Since rumors first emerged in February that Jay Chou (周杰倫) was dating 17-year-old Australian-Taiwanese model Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌), the parties on both sides haven’t confirmed whether the two are romantically attached. Chou famously stonewalled inquisitive reporters by demanding that they produce photographic evidence.
But Next Magazine has finally obtained evidence: a photo of Chou and Quinlivan, who turned 18 on Aug. 12, arm-in-arm on a boat in Marseilles, France. The Chairman set off on a 13-day holiday on Aug. 8, and there was furious speculation that he would meet Quinlivan to celebrate her birthday overseas. Now that the two have been caught together, Chou will have a hard time denying the relationship. The hugely successful musician and producer has had no shortage of romantic relationships in the 12 years in which he has been in the media limelight, so much of the excitement in the press is really about Next media getting one up on Chou, who has not always been as open and up front about his private life as the local media could wish.
With the emergence of one celebrity relationship, another flounders. Media personality Sisy Chen (陳文茜), in another story to break in Next Magazine, has ended her seven-year relationship with the well-known plastic surgeon Sung Cheng-yu (宋正宇). This revelation emerged after three weeks of intense scrutiny from the magazine, who say that in the past, Sung would always pick up Chen after she finished recording her hugely popular television show.
Photo: Taipei Times
Now, Chen has thrown herself into socializing with the rich and famous, and has recently
swapped her Mini Cooper for a BMW Series 7, while Sung gets around town on the MRT, heading home alone after work. Rumors as to why the relationship has hit the rocks abound, with revelations that things started to go wrong after a minor traffic accident when the two where holidaying on the North Coast. Friends have said that Chen felt unwell after the incident and worried that it might be the result of an injury that Sung was unconcerned about and failed to show proper consideration.
There are no doubts anymore about the fact that Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) are splitting up, with the interminable rumors and squabbling of the past months culminating in a joint statement issued earlier this week saying that the two will be getting divorced. They will retain joint custody of their two children, but no details were provided as to the financial arrangements between the two.
Under Hong Kong law, neither party can remarry in the next five months, but immediately rumors have begun to circulate that Cheung may be getting together with former lover Daniel Chan (陳曉東). Chan was in Taiwan this week, but when approached for comment during a recording session, he retreated to the changing room, his manager insisting that the divorce proceedings did not concern Chan in any way.
According to the Apple Daily, the break up has not harmed either Cheung’s or Tse’s careers. The paper stated that Cheung has already received three offers for film roles that could be worth NT$200 million, and that Tse remains heavily in demand, and will appear with Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) in Yuen Woo-ping’s (袁和平) new martial arts drama Wu Dang (武當), and is currently in negotiations for eight other projects.
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
RSS