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Time to Play: 2016 Taipei Game Show

One of biggest gaming events in Asia has kicked off in Taipei. Game developers around the world introduce their games to Asian game market at the Taipei Game Show. Despite the excitement of new games and pretty girls, not all netizens seem happy with this year’s show.

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One of biggest gaming events in Asia kicked off in Taipei. Game developers around the world introduce their games to the Asian game market at the Taipei Game Show. Despite the excitement of new games and pretty girls, not all netizens seemed happy with this year’s show.

The first international video game trade show to kick off in 2016 was the Taipei Game Show (  台北国际电玩展). The five-day event began on January 29th at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall in Taiwan. The show is attended by 300 vendors from over 20 different countries.

Organizers of the event are hoping to attract over 500,000 visitors, making it one of the biggest gaming events in Asia. ETtoday reported that the show had already attracted 170,000 visitors on January 31st.

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Taiwan is currently among one of the top five countries on Google Play’s revenue ranking: around 72 percent of Taiwanese smartphone users play games. According to Newzoo, Taiwan ranks number two in the world when it comes to casual and social gaming. With nearly ten million gamers, Taiwan is a large player in the global gaming industry.

The Taipei Game Show has been organized by the Taipei Computer Association (台北国际电脑协会) since 2003. The show is a host to many exhibitions that give visitors a first look at future games and gaming technology.

Besides the exhibitions, there are also many gaming competitions taking place. The most talked about competition at the show is the Intel Extreme Masters (英特尔极限高手杯大赛), a huge tournament series for the world’s best gamers. The championship sees competitors from Norway, France ands South-Korea go head to head with each other in a game of Starcraft 2.

The main highlight at this year’s show is a showcase of upcoming virtual reality games and virtual gaming equipment. This also includes the announcement of new VR game titles and VR headsets by HTC, Samsung and PlayStation. Game developers from Taiwan announced three titles for the PlayStation VR. The most promising of which is Winking Entertainment’s ‘The Telltale Project’ (揭秘计划). The game is a space-based adventure that sends players on a journey to discover the secrets of Mars (see trailer below).

This year also marks the 3rd Indie Game Festa (独立游戏专区) and is held in conjunction with the Taipei Game Show. The festival seeks to help indie game developers from around the world promote their games.

The Taipei Game Show is a much-talked about topic on Weibo over the past week, where the event has its own official account. But other accounts, like the Luxury Platform or Sina Games (1.8 million followers), also write about the latest news on the event.

The show is not only known for the gaming highlights; most vendors have their own showgirls to promote the latest games and tech products. Although showgirls have been banned from some (car) events in Mainland China, they are still an important visual feature of the Taipei Game Show. “I got to photograph so many pretty girls at the Taipei Game Show!” one Weibo netizen happily says, sharing his pictures of the showgirls at the event.

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In the past few years, the Taipei Game show has gained a lot of criticism from netizens. Not because of the showgirls, but because the event has become focused too much on mobile gaming instead of console gaming. “They should change the name to Taipei Phone Game Show,” one Weibo netizen comments.

Despite the occasional criticism, the Taipei event still has enough to offer for any game and tech lover out there – and if not, there will always be pretty girls.

By Chi Wen

Images:
-http://cn.engadget.com/2016/01/30/tgs-2016-preview/

©2016 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com

Chi Wen is a freelance translator and writer who lives in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Besides translating and writing, he also teaches English as a Second Language to high school students. Chi is a self-proclaimed geek with a love for video games.

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China Celebs

Hong Kong Police Find Head of Murdered Model Abby Choi in Soup Pot

“Reality is more gruesome than fiction,” some commenters wrote on Weibo, where the Abby Choi murder case has drawn wide attention.

Manya Koetse

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The gruesome murder of the 28-year-old Hong Kong socialite and model Cai Tianfeng (蔡天鳳), better known as Abby Choi, has been all the talk on Chinese social media this week.

The Hong Kong influencer went missing on Tuesday. Just a week ago, Choi was featured on the cover of the magazine L’Officiel Monaco.

On Saturday, South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Free Press reported that Choi’s partial remains, including her dismembered legs, were found cooked and stored inside the freezer at a village house and that four people had been arrested for murder.

The village house at Lung Mei Tsuen in Tai Po was allegedly set up as a “butchery site” equipped with a choppers, hammer, an electric saw and a meat grinder that had been used to mince human flesh.

