This week’s gossip column inches have been dominated by intrigue and secret love in the Mando-pop world. Teen idol and self-made acrobat Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) grabbed headlines, not for her new album Butterfly (花蝴蝶), but for being an alleged cheater and copycat.
The story goes something like this: a couple of years ago, Tsai’s old flame Jay Chou (周杰倫) implied that celebrated music impresario Chen Tse-shan (陳澤杉) had knowingly manipulated the charts for his clients including Tsai. Now, the diva is bent on revenge.
When preorders of Butterfly broke the 120,000-mark, that is 30,000 more than those for Chou’s Capricorn (魔杰座) last year, the songstress’ label Warner Music (華納音樂) wasted no time in holding a press conference on Sunday, where an attorney was
present to validate the veracity of the figures.
According to Chou’s record company, JVR Music (杰威爾音樂), Warner Music fiddled the figures. “You can’t fool those in the business,” the company’s spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Perhaps what troubles the Mando-pop queen most is the recent accusation that she copied Japanese pop sensation Ayumi Hamasaki. Local media have commented on what they believe are striking similarities between the two stars’ new looks.
As Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) readies to open her tour with a concert at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋) next month, the Singaporean singer’s sweetheart of two years, a hitherto well-kept secret, has conveniently surfaced and garnered media attention.
Dubbed “mustache man” (鬍鬚男) by media, 31-year-old Nadim van der Ros is Dutch, a high-ranking manager at Aviva, and what’s more, a hunk and able athlete who caught the star’s eye at a triathlon competition held by his company.
Sun’s is not the only secret to see the light of day. Chu Ko Liang (豬哥亮), who went into hiding after running up a huge gambling debt more than a decade ago, has reportedly irked his old showbiz chums who have tried to help.
Claiming to have plenty of job offers lined up for Chu, entertainer-turned-lawmaker Yu Tian (余天) said he was frustrated that the fugitive funnyman remains elusive and difficult to reach.
Kao Ling-feng (高凌風) says he has an influential friend in Malaysia who is willing to fund a film tailor-made for Chu. The former comedian, however, has shown little interest.
“Chu wants someone to pay off his debt [reportedly upwards of NT$200 million] all at once. But that’s not possible,” Kao was quoted
as saying.
Chu should look up to Judy Chiang (江蕙) when it comes to gambling troubles. After her older sister, who managed her assets, gambled away all the money and went on the lam earlier this year, the reigning queen of Taiwanese-language music has quietly started again from scratch by releasing the DVD version of her 2008 concert.
Though her sister lost
all her savings, to the tune of more than NT$100 million, Chiang took the blame herself.
“It is all my fault. I should have paid more attention to my sister,” Chiang told the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
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