Sparks continue to fly over a rumored romance between singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) and model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), co-stars of the recently released film The Treasure Hunter (刺陵). The two were spotted together by Next Magazine several weeks ago on a late night outing at a hot pot restaurant on Civil Boulevard (市民大道). Reports have also circulated on the Internet of a Chou-Lin sighting at Shilin night market (士林夜市).
Fueling speculation even further was a birthday ode to Chou (who just turned 31) written by his close friend and fellow pop singer Devon Song (彈頭). On his blog, Song posted an eight-line poem in Mandarin which sneaks in a vague reference to Lin: The poem was written to be read from left to right, but the first character of each line also forms a sentence, which reads, “Director Chou is fucking cool, Chi-ling knows it.” (周導好屌，志玲知道.)
But it seems Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) can’t be left out of the picture when it comes to “The Chairman,” at least on the gossip pages. Just last weekend, Chou and his former sweetheart reportedly went on a bowling date — a development that has left observers “in the dark,” as our sister paper, The Liberty Times, put it.
As for one of Lin’s past flames, pop heartthrob Jerry Yan (言承旭) has been dodging questions as usual regarding romance. Yan, who was last rumored to be dating actress Terri Kwan (關穎) but supposedly still holds a candle for Lin, recently made an appearance on Variety Big Brother (綜藝大哥大) — but not without a fuss.
According to the Liberty Times, the taping of the show was delayed by Yan’s management, which insisted that host Chang Fei (張菲) refrain from asking questions about his love life. Chang relented, but lightly prodded Yan on the show: “[Jerry], this is the first time that as a host, I’ve been restricted from asking certain questions.”
The reporters on the set, on the other hand, didn’t let Yan off the hook. They grilled him on the Chou-Lin rumors. “I’ve heard about it,” he replied with a “rigid” smile. Had he seen the The Treasure Hunter? “It’s actually a good movie.”
A movie that’s actually good, James Cameron’s hit Avatar, is getting trumped in China by Confucius (孔子). Chinese authorities have told theaters across the country to pull the sci-fi epic to make way for a biopic on the venerated philosopher starring Chow Yun-fat (周潤發). The Apple Daily reports that high-level Chinese officials have been concerned that local films would lose market share to Avatar, which opened at the beginning of the month and is already the highest-grossing movie in Chinese film history, having earned US$76 million thus far. But all is not lost for our friends across the strait, who can still see the 3D IMAX version, which has yet to be pulled from theaters.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese Internet users have been feeding their craze for Avatar by drawing comparisons between Neytiri, the film’s lead female character, with several pop singers, according to another Apple Daily report. Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) was in the running for the best look-a-like, but Angela Chang (張韶涵) took the prize with her “eye-to-nose ratio.”
Ouyang Fei-fei (歐陽菲菲), the Taiwan-born singer who found stardom in Japan as a disco diva, will be appearing at Taipei Arena (台北小巨蛋) tomorrow night. The 55-year-old, who sports a Tina Turner-esque hairdo and is sometimes called the Taiwanese Cher, shared with the Liberty Times the secret to maintaining her svelte figure: everyday she does 30 minutes of “exercise in bed” (床上運動) — that is, leg lifts and waist twists.
And perhaps to prove that she also remains young at heart, Ouyang has been rehearsing Madonna’s Like a Virgin as part of the Western pop segment of her show. But the song is not really her, she says. “I can’t sing something so restrained, I’m too wild.”
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
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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,
Mongolian influencer Anudari Daarya looks effortlessly glamorous and carefree in her social media posts — but the classically trained pianist’s road to acceptance as a transgender artist has been anything but easy. She is one of a growing number of Mongolian LGBTQ youth challenging stereotypes and fighting for acceptance through media representation in the socially conservative country. LGBTQ Mongolians often hide their identities from their employers and colleagues for fear of discrimination, with a survey by the non-profit LGBT Centre Mongolia showing that only 20 percent of people felt comfortable coming out at work. Daarya, 25, said she has faced discrimination since she
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