assuming you to be an English teacher. There are cultural and economic reasons for this, but one of the greatest determinants is the narrow range of work permit categories that exist for Taiwan’s foreign residents, which has in turn created an unofficial caste system for foreigners. Until recently, laowai (老外) — the Mandarin term for “foreigners,” which also implies citizenship in a rich, Western country and distinguishable from brown-skinned, southeast Asian migrant laborers, or wailao (外勞) — could only ever
In recent weeks news outlets have been reporting on rising rents. Last year they hit a 27 year high. It seems only a matter of time before they become a serious political issue. Fortunately, there is a whole political party that is laser focused on this issue, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP). They could have had a seat or two in the legislature, or at least, be large enough to attract media attention to the rent issue from time to time. Unfortunately, in the last election, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) acted as a vote sink for
About 130 years ago — as New Zealand women celebrated their world-first right to vote, athletes competed in the first international Olympic Games, and the first motion pictures were flickering into view — a tiny mottled green reptile with a spiny back was hatching on a small New Zealand island. The baby tuatara — a unique and rare reptile endemic to New Zealand — emerged from his burrow into the forest floor, where he miraculously evaded birds, rats and cannibalistic adult tuatara to reach his full adult size — nearly one kilo in weight and half a meter in length —
From a nadir following the 2020 national elections, two successive chairs of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) and Eric Chu (朱立倫), tried to reform and reinvigorate the old-fashioned Leninist-structured party to revive their fortunes electorally. As examined in “Donovan’s Deep Dives: How Eric Chu revived the KMT,” Chu in particular made some savvy moves that made the party viable electorally again, if not to their full powerhouse status prior to the 2014 Sunflower movement. However, while Chu has made some progress, there remain two truly enormous problems facing the KMT: the party is in financial ruin and