One secret marriage led to another for Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau (劉德華).
After the news broke last Saturday of his under-the-radar Las Vegas wedding to long-rumored sweetheart Carol Choo (朱麗倩) in June, Lau admitted to having signed a nuptial agreement/marriage contract (結婚證書) with Taiwanese actress Yu Ke-hsin (喻可欣) back in the 1980s.
The agreement, however, is not legally binding as the marriage was neither officially registered nor was it celebrated publicly. But that hasn’t stopped Yu’s mother, referred to as “Mama Yu” in the Chinese-language press, from reminiscing about those glory days in public this week. She said Lau and her daughter signed the agreement on New Year’s Eve in 1985, when the pair were head over heels in love. While her daughter still has the document, Mama Yu says it merely serves as a memento of a past romance.
The revelations are just another headache for Lau, who is currently being branded as a “liar” by the Hong Kong media. He faced reporters at Hong Kong airport earlier this week, asking for “forgiveness” and apologizing for concealing his marriage to Chu. Lau vehemently denied having any children, a rumor that has dogged him for years.
Perhaps the media fuss over Lau has scared actor/singer Leon Lee (黎明) and supermodel Gaile Lai (樂基兒) into divulging the details of their own marriage. The Apple Daily in Hong Kong reported that the couple got married last year, also in Las Vegas. The 28-year-old Lai broke the news at a public appearance in Hong Kong, telling the paper: “Yes, we have already gotten married. I admit it. But the people close to us already know.”
Comedian Chu Ko Liang (豬哥亮) enjoyed a running start with his comeback show on Formosa TV (FTV, 民視), Chu Ko Hui She (豬哥會社), which started at the end of July. But the highly anticipated variety program has already begun to lose some of its luster. The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reports that some fans are less than thrilled with Chu Ko Liang’s co-host, Rene Hou (侯怡君), who has been criticized on Internet discussion boards as just “another pretty face.” Meanwhile, the Apple Daily quoted AGB Nielsen figures showing that the show’s viewership dropped by nearly 1.4 million over three episodes to an average of 3.08 million viewers.
While Chu Ko Liang is wisely maintaining a poker face about his ratings, Mando-pop star David Tao (陶吉吉) has been twittering his thoughts about Taiwan’s fickle pop charts, which got him in a little hot water. The 39-year-old singer-songwriter’s sixth album, David Tao 69 (六 九樂章), hit No. 1 on Five Music’s charts for the final week of last month, but only No. 3 on G-Music’s.
This seemed a little fishy to Tao, who offered his Twitter followers some market analysis and “speculation”: Five Music’s charts are based on sales in nine stores across the island, while G-Music’s charts are based on sales in 31 stores, which include major chains Rose Records (玫瑰唱片) and Tachung Records (大眾唱片). With more stores, Tao said, G-Music is more susceptible to chart-rigging or “buying the charts” (買榜), where companies inflate sales by purchasing records by their own artists.
“I’m not saying there are people rigging this chart, or that the chart is unfair, but I just think we need to use a little common sense,” he tweeted. “This way we see the whole picture, which is a little suspicious ...”
Fans of A-mei (張惠妹), whose latest album A-mit (阿密特) was No. 1 on G-Music’s charts, were not amused. On an Internet discussion board of A-mei and Tao’s record label, Gold Typhoon (金牌大風), posters accused Tao of being a “sore loser,” reports the Liberty Times.
This prompted a response from Tao, this time through Gold Typhoon: “I didn’t direct my comments at an artist or album in particular,” he said. “I just wanted to discuss one thing — my concern for the health of the [pop music] environment and to let consumers better understand the truth of all parts of the business. Please don’t misunderstand.”
And to conclude, some lighter fare. Singer Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), who seems to change diets as often as her wardrobe, has finally settled on the “right” nutritionist, according to the Apple Daily. After years of cooking without oil, cutting out starch and meat and eating only bland foods, Tsai’s latest regimen is, lo and behold, a regular balanced diet. She now eats almost everything except for eggs, and fruit only before 4pm. Common sense prevails.
If you are a Western and especially a white foreign resident of Taiwan, you’ve undoubtedly had the experience of Taiwanese assuming you to be an English teacher. There are cultural and economic reasons for this, but one of the greatest determinants is the narrow range of work permit categories that exist for Taiwan’s foreign residents, which has in turn created an unofficial caste system for foreigners. Until recently, laowai (老外) — the Mandarin term for “foreigners,” which also implies citizenship in a rich, Western country and distinguishable from brown-skinned, southeast Asian migrant laborers, or wailao (外勞) — could only ever
Sept. 23 to Sept. 29 The construction of the Babao Irrigation Canal (八堡圳) was not going well. Large-scale irrigation structures were almost unheard of in Taiwan in 1709, but Shih Shih-pang (施世榜) was determined to divert water from the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) to the Changhua plain, where he owned land, to promote wet rice cultivation. According to legend, a mysterious old man only known as Mr. Lin (林先生) appeared and taught Shih how to use woven conical baskets filled with rocks called shigou (石笱) to control water diversion, as well as other techniques such as surveying terrain by observing shadows during
In recent weeks news outlets have been reporting on rising rents. Last year they hit a 27 year high. It seems only a matter of time before they become a serious political issue. Fortunately, there is a whole political party that is laser focused on this issue, the Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP). They could have had a seat or two in the legislature, or at least, be large enough to attract media attention to the rent issue from time to time. Unfortunately, in the last election, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) acted as a vote sink for
This is a film about two “fools,” according to the official synopsis. But admirable ones. In his late thirties, A-jen quits his high-paying tech job and buys a plot of land in the countryside, hoping to use municipal trash to revitalize the soil that has been contaminated by decades of pesticide and chemical fertilizer use. Brother An-ho, in his 60s, on the other hand, began using organic methods to revive the dead soil on his land 30 years ago despite the ridicule of his peers, methodically picking each pest off his produce by hand without killing them out of respect