looks as though television actor Yao Yuan-hao (姚元浩) is not paying off the right people. The Apple Daily reported that Yao, the boyfriend of model Sonia Sui (隋棠), planned to hold a surfing competition for youngsters in Ilan last weekend but was shocked when 30 or so tattooed men dressed in black showed up with surfboards and a heavy dose of attitude.
The report said that on the morning of the competition, Yao received an anonymous phone call telling him to cancel the competition. Or else.
Clearly not one to cave in to threats, Yao simply called on local police to remove the pesky gangsters, who intentionally stood in front of the judges so as to obstruct their view. But the coppers said they couldn’t do anything because it was a public beach. Miffed, Yao had no choice but to cancel the competition.
Perhaps Yao didn’t read a report in last year’s Next Magazine that speculated Sui worked in a hostess bar for a few days to pay off her mother’s debts. Pop Stop wonders if there is a connection.
And speaking of celebs paying off debts, Yuki Hsu (徐懷鈺) went off to perform in China in April to help pay down the mortgage on her family’s home as well as to revive her declining career.
But the 31-year-old singer got more than she bargained for at Very 88 (非常88), a pub in Hangzhou (杭州) with a hostess club atmosphere. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the ogling eyes and the wink-wink, nudge-nudge expressions of those present, she quickly finished her set and headed back to Taiwan, according to a report in Next.
Now, ordinarily, this might compel a person to look closer at her contract before signing. But not Hsu. At the beginning of this month she was back in China, and this time it was rumored that she wasn’t even told where she would be performing.
Upon arriving at the “gig,” she was ushered into a private room containing a handful of inebriated businessmen and a few hostesses.
Pop Stop was pondering Hsu’s run of bad luck, both in terms of singing and advances made on her by Chinese men, until we saw her tasteless Bad Girl video on YouTube. It features a skimpily clad Hsu gyrating around a stage with half naked men. It’s not surprising that drunken businessmen in China might expect Hsu to put on a show for them.
“It wasn’t my fault.” These were the words spoken by Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) in reference to the lurid photographs taken of her and Israeli fiancee Aviv “Vivi” Nevo earlier this year at a beach resort in St Barts.
Zhang made the comments while attending the Cannes Film Festival, where she was a judge. “I didn’t do anything harmful,” she said, a fact that seems to be backed up by her continued popularity. Yahoo Kimo released statistics for the most hits per person between January and April and Zhang came out on top.
In other wedding news, plastic surgeon and alleged lothario Li Jin-liang (李進良) is finally tying the knot with Hu Ying-chen (胡盈禎), the daughter of entertainer Hu Gua (胡瓜).
The announcement served as a perfect excuse for Next to exhume some of his old skeletons.
The magazine’s sense of timing is impeccable. Nothing appeals more to short attention spans and puts gossip into a shallower perspective than a few lines (accompanied by a photograph or graphic) detailing the shenanigans of Taiwan’s glitterati.
Readers of Pop Stop will recall Li’s escapades last year when he entertained two friends and three hostesses at a Taipei hotel. Or, before that, when he was accused of sexual harassment by a Japanese porn star. Oddly, neither of these episodes made the cut in this week’s edition of Next. What did was a night out last Christmas with a woman named Mao Mao (毛毛), and the suggestion of infidelity it implied.
According to an interview that Hu gave on a TV talk show on May 14, however, she questioned the veracity of that report because she was present with Li and Mao Mao.
On the same show, she cheekily thanked the gossip rag for running all these stories about them because it’s free advertising for Li’s plastic surgery clinic. It also helps her to keep an eye on her husband, she said.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
Despite the intense sunshine, we were hardly breaking a sweat as we cruised along the flat, dedicated bike lane, well protected from the heat by a canopy of trees. The electric assist on the bikes likely made a difference, too. Far removed from the bustle and noise of the Taichung traffic, we admired the serene rural scenery, making our way over rivers, alongside rice paddies and through pear orchards. Our route for the day covered two bike paths that connect in Fengyuan District (豐原) and are best done together. The Hou-Feng Bike Path (后豐鐵馬道) runs southward from Houli District (后里) while the
On March 13 President William Lai (賴清德) gave a national security speech noting the 20th year since the passing of China’s Anti-Secession Law (反分裂國家法) in March 2005 that laid the legal groundwork for an invasion of Taiwan. That law, and other subsequent ones, are merely political theater created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have something to point to so they can claim “we have to do it, it is the law.” The president’s speech was somber and said: “By its actions, China already satisfies the definition of a ‘foreign hostile force’ as provided in the Anti-Infiltration Act, which unlike
Mirror mirror on the wall, what’s the fairest Disney live-action remake of them all? Wait, mirror. Hold on a second. Maybe choosing from the likes of Alice in Wonderland (2010), Mulan (2020) and The Lion King (2019) isn’t such a good idea. Mirror, on second thought, what’s on Netflix? Even the most devoted fans would have to acknowledge that these have not been the most illustrious illustrations of Disney magic. At their best (Pete’s Dragon? Cinderella?) they breathe life into old classics that could use a little updating. At their worst, well, blue Will Smith. Given the rapacious rate of remakes in modern
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