Fierce competition in the sagging pop music market and the tabloids' obsession with sex and celebrity have prompted record companies to cook up increasingly elaborate schemes to garner free publicity and place their singers under the showbiz spotlight. The transgression of good taste may now be par for the course.
Last week several tabloids ran the sensational story of Singaporean singer Stephanie Sun (孫燕姿) and personnel from her record label EMI Capitol being held up at gunpoint by local guides while shooting a music video in Cairo, Egypt. Music video director Huang Chung-ping (黃中平) later clarified, however, that there were no guns present during the incident, which was just a slight disagreement over the guides' payment.
The record label changed it's side of the story from "being extorted for NT$1 million" to labeling the brouhaha a "a big misunderstanding" and Sun, currently in Singapore recovering from the ordeal, ameliorated her previous invective against the "the local villains" by lauding Egypt as a beautiful country.
Taiwan's sweetheart Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) has reached 33, an age deemed overripe for marriage by some. Rumors are doing the rounds that "ice cream" Lin has secretly gotten engaged to Scott Qiu (邱士楷), the son of a local wealthy family who made its fortune of some NT$3.5 billions selling toilets.
The star's equally glamorous mom Wu Tzu-mei (吳慈美) last week took the liberty of refuting the news but did make known her preference for Qiu over Lin's other rumored lover Jerry Yan (言承旭).
While Lin puts her love affair, or affairs, on hold and strives to make it in movies in John Woo's (吳宇森) Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁之戰), the news of Tony Leung's (梁朝偉) withdrawal from the film was made public on Monday and immediately generated intense speculation.
The official reason: Leung has made other business commitments and can't be fully commit to the six-month long shoot in China. The other version: Leung asked for too much money and was replaced with Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) who was willing to settle for less money.
The story doesn't end there, however, as many in the showbiz firmament believe the 44-year-old heartthrob ditched the project to prevent IT tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) getting his hands on his girlfriend Carina Lau (劉嘉玲).
Record company ALFA Music (阿爾發音樂) is about to lose its biggest cash cow as its seven-year long contract with Jay Chou (周杰倫) expires this month. Desperate to keep the gold mine that is estimated to have brought in over NT$1 billion in profits over the past three years, ALFA has warned other big labels that it has first dibs on extending the contract with the king of Mando-pop.
However, on the other side of the town, the soon-to-be-free star has already procured himself a 200-ping luxurious office and looks set to launch his own empire. A troupe of investors including Sony BMG and Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Peter Lam (林建岳) have promised to back the golden boy.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
Jan. 20 to Jan. 26 Taipei was in a jubilant, patriotic mood on the morning of Jan. 25, 1954. Flags hung outside shops and residences, people chanted anti-communist slogans and rousing music blared from loudspeakers. The occasion was the arrival of about 14,000 Chinese prisoners from the Korean War, who had elected to head to Taiwan instead of being repatriated to China. The majority landed in Keelung over three days and were paraded through the capital to great fanfare. Air Force planes dropped colorful flyers, one of which read, “You’re back, you’re finally back. You finally overcame the evil communist bandits and
They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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