Choi was entangled in a financial dispute with her ex-husband’s family over luxury property in Hong Kong’s Kadoori Hill. The persons arrested in relation to her murder are her ex-husband named Alex Kwong, his elder brother, his mother and his father, who reportedly is a retired police officer.

Abby Choi and Alex Kwong had two children together, a daughter and a son.

Cho was last seen in Fo Chun Road in Tai Po on Tuesday afternoon. CCTV footage captured her before she went missing. Choi was supposed to pick her daughter up on Tuesday together with Kwong’s elder brother, who drove her. She was reported missing after she did not show up to collect her daughter.

While earlier media articles reported that some of Choi’s remains had still not been found, news came out on Sunday that the decapitated head had been found in a soup pot. Seeing over 300 million views, the topic went trending on Weibo (#蔡天凤头颅在一大汤煲中找到#), where many people have closely been following the latest developments in the case. Later on Sunday night, the topic hashtag was taken offline.

Local police disclosed that the head remained “intact” although it is believed that someone tried to “smash” it. Some of Choi’s ribs were also found.

“Reality is more gruelsome than fiction,” some top comments said. “What a terrifying family,” others wrote, calling them “inhuman” and “devilish.”

Another topic related to the case also went trending on Sunday, namely that Choi’s ex-husband and his family allegedly had been planning the murder for a month (#蔡天凤前夫家1个月前开始布局#, 180 million views).

Some Weibo bloggers said the case reminded them of another well-known and gruesome Hong Kong murder case, namely the 2013 murder of Glory Chau and Moon Siu. At age 63, the couple was murdered by their own 28-year-old son Henry Chau Hoi-leung and his friend. After killing them, the two chopped up Chau’s and Siu’s bodies and cooked their remains and stored them inside the refrigerator. The 2022 crime film The Sparring Partner (正義迴廊) was based on this story.

About the Kwong family, some Weibo users write: “Too bad that Hong Kong law does not have the death penalty.” Capital punishment in Hong Kong was formally abolished in 1993.

By Manya Koetse 

 

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China Arts & Entertainment

South Korean Actor Yoo Ah-in Dropped as Brand Ambassador in China after Propofol Scandal

The current drug scandal involving Yoo Ah-in also has consequences for the South Korean actor’s activities in China.

Manya Koetse

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The South Korean actor Yoo Ah-in (刘亚仁) has become a trending topic on Chinese social media for getting caught up in a drugs scandal in his home country.

Yoo Ah-in (1986) is an award-winning actor who is known for starring in various well-known dramas and renowned movies, such as Voice of Silence, Burning, and Hellbound.

Yoo is currently being investigated for alleged illegal, habitual use of the anesthetic drug propofol and has been banned from overseas travel.

On Thursday, the hashtag “Yoo Ah-in Admits to Using Drugs” (#刘亚仁确认吸毒#) received over 310 million views on Weibo, where several accounts reported that Yoo allegedly started using propofol in 2021.

Yoo issued a statement via his management, saying he is cooperating with the police in the investigation. He also apologized for causing concern among his fans and followers.

The drug scandal also has consequences for the actor’s activities in China. Liu was the brand ambassador for the Chinese men’s clothing brand Croquis (速写), but Croquis immediately removed him as their representative after the scandal.

Croquis issued a statement saying the company has been closely following the latest developments regarding the investigation into the actor’s alleged drugs use, and stated that they have “zero tolerance” when it comes to drug use and therefore would temporarily take all content offline in which Yoo represents their brand.

South Korean media reported on Feb. 9 that Yoo is among a group of 51 people that is part of an illegal drug use investigation initiated by the Food and Drug Administration, which found that Yoo went doctor hopping and “hospital shopping” to obtain multiple prescriptions.

Propofol is a sedative that is widely used by anesthetists for the induction and maintenance of general anesthesia and for long-term sedation. Over recent years, the abuse of propofol in South Korea has been getting more media attention.

Although propofol is classified as a controlled substance in South Korea since 2011, the recreational use of the drugs has been a problem and various celebrities have previously been charged for illegally using the drugs.

On Weibo, some people say that there indeed should be “zero tolerance” for drug abuse among celebrities and artists, but there are also those who think Yoo Ah-in’s drug abuse is a result of his alleged (mental) health problems, and that he needs help instead of punishment.

By Manya Koetse 

 

Get the story behind the hashtag. Subscribe to What’s on Weibo here to receive our newsletter and get access to our latest articles:

Spotted a mistake or want to add something? Please let us know in comments below or email us. First-time commenters, please be patient – we will have to manually approve your comment before it appears.

©2023 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.

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