Ever since Edison Chen (陳冠希) was caught three years ago with a computer full of homemade sex photos featuring Hong Kong starlets, the actor-singer has been the gift that just keeps on giving to the showbiz gossip media.
The picture scandal died down but returned recently to haunt Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝), who starred in of one Chen’s hard drive indiscretions. She is now divorcing her husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), thanks in part to a publicized reunion with her erstwhile lover. As Pop Stop readers will recall in the now infamous “airplane incident” from earlier this summer, Cheung was spotted sitting next to Chen on a flight to Hong Kong following a mutual friend’s wedding in Taipei.
Tse was said to be enraged over reports that Cheung and Chen were chatting happily and snapping photos together on the plane. Rumors of marital strife between Tse and Cheung proved to be true with the announcement of their split last week.
Photo: Taipei Times
And now, as if Cheung doesn’t have enough on her plate already, Hong Kong magazine Face is making a fuss over the discovery of an “S&M” video starring the actress. The 39-second clip, made by one of Chen’s friends, videographer Vernie Yeung (楊龍澄), has Cheung dressed in her underwear, tied to a chair and wearing a ball gag.
The video, easily found on Yeung’s Web site, is nothing but a mediocre art house-wannabe piece, but it’s hardly surprising that the media are milking it for all it’s worth. On its cover, Face plastered screen-shots of Cheung from the film with the headline “Cecilia in an S&M movie” (柏芝被虐片). The Apple Daily made light of the fact that the filmmaker was a “close and personal” friend of Edison Chen’s and that the pair were once rumored to be collaborators-in-porn.
Yeung took to his microblog to defend himself and his art, pointing out that the clip, titled Dog Prisoner (狗仔戰俘), was shown at a screening for an audience of 1,000 people five years ago. According to NowNews.com, Yeung defended Cheung, writing that she “was outstanding. Why is there no one praising her for her performance? If you don’t get it, then blame me for doing a bad job of filming it.”
The Apple Daily went on to note that Chen’s sexcapades appear to have cursed the love life of another former “co-star,” Canto-pop singer Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐). According to the paper, Chung announced online that she was still in search of Mr Right and would not rule out a matchmaker. “Right now I’m 30, and I think 35 is the ideal time to get married. If I’m not married by then, 40 is my absolute limit [to wait],” she said.
Singer Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰) hasn’t had any trouble attracting attention. The Mando-popper, who was in China earlier this week to promote a new album, complained about getting harassed by fans in the middle of the night at his hotel.
According to the China Times, a group of fans found out Hsiao’s room number and spread the news on the Internet, with predictable results. Hsiao says he saw strangers hanging around in the hallways outside of his room, and on top of that, the singer received a steady stream of phone calls from callers who wouldn’t say anything when he answered.
After Hsiao and his management complained to the hotel and online, the “crazed” fans posted an apology, saying they had no ill intentions and that they were “seized with a sudden impulse.”
A would-be visiting pop star to Shanghai might consult Hsiao’s management about where not to stay on a future visit. According to the China Times report, Internet fans said that Hsiao’s room number was freely given out by the hotel, which wasn’t named in the article.
Pop Stop concludes with a brief introduction to Taiwan’s latest YouTube star, who goes by the name of Sister Hold You (Hold住姐).
The 20-something comedienne dresses in what she calls her “friend’s grandmother’s clothes,” speaks Mandarin with a put-on foreign accent (think California valley girl) and purports to be a teacher of “fashion” (her Facebook page lists her as a graduate of the “Paris Bonjour Fashion University”).
She’s been a hit since debuting her goofy schtick on CTV’s (中天電視) University (大學生了沒), which has racked up over 1,400,000 hits on YouTube. View Sister Hold You’s performance at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqNsaEL-wM4.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the country’s other political groups dare not offend religious groups, says Chen Lih-ming (陳立民), founder of the Taiwan Anti-Religion Alliance (台灣反宗教者聯盟). “It’s the same in other democracies, of course, but because political struggles in Taiwan are extraordinarily fierce, you’ll see candidates visiting several temples each day ahead of elections. That adds impetus to religion here,” says the retired college lecturer. In Japan’s most recent election, the Liberal Democratic Party lost many votes because of its ties to the Unification Church (“the Moonies”). Chen contrasts the progress made by anti-religion movements in
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
This was not supposed to be an election year. The local media is billing it as the “2025 great recall era” (2025大罷免時代) or the “2025 great recall wave” (2025大罷免潮), with many now just shortening it to “great recall.” As of this writing the number of campaigns that have submitted the requisite one percent of eligible voters signatures in legislative districts is 51 — 35 targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lawmakers and 16 targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The pan-green side has more as they started earlier. Many recall campaigns are billing themselves as “Winter Bluebirds” after the “Bluebird Action”
Last week the State Department made several small changes to its Web information on Taiwan. First, it removed a statement saying that the US “does not support Taiwan independence.” The current statement now reads: “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” In 2022 the administration of Joe Biden also removed that verbiage, but after a month of pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reinstated it. The American
RSS