The mudslinging continues in the ongoing saga that is the relationship between actress and household name Chen Mei-fen (陳美鳳) and her estranged husband, “David,” who she has denounced as a freeloader.
Earlier this week, the nation’s “most beautiful obasan” (最美麗的歐巴桑) — obasan is a Japanese word often used to refer to an older woman — spoke in detail about their failed relationship in a TV interview.
Chen, who managed to keep their marriage a secret until last month, revealed that her husband’s full name as Hsu Fu-ching (徐福慶). She announced her divorce (and marriage) after discovering that Hsu was having an affair.
Photo: Taipei Times
The 55-year-old sought to clear the air when it came to the facts about their relationship: She was not Hsu’s xiaosan (小三), or “other woman,” when he was previously married; and Hsu was divorced when he started to court her. She also denied giving Hsu NT$500,000 so he could pay alimony to a second ex-wife. Though she did give Hsu money, it was to help his advertising company cover a bounced check, she said. And to her knowledge, Hsu was married only once before.
Some media have reported that Chen and her sisters often spent their free time playing mahjong while Hsu was relegated with the tasks of serving tea and preparing meals. She says it was the other way around: Hsu was the one mad about mahjong, and it was she and her assistant who attended to their tile-shuffling guests.
Chen has also accused Hsu of being uncooperative in light of their break-up. She says Hsu promised that he would move out of their NT$40 million luxury apartment in Taoyuan County at the end of last month. He has yet to depart, and called building security after Chen sent her assistant there to pick up a few of her things.
“That property is wholly owned by me,” the Apple Daily quoted an indignant Chen as saying. “I am not at all worried that he will take my things. He has really done enough freeloading — give him an inch and he’ll take a mile.”
Chen, who is said to have provided financial support to Hsu and his two children from a previous marriage, also revealed that she adopted a son several years ago, which prompted strong objections from Hsu.
“This was my foster father’s last wish before he died, to have a son carry on our family name ... but David was strongly against it,” she said. “I’ve embraced his family, why couldn’t he be more open-minded?”
As of press time, Hsu has yet to respond.
In recent weeks, Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹), better known as A-mei, has kissed not one, but two rumored ex-boyfriends in public.
It was done all in the name of show business, of course. On Sunday, the pop diva wrapped up her AMeiZING tour, a run of eight blockbuster stadium shows that featured guest appearances by Mando-pop royalty such as Jody Chiang (江蕙), Show Luo (羅志祥), Jay Chou (周杰倫), Harlem Yu (庾澄慶) and Wang Lee-hom (王力宏).
The crowds were roused by A-mei’s rocking duet with Chiang and a dance routine with Luo. But it was flirtatious encounters on stage with Yu and Wang — both marked in the gossip press as past love interests of the female pop icon — that drove audience members into a frenzy.
Yu appeared at the third concert, singing two steamy duets with A-mei, during one of which the pair shared a kiss. Yu later had the crowd cheering when he bent down on one knee and offered a mock wedding proposal to the singer, presenting her with a plastic ring.
Not to be outdone, Wang, who appeared at the final concert, came on stage dressed in an Aboriginal costume. The pair staged an elopement scene in which Wang declared to A-mei, “I’ve come to take you back to Taitung.” This prompted the audience to chant “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” and the pair obliged with a peck on the lips.
Both kisses looked awkward and fake to Pop Stop, but a few reporters quizzing A-mei after the concerts insisted they looked “real” enough to wonder whether any of the singer’s “close friends,” such as her latest rumored love interest, a man known only as Sam the Bartender, would be jealous.
“No, not at all,” she said.
In other news, television celebrity Dee Hsu (徐熙娣), better known as Little S (小S), gave birth to her third child, Alice, last week. The 33-year-old cohost of the popular variety show Here Comes Kang and Xi (康熙來了) is expected to return to work next month.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS