Appearing in a suggestive advertisement for an online game in which your breasts are shown swaying as you ride an undulating exercise machine can put a wannabe on the fast track to superstardom. That, at least, has been the case for “big-breasted bodacious baby face” (童顏巨乳) Yaoyao (瑤瑤), real name Kuo Shu-yao (郭書瑤), who last week was spotted having a business dinner with representatives from Yoshimoto Kogyo, a major Japanese entertainment conglomerate.
Yaoyao’s record company Seed Music (種子音樂) — yes, her debut album is slated to hit record stores next month — said there is indeed a plan for the sex kitten to become a pop star in Japan in the manner of Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄).
Seed Music appears to be on to something. Given the warm reception Yaoyao has received among Taiwan’s zhainan (宅男) community, it is not a stretch to imagine the 19-year-old winning the hearts of Japanese otaku as well.
Meanwhile, former superstar Joey Wang (王祖賢) was in the news again this week after it was reported that the 42-year-old recluse has become a Buddhist nun.
Wang rose to fame after starring in 1987 blockbuster A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) and enjoyed a notable career throughout the 1990s. She retired in 2002 and has led a low-profile life in Canada ever since, where she is said to have donned the habit last month.
Gossip observers think Wang’s sudden ability to “see through the vanity of the secular world” (看破紅塵) has something to do with her two failed relationships. One was a 16-year-long romance with musician Chi Chin (齊秦), the other an extramarital affair with Hong Kong entertainment mogul Peter Lam (林建岳).
One of the few openly gay celebrities in Taiwan has aggravated members of the TV-watching public by referring to homosexuals as niang (娘), the Chinese equivalent of “sissy,” on a popular television show, reports the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).
Over the past month or so Kevin Tsai (蔡康永) of Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了), which he co-hosts with Little S (小S), has been using the word niang to address gay celebrities such as Kuo Hsin (郭鑫), Ti Chih-chieh (狄志杰) and Hsu Chien-kuo (許建國) when they appear on his show.
Viewers angered by his use of the term, which when used by a stranger is considered demeaning, posted angry comments on the Internet like the following: “The sissy host should think of himself before calling other people sissies.”
In other gay-related news, pop diva A-mei (阿妹), real name Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), will introduce her new persona A-mit (阿密特) to gay fans at a party on July 18 at Riverside Live House (西門紅樓展演館) in Taipei. Unlike A-mei, A-mit is said to have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to saccharine ballads and KTV-friendly tunes. Those who have seen A-mit perform say the black-clad rocker screams, hisses and howls, but never croons.
To catch A-mit at Riverside, partygoers have to be biologically male or identified as male on their ID cards, and wear something “rainbowy.”
Professing concern that the star’s female fans will feel left out, A-mit’s record company, Gold Typhoon (金牌大風), promises a women-only A-mit party if the gay pa (gay趴) goes well.
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
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
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