VIEW THIS PAGE Until recently regarded as an A-lister, poor Eddie Peng (彭于晏) looks as if he’s being eclipsed by a younger rival in what could be interpreted as a delicious example of comeuppance, if you suspend disbelief long enough. Lego Li (李國毅), 23, starred alongside Peng in the series Honey and Clover (蜂蜜幸運草) last year and was subject to some light bullying on set, including the forced removal of his shoe, which he was then made to smell, the United Daily News reported last year.
The young upstart seems to have avoided post-traumatic stress disorder and went on to score the lead role in a new drama, Start Game (比賽開始), which as Peng has been put on ice by his agency and hasn’t worked for four months has set tongues wagging, reports the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper.
Peng, who turns 27 on Tuesday, is reportedly in the doghouse for being difficult. And getting caught telling fibs hasn’t helped his cause. After splitting from Mando-pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) last year, he said the pair hadn’t kept in contact. She now says they do.
A US federal jury has begun deliberations in a civil trial of South Korean pop star and actor Rain and his managers over the cancellation of his scheduled 2007 concert in Honolulu.
Hawaii-based Click Entertainment Inc alleges Rain and his agency breached a contract and defrauded it of US$500,000 in rights fees, plus nearly US$1 million in other expenses to stage the event.
The four-man, three-woman jury began deliberating on Wednesday morning to determine if and how much damages should be awarded.
Rain’s concert was canceled just days before the scheduled June 15, 2007, event at Aloha Stadium. It was supposed to be the first stop on the US segment of the singer’s Rain’s Coming world tour, which saw the icon play Taiwan in March of the same year.
Alt-rock chanteuse Faith Yang (楊乃文), who sang a duet with Jarvis Cocker at December’s Urban Simple Life, revealed in the Liberty Times that she threw her US computer engineer boyfriend to the curb six months ago. He had moved to Taiwan, but it wasn’t to his liking so he upped sticks, and that was the end of that. And now she has a new album out next month, the perfect time to divulge details of her private life.
And girls, if you’re in the marriage market, a very eligible bachelor is under pressure from his parents to get hitched soon. That David Tao (陶吉吉) at 39 has not been married before shouldn’t put you off. There’s probably nothing wrong with him.
“My lips lack the moisture of other people,” the self-declared homebody told the Liberty Times.
His mother says she will arrange a marriage for her son, so time is of the essence.
The singer has a new album out in May, which may go some way to explaining the energized search for a spouse.
All of which segues awkwardly to Edison Chen (陳冠希), whose film The Sniper (神鎗手) hits screens next month in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The flick was originally slated for release last year, but was shelved after photos of the star and eight female celebrities engaged in compromising poses found their way onto the Net.
In the movie, Chen is a supporting actor, but he has outshone his coworkers for all the wrong reasons. Promotional shots of The Sniper feature bare-chested hunks in camouflage slacks.
The press, as cynical as ever, was quick to point out that the bullet Chen received in the post on March 11 may not have been a threat after all, but, would you believe it, a PR stunt for the film. VIEW THIS PAGE
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
During the Japanese colonial era, remote mountain villages were almost exclusively populated by indigenous residents. Deep in the mountains of Chiayi County, however, was a settlement of Hakka families who braved the harsh living conditions and relative isolation to eke out a living processing camphor. As the industry declined, the village’s homes and offices were abandoned one by one, leaving us with a glimpse of a lifestyle that no longer exists. Even today, it takes between four and six hours to walk in to Baisyue Village (白雪村), and the village is so far up in the Chiayi mountains that it’s actually
These days, CJ Chen (陳崇仁) can be found driving a taxi in and around Hualien. As a way to earn a living, it’s not his first choice. He’d rather be taking tourists to the region’s attractions, but after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the region on April 3, demand for driver-guides collapsed. In the eight months since the quake, the number of overseas tourists visiting Hualien has declined by “at least 90 percent, because most of them come for Taroko Gorge, not for the east coast or the East Longitudinal Valley,” he says. Chen estimates the drop in domestic sightseers after the
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
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