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.
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
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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
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