More than 200 celebrities from Taiwan and Hong Kong attended large charity events held by television stations last weekend, all with the goal of raising money for the victims of Typhoon Morakot. Participating glitterati included Andy Lau (劉德華), Leon Lai (黎明), Sandra Ng (吳君如), Chang Fei (張菲), Hu Gua (胡瓜), Shu Qi (舒淇) and Judy Chiang (江蕙).
One of the weekend’s most enthusiastic volunteers, Chinese action star-turned-philanthropist Jet Li (李連杰), accompanied aid workers from Taiwan’s Red Cross Society on a visit to nine locations in Kaohsiung County on Saturday.
On a sadder note, Aboriginal star A-mei (張惠妹) lost both her uncle and brother-in-law to the typhoon in her hometown in Taitung County.
In the latest installment of the developing drug-taking controversy in Japan’s showbiz firmament, police are reportedly investigating possible links between Noriko Sakai and her surfer husband Yuichi Takaso, both arrested for drug possession, and J-pop singer and actor Manabu Oshio, who was arrested on Aug. 3 on suspicion of drug use and has been connected to a 30-year-old woman found dead at an apartment in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.
Oshio, 31, tested positive for ecstasy and admitted he had fled the scene after the unidentified woman, a bar hostess and his mistress of six months, took two pills and lost consciousness.
According to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), police suspect that Oshio, Sakai and Takaso are part of an intricate network of drug trading that involves big-name stars.
Other celebrities implicated in the snowballing scandal, according to Tokyo Sports, a Japanese daily, include actors Hideaki Ito and Shinji Takeda.
Following news that Jay Chou (周杰倫) has joined the cast of Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet, assuming the role of Kato alongside Seth Rogen, Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz, pop idol Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) revealed last week that he has been working on a film script for the past six months.
While keeping mum about the story, the first-time scriptwriter said that he will soon begin looking for prospective investors, as well as a suitable director to shoot the NT$100 million movie starring none other than Wang himself.
When asked by the Liberty Times if he would make a better martial arts sidekick than Chou, whose English is less than fluent, Wang brushed off the question, saying: “I heard that Chou already began intensive English courses. He should do fine.”
In local showbiz pseudo-news, Apple Daily snappers spotted divorcee Annie Yi (伊能靜) shopping for toys with her son at Breeze Center (微風廣場) last week. The paper printed a detailed account of the trip, gleefully reporting that the boy played with a toy sewing machine and read comic books for girls after being left unattended by his mother.
The concerned newspaper concluded that Yi failed as a mother by exposing her precious son to the danger of kidnapping.
On a hillside overlooking Taichung are the remains of a village that never was. Half-formed houses abandoned by investors are slowly succumbing to the elements. Empty, save for the occasional explorer. Taiwan is full of these places. Factories, malls, hospitals, amusement parks, breweries, housing — all facing an unplanned but inevitable obsolescence. Urbex, short for urban exploration, is the practice of exploring and often photographing abandoned and derelict buildings. Many urban explorers choose not to disclose the locations of the sites, as a way of preserving the structures and preventing vandalism or looting. For artist and professor at NTNU and Taipei
March 10 to March 16 Although it failed to become popular, March of the Black Cats (烏貓進行曲) was the first Taiwanese record to have “pop song” printed on the label. Released in March 1929 under Eagle Records, a subsidiary of the Japanese-owned Columbia Records, the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) lyrics followed the traditional seven characters per verse of Taiwanese opera, but the instrumentation was Western, performed by Eagle’s in-house orchestra. The singer was entertainer Chiu-chan (秋蟾). In fact, a cover of a Xiamen folk song by Chiu-chan released around the same time, Plum Widow Missing Her Husband (雪梅思君), enjoyed more
Last week Elbridge Colby, US President Donald Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy, a key advisory position, said in his Senate confirmation hearing that Taiwan defense spending should be 10 percent of GDP “at least something in that ballpark, really focused on their defense.” He added: “So we need to properly incentivize them.” Much commentary focused on the 10 percent figure, and rightly so. Colby is not wrong in one respect — Taiwan does need to spend more. But the steady escalation in the proportion of GDP from 3 percent to 5 percent to 10 percent that advocates
From insomniacs to party-goers, doting couples, tired paramedics and Johannesburg’s golden youth, The Pantry, a petrol station doubling as a gourmet deli, has become unmissable on the nightlife scene of South Africa’s biggest city. Open 24 hours a day, the establishment which opened three years ago is a haven for revelers looking for a midnight snack to sober up after the bars and nightclubs close at 2am or 5am. “Believe me, we see it all here,” sighs a cashier. Before the curtains open on Johannesburg’s infamous party scene, the evening gets off to a gentle start. On a Friday at around 6pm,
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