Last week was an exciting time for music fans. American rapper Snoop Dogg made his debut appearance in Taiwan, where he performed with Dr Dre at Luxy, music legend Lo Ta-yu (羅大佑) led groupies to relive his 1980s heyday, and current idol Hebe Tien (田馥甄) of S.H.E crooned to a full-house audience at the National Taiwan University Sports Center.
But no one was as hardworking as Hong Kong’s Eason Chen (陳奕迅), who broke multiple records with a six-concert tour in Taiwan and still felt the urge to let off some steam.
The tour saw Chen become the first Hong Kong singer to make it to Taichung Stadium (台中體育場) and Kaohsiung Arena (高雄巨蛋). He also became the new title-holder for most shows by a Hong Kong performer during one tour in Taiwan, and attracted a record-breaking 72,000 concertgoers.
Photo: Taipei Times
At the afterparty in Kaohsiung on Saturday last week, the usually mellow star suddenly lost his cool when the Apple Daily asked him about a Hong Kong gossip media story that reported he and his wife of five years are heading for a divorce.
“Screw you. You [the Hong Kong press] are full of crap,” he snapped.
To be fair, Chen might have fueled the rumors about his deteriorating marriage when he recently appeared on Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了) to promote his concerts. The star told the program’s hosts, Dee Hsu (徐熙娣, aka Little S) and Kevin Tsai (蔡康永), that he and his wife Hilary Tsui (徐濠縈) rarely talk at home and sometimes rely on text messages to communicate.
Meanwhile, things are getting hot between Jay Chou (周杰倫) and his teenage sweetheart Hannah Quinlivan (昆凌). After trying to keep their romance as low profile as possible, the barely legal model was spotted cruising around Taipei in one of Chou’s sports cars last week. According to tailing paparazzi from the Apple Daily and the Liberty Times (the Taipei Time’s sister newspaper), Quinlivan’s itinerary included lunch at the Breeze Center (微風廣場) and a look-see around Chou’s restaurant at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), before returning to her home just one block away from the Mando-pop king’s apartment.
What surprised the paparazzi more was that Quinlivan neither denied nor admitted anything when reporters from the Liberty Times questioned her about whether or not the vehicle was a gift from Chou.
Gossip observers are saying it’s a sign that the 18-year-old model’s status as “J-wife” (J嫂) is cemented and official.
In film-related news, a pirated copy of You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩) went viral online and received some 140,000 hits on YouTube within a couple of days before it was blocked on Sunday. It is said that the leak is likely to affect the film’s box-office takings when it opens in China next month.
Usually self-assured in public, the film’s director and noted writer Giddens Ko (柯景騰), better known as Jiubadao (九把刀 or “Nine Knives”), made the rare gesture of pleading to fans on his blog by saying the film is his “baby blessed with lots of love and prayers.”
Love or no love, Jiubadao’s baby is raking in a lot of dough for its creator. The romantic comedy has grossed more than NT$400 million at the box office in Taiwan and broken the NT$200 million mark at the Hong Kong box office since its release in October.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
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They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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