A Chinese woman has been barred from entering the country for the next five years after she arrived in Taiwan as part of a tour group earlier this month, only to abscond in an attempt to meet her idol, singer-songwriter Jay Chou (周杰倫).
According to a police report, the 45-year-old surnamed Chen (陳), from Henan Province, was accompanying her octogenarian father in a tour group that arrived on Jan. 4.
On the final leg of their trip, the group visited Greater Kaohsiung on Jan. 10 and were scheduled to leave for home the next day. However, Chen decided to leave the tour group and try to find Chou.
While the other members of the tour group were having a meal, she told the guide that her father was feeling unwell.
With her father in tow, Chen took a high-speed rail train from Greater Kaohsiung to Taipei and went to Mackay Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Tamsui District (淡水), where she told doctors: “My father is ill. He needs to stay in the hospital for treatment.”
Chen then checked into a hotel in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山), the police report said.
The next morning she headed to JVR Music, Chou’s record company on Changchun Road (長春路), thinking that she would meet her idol, but Chou was not there.
Undeterred, she bought a ticket for a concert by pop singer David Tao (陶吉吉) at Taipei Arena that night, believing that Chou would be appearing as a special guest. She missed out again, though, as Chou did not make an appearance.
Disappointed by not being able to meet her idol, Chen wandered around Taipei Arena long after the concert, catching the attention of security guards.
The guards contacted police at about 4am on Jan. 12, who later discovered that Chen had gone missing from her tour group. Chen was sent to the National Immigration Agency for questioning.
When asked by an immigration officer why she had left her tour group, Chen was quoted as saying: “I wanted to meet Jay Chou.”
Further questioning revealed that Chen knew the address of Chou’s record company and other information about the singer-songwriter by heart, convincing the official that Chou was the motivating factor in her decision to abscond from the tour group.
“During her stay in Taiwan, she kept demanding to meet Jay Chou and arguing with the other tourists over this request. It was clear that she was plotting to abscond from the tour group to try to seek out and meet Chou in person,” a tour guide who worked with Chen’s tour group said.
Chen and her father were deported to China on Jan. 13 and Chen has been barred from applying for a tourist visa to visit Taiwan for the next five years.
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