It’s often said that the entertainment industry is built on foundations of fantasy and hype, but some old-time entertainers understand the importance of putting their money into something that lasts.
In the case of Fei Yu-ching (費玉清), the younger brother of popular entertainer Chang Fei
(張菲), that’s bricks and mortar.
This week, the media was awash with news that the singer and TV host had spent NT$330 million on purchasing a property on Dunhua North Road (敦化北路).
According to the Apple Daily, Fei Yu-ching bought the property outright, paying cash up front for the 600-plus square meter commercial property.
Fei Yu-ching certainly has the money to spend, having grossed, according to the paper, a total of NT$186 million for concerts so far this year.
According to the Apple Daily, the singer, known for his mellifluous voice, low-key lifestyle and financial acumen, is careful with his money.
Another entertainer who is being careful with money is Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), who has decided to fight a tax claim of NT$8.19 million on her earnings from last year. The conflict centers on whether some of her earnings are regarded as income earned through her association with modeling agency Catwalk (凱渥) or personal income.
According to the tax agency, Lin failed to report NT$170 million in personal income between 2003 and 2005, which is the basis of its present claim.
Meanwhile, Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) is promoting a new album, which once again sees her flaunting her many physical assets in the media.
The album, titled Myself, has already generated much hype with rumors of steamy music videos.
The most recently released music video, Love’s Pupil (玩愛之徒), for which Tsai served as artistic director, is rumored to push the boundaries, showing off vast areas of Tsai’s well-toned body.
While Tsai revels in opening up on screen, she has said that she has had enough of unwelcome attention from the media, which has recently taken to shining the spotlight on her family life.
In a statement to the press, Tsai asked the media to stop bothering her family, and got decidedly tetchy when accused of lacking proper respect for family elders. “It’s not up to the media to define what constitutes respect,” she is quoted as saying.
In romance-related news, Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) has, according to NOWnews.com, become the touch-paper of a breakup between Chinese singer Andy Hui (�?w) and Michelle Yu (余德琳), his girlfriend of three years.
Hui and Cheng enjoyed a high-profile and commercially successful personal and professional relationship in the first half of the last decade.
Cheng said in a statement that her relationship with Hui had changed over the past 10 years “from romance to friendship” (愛情變成了情誼), and that there was no basis for the pair getting back together.
Cheng begged the media to lay off the three principals of this drama, but in a slow news week, her wish fell on deaf ears.
TV personality He Yi-hang
(賀一航) has become a major focus of news after police busted a prostitution and drug ring midweek. Apart from being shown to have been a regular client of the syndicate, He stands accused of having trafficked cocaine and ketamine, which is likely to get him into much more trouble than the titillating reports that he engaged in threesomes with hookers.
Despite the lurid details that have been splashed across the tabloids, He’s fiancee, referred to in the Chinese-language media simply as Judy, is standing by her man, for the moment at least.
Their wedding, scheduled for the end of the year, is still on track. According to a report in the United Daily News, police said that He had been “very unlucky” (很衰), since their investigations had not been targeting him at all. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) last week offered us a glimpse of the violence it plans against Taiwan, with two days of blockade drills conducted around the nation and live-fire exercises not far away in the East China Sea. The PRC said it had practiced hitting “simulated targets of key ports and energy facilities.” Taiwan confirmed on Thursday that PRC Coast Guard ships were directed by the its Eastern Theater Command, meaning that they are assumed to be military assets in a confrontation. Because of this, the number of assets available to the PRC navy is far, far bigger
The 1990s were a turbulent time for the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) patronage factions. For a look at how they formed, check out the March 2 “Deep Dives.” In the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s the factions amassed fortunes from corruption, access to the levers of local government and prime access to property. They also moved into industries like construction and the gravel business, devastating river ecosystems while the governments they controlled looked the other way. By this period, the factions had largely carved out geographical feifdoms in the local jurisdictions the national KMT restrained them to. For example,
The remains of this Japanese-era trail designed to protect the camphor industry make for a scenic day-hike, a fascinating overnight hike or a challenging multi-day adventure Maolin District (茂林) in Kaohsiung is well known for beautiful roadside scenery, waterfalls, the annual butterfly migration and indigenous culture. A lesser known but worthwhile destination here lies along the very top of the valley: the Liugui Security Path (六龜警備道). This relic of the Japanese era once isolated the Maolin valley from the outside world but now serves to draw tourists in. The path originally ran for about 50km, but not all of this trail is still easily walkable. The nicest section for a simple day hike is the heavily trafficked southern section above Maolin and Wanshan (萬山) villages. Remains of
Shunxian Temple (順賢宮) is luxurious. Massive, exquisitely ornamented, in pristine condition and yet varnished by the passing of time. General manager Huang Wen-jeng (黃文正) points to a ceiling in a little anteroom: a splendid painting of a tiger stares at us from above. Wherever you walk, his eyes seem riveted on you. “When you pray or when you tribute money, he is still there, looking at you,” he says. But the tiger isn’t threatening — indeed, it’s there to protect locals. Not that they may need it because Neimen District (內門) in Kaohsiung has a martial tradition dating back centuries. On
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