Fledging actor Mark Chao (趙又廷) played the ungrateful son in this week’s tabloids, with his semi-retired entertainer father Allen Chao (趙樹海) in the role of the overbearing father. It all started when the younger Chao was named Best Actor for his role in popular police drama Black & White (痞子英雄) at the Golden Bell Awards two weeks ago, beating out audience favorite and former F4 member Vic Chou (周渝民), to the surprise and consternation of many in the audience and entertainment media. Rumors have been circulating that the elder Chao had an “innocent chat” with an “old friend” who happened to be a jury member prior to the awards ceremony.
Allen Chao says that isn’t true. But he’s been griping about how his 25-year-old son has turned down jobs for commercials and television shows featuring the father-son duo that Chao Senior had arranged. “I’d be lucky to be seen at all with my son on television these days,” Allen Chao was quoted as saying by the Apple Daily.
Black & White director Tsai Yueh-hsun (蔡岳勳), meanwhile, was cozying up to Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) by throwing a party to thank the city for its support during the shooting of the television drama.
Chen and Tsai announced at the party last week that a movie version of Black & White will be set mostly in Kaohsiung, which Tsai says he hopes will help boost tourism in the southern city.
In another boost for tourism in Kaohsiung, it is estimated that pop-rock outfit Mayday (五月天) will draw more than 7,000 fans from Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore to its sold-out concert scheduled to be held in the city on Dec. 5. According to calculations by local media, the concert will generate NT$150 million for the local economy, cementing Mayday’s role as the new F4, the Taiwanese boy band that had a large following in Asia.
In other music-related news, singer Joanna Wang (王若琳) will reportedly return to the stage in January, just a few months after what was billed as a good-bye concert was held at The Wall (這牆) by Wang, who at the time was said to be returning to the US to resume her education.
Gossip observers suspect the bye-bye gig was a publicity stunt and question whether the 21-year-old singer’s upcoming show is worth NT$10,000 per seat, a price that even by big-name pop stars such as Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) and Aaron Kwok (郭富城) would have a hard time matching.
Wang’s record company Sony Music later explained that the NT$10,000 tickets were for sofa seats for two. But as Wang has been outspoken about her disappointment with Sony Music for making her a sweet, mellow jazz crooner rather than letting her to do what she truly wants, the upcoming concert may very well be an attempt by the record label to cash in on the defiant young star while it still can.
Finally, after months of rumors about pregnancies and miscarriages, Hong Kong paparazzi confirmed last week that Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) is pregnant with twins.
The actress and mother of one was reportedly trying to have a child again with husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) to save their marriage in the wake of her star turn in the Edison Chen (陳冠希) sex photo scandal.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built