A woman in Taipei logs onto the blog of Yang Ya-ching yesterday to look at photos posted by Yang about her kissing experiences in Paris. The Taiwanese woman's ambition to kiss 100 men in Paris has become an overnight web sensation. AFP

TAIPEI: A woman from Taiwan, whose ambition is to kiss 100 men in Paris, has become an overnight web sensation after she provided details of the quest on her blog.

Yang Ya-ching, a 27-year-old music major living in the French capital, has so far notched up 54 smooches, she said on her blog, which features photos of some of the encounters.

Collaborators in her project include a factory worker, a model, an Italian tourist and even a soldier visiting the French capital for Bastille Day. Some who are assisting her in her quest are attractive, though others are bald and paunchy.

"I came up with the idea three years ago," she said on her blog.

Her friends didn't like the idea, saying kissing 100 men would be like having sex with 100 men.

"Three of my four friends who were aware of the plan warned me that I might wind up getting slapped rather than kissed."

But after spending two years in Paris, Yang said the idea kept nagging at her. This time she put it into action. "I have the courage and ability to do what I want," Yang wrote in her blog.

The first kiss happened near a museum on July 14. The collaborator is a worker and the kiss was like "a leaf falling into my pocket by accident," she wrote.

Some of kisses hold the potential to develop into romance: Yang had been invited to visit a French man teaching in Africa.

Yang, who plans to write a book about her kissing experiences, has attracted 1.97 million visitors to her blog, including more than 224,000 yesterday alone.

Supporters hailed Yang for her courage to take up a challenge while detractors accused her of "worshipping everything foreign" and warned about the hygiene issue.

"Aren't you afraid of catching a disease?" one of her followers asked.

"No," she replied. "The more you're afraid of, the less you accomplish."

AFP

(HK Edition 09/15/2009 page2)