As my grandfather is from Taiwan, my father seems to be influenced by his roots and watches the Taiwanese news and talk shows on a regular basis. Sometimes I would join him in his daily Taiwanese "entertainment". It's quite amusing to see the talk shows where the host and his guests spends the whole 2 hours of the show scolding every tom dick and harry and sometimes also disagreeing with each other especially when members of ruling (KMT) and opposition (DDP) parties are on the same show. Fight, fight fight!Before I continue, I would like to say, I'm just an ignorant fool and the things I'm saying are just rando
m ramblings about the entertaining Taiwanese talk shows. Not trying to be an expert in any way. My knowledge of Taiwan is all from the Taiwanese shows I watch on TV. Something like the pro-Tibet supporters at this link, who don't have a clue why they are protesting. Unless you have stayed in a particular country for a few years, you can't really know for sure what you see on TV, newspaper or the internet is true. The bottom line is, you don't have to take me seriously.Anyways, those who have not watched these talk shows should watch them once in a while. I think ratings are high that's why more of these shows are popping up on TVBS and CTI, 2 of the channels my father and I watch. Who wouldn't like seeing people scolding other people? You have some shows in the afternoon, evening and night. The one I watch most is a show called "2100全民開講".
At first there was the former president Chen Shui Bian (陳水扁)'s corruption case...
It's fun to see all the different tactics he and his family members are trying to get themselves out of trouble, how his spies are assisting them and the current government not do
ing anything to the spies despite all the scolding on the talk shows. I think Chen Shui Bian's case was the catalyst for the sudden popularity of these talk shows. To produce a show with high viewership, just get a few "ming zuis (名嘴)" (which literally means famous mouth) on the show and start scolding Chen Shui Bian and family, some shows also allows the public to call in to scold him ha ha. I think these "famous mouths" must thank Chen Shui Bian for the problems he has caused. Without his huge amount of corruption cases and antics, they will not so much things to discuss about and will have less jobs. Some of these "famous mouths" appear on 2 shows a day and according to my father, they get around S$200 to S$300 per show, which means they can get freaking $600 a day for sitting down and scolding people! Let's say they work 5 days a week (although I noticed some work on weekends too). 5 days x 4 weeks x $600 per day equals to a cool $12,000 a month!!Actually we from Singapore have to thank Chen Shui Bian too. His first detention number (2630) came out rumbled (6230) as the second prize in 4D a day after he received that number!! My father wanted to buy the 24 combinations, but it was sold out! I guess lots of people strike 4d that day. My father also bought the second detention number (2185) but he did not strike ha ha. I think the next hot 4D number is his prison number =). Anyways, his case is related to many other cases, and more recently the talk shows are talking about the corruption in Taiwan's military which involves army personnel bribing for promotion. There so many new generals recently that the general to soldier ratio is 2:1000 (highest in the world). That is even higher than USA and Israel! Pay $100,000 for a promotion and you get about S$10k every month for the rest of your life after retirement, good investment heh.
The numerous amount of cases will give the "famous mouths" enough material to talk about for a few years I think. Lucky them Taiwan has so many problems, I wonder if they are really angry when they are scolding cause they are actually earning money while scolding. Do they try to create trouble when there is no trouble so that they can argue about it? I don't know he he.
And now finally to the title of this post. Last week Jackie Chan said this ...
BOAO, China — Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he's not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he's starting to think "we Chinese need to be controlled."Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China's southern island province of Hainan.
The 55-year-old Hong Kong actor was participating in a panel at the annual Boao Forum when he was asked to discuss censorship and restrictions on filmmakers in China. He expanded his comments to include society.
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."
Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."
This week, the talk shows responded to his comments. They were all very angry and condemned his comments, defending the democracy of Taiwan, on the "Scold Jackie Chan" section of the show. The funny thing is, after all the Taiwan defending, they then proceeded to their daily routine of scolding all the bad things that happened in Taiwan, and there are so many things for them to scold. Freedom of scolding!
To make matters worse, this happened in Taiwan (whom I consider the "freeiest" Chinese nation) a day after the Jackie Chan bashing ...
Lee was speaking at the lectern during an Internal Administration Committee session discussing relations with China when Chiu made loud remarks. Lee accused her of not having been well educated by her parents. Chiu rose to approach the lectern and spar with Lee, who challenged her to hit him. When Lee faced his fellow lawmakers complaining about her and reportedly using insulting remarks, Chiu approached him from behind and slapped him on the left cheek, cable stations showed. Lee accused the DPP of being a violent party, leading to a mass of lawmakers from both parties surging to keep their two colleagues apart. The committee meeting was adjourned. I know you want to see the video! I found it on Youtube! This female legislator, Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) also pointed a middle finger at her colleagues recently. I found the video too! Now for the videos ...Opposition Democratic Progressive Party Lawmaker Chiu Yi-ying slapped her male colleague Lee Ching-hua from the ruling Kuomintang yesterday for insulting her family.
Chiu Yi-ying Slaps Lee Ching-hua (with a little stephen chow touch)
Chiu Yi-ying points middle finger and denies it despite having video evidence, plus more slapping.
Jackie Chan has responded to the complains, stating that he was talking about the Chinese media industry and not Chinese in general that needs to be controlled. Less talk shows and Chinese "Gou Zai Dui (狗仔隊)" /Paparazzi? Edison and friends would not have gotten into such deep shit without them. Do I think Jackie Chan is right? Honestly speaking, I don't care lol. I just made this post primarily to show the cute slapping video which made reference to a Stephen Chow's movie he he. It will be great if we had those Taiwanese type of talk shows in Singapore though. The Complain Show or like how we pronounce in Singapore, The Comprain Show!!! (Don't think it will be approved because we don't have freedom of speech right ha ha)