Yes! Magazine Dec. 2003 Issue - Featuring F4
From angel friend of TV Series Fans

"F4 Fever"
Source: Yes! Magazine (Dec.2003)
Written and Produced by: Blaise C. Gacoscos
Researched by: Arlene Anne L. Wong and Jane T. Yugioksing

"In its issue of April 22, 2002, Time Magazine reported that F4 member were seen as ideal prospective husbands in Taiwan, where the boyband was formed back in February 2001.

The newsmagazine reported that 93 percent of the married couples admitted that they were "unhappy" with their married life. Angie Chai, Comic Productions’ general manager and creator of F4, was quoted as saying: "F4 are so popular because women cannot find romance in real life."

"Forget the talent. The members of the Taiwanese boyband F4, who starred i8n the phenomenal TV hit series "Meteor Garden," sing and act just like the rest of us. But why are they causing such a pandemonium among millions of women all over Asia? The answer is obvious: they’re drop-dead gorgeous!"


JERRY YAN

" My ideal girl is someone who exemplifies the traditional Chinese virtue of xiaosun or filial piety. I want to find a girl who can take good care of my mother, a woman who will share my great love for my mother."

LIAO YANG ZHENG IS HIS REAL NAME, YAN Chen Xu is his Chinese screen name, Jerry Yan is the screen name by which he is known outside Taiwan, but he is still better known in these parts as Dao Ming Si, the characters he played in the chinovela "Meteor Garden". At 26, he is no doubt the biggest star of F4, but Jerry himself thinks not. The pop sensation says in an interview with Filipino journalist Wilson Lee Flores: "I don’t really feel like I’m a big star. I’m just an ordinary young person like most of may fans – with simple tastes, a simple lifestyle, very ordinary dreams and hopes."

Irene Tan Luy, cousin of Bryan Chua of Bench, is quoted by Wilson as saying: "Jerry Yan is very different from his Dao Ming Si character because he is actually a shy, kind-hearted person and a filial son to his mother. Did you know that his father has already died? He told me that he was saving up his earnings to give his beloved mother a nice house. He comes from an ordinary family. He is not rich like Dao Ming Si." Jerry debuts in the film Magic Kitchen, the story of an assistant cook (Jerry) who falls in love with the head chef (played by Hong Kong’s box-office star Sammi Cheng). The movie is set to premiere worldwide on Chinese New Year. At press time, it had not been decided which one of the lead stars would get to sing the movie’s theme song, but Jerry’s fans will be glad to know that their idol will definitely be crooning one song.

Publicly stint or not, here are two of Jerry’s rumoured girlfriends: Sammi Cheng: Jerry’s Magic Kitchen co-star. The grapevine has it that Sammi, who is four-years older than Jerry, "requested" the producer