Just how frightening is the frenzied appetite of Taiwanese media for gossip and controversy? 台湾媒体对八卦新闻和争议性话题的疯狂嗜好究竟达到了多么恐怖的程度？
Frightening enough for president Ma Ying-jeou to stay away from his daughter’s wedding dinner in an ultimately failed effort to avoid drawing attention to the event. 恐怖到足以让台湾总统马英九选择不出席他女儿的婚宴──他这样做是想避免吸引外界对这场婚宴的关注，但这一努力最终还是失败了。
Taiwan has been in a tizzy since Saturday, when a local TV station released footage of a small banquet held at Taipei’s Grand Hotel it said came from a dinner celebrating the marriage of first daughter Lesley Ma. That set off 48 hours of rabid speculation in newspapers and on talk shows, culminating in a statement from the Presidential Office on Monday confirming Ms. Ma’s marriage to Allen Tsai, a Taiwanese-American former fashion model. 自上周六起，台湾一直处于一种因极度激动而心慌意乱的状态，当时台湾一家电视台播出了一个在台北圆山大饭店举行的小型宴会的画面，电视台说这是一场庆祝马英九女儿马唯中结婚的晚宴。这一报道在此后的48小时内在报纸和电视脱口秀节目中引发了疯狂的猜测，最终台湾总统府不得不于本周一发表声明，证实马唯中已经与曾经当过时装模特的美籍台湾人蔡沛然(Allen Tsai)结婚。
Mr. Tsai met Ms. Ma while both were students at Harvard and is now working in the financial industry in Hong Kong, the statement said, adding that the couple were formally married last year in New York. “President Ma thanks everyone for their blessings and asks the public to give the couple their privacy,” the statement said. 声明说，蔡沛然与马唯中相识于他们两人在哈佛大学(Harvard)读书时，蔡沛然目前在香港从事金融业。声明还说，两人已于去年在纽约正式结婚。声明说，马总统除了感谢大家关心，也希望外界多给新人保有隐私的空间。
Fat chance. 这方面的希望很渺茫。
The Ma’s low-key approach to their daughter’s nuptials was a notable departure from the lavish weddings of former president Chen Shui-bian’s children. Still, on an island where virtually nothing escapes being politicized, the wedding has provided ammunition for the opposition, which has publicly questioned whether the couple’s decision to live in Hong Kong might endanger Taiwan’s national security. 马英九对其女婚礼的低调态度与台湾前总统陈水扁子女的奢华婚礼形成了鲜明对比。不过，在实际上没有什么事情可以免于被政治化的台湾，马英九女儿的婚宴为反对党提供了攻击马英九的弹药，台湾的反对党已经公开质疑说，这对新人决定在香港居住是否有可能危及台湾的安全。
“Taiwan still considers China as a hostile state. By living there, she [Lesley Ma] could easily be followed, watched and treated like a hostage,” said, Tsai Huang-lang, a lawmaker with the Democratic Progressive Party (in Chinese). 台湾反对党民进党的立法委员蔡煌琅说，因为我们跟中国还是敌对国，所以马唯中住在香港很容易被情收、被监视，被当成肉票一样。
Others questioned how Taiwan’s security force would be able to protect the couple in the former British colony. 其他人则质疑说，台湾的安全部门将如何在香港保护这对夫妇。
But it wasn’t just the DPP who were critical. The China Times, a newspaper considered friendly to Mr. Ma’s Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), argued in a commentary this week that the Ma family had “overcorrected” the image of the first famiy and that the public had the right to know more about the president’s son-in-law and his family (in Chinese). 不仅仅是民进党发出了批评声音。被认为对马英九领导的国民党持友善态度的《中国时报》本周也在一篇评论文章中说，马英九家在维护第一家庭的形象方面已经“矫枉过正”，公众有权了解更多有关总统女婿及其家庭的情况。
Staying true to Taiwan’s tabloid-driven news culture, media organizations have plastered old modeling pictures of a long-haired and bare-chested Mr.Tsai all over the island. Even his high school yearbook pictures and photos of his California home have been made public. 台湾的新闻文化不愧是受小报风格驱动的，当地媒体纷纷刊登出蔡沛然以往长发披肩、袒胸露腹的模特照，这些形象一时间风靡了整个台湾岛。甚至他上高中时刊登在学校年刊上的照片和他在美国加州的家的照片也被公开。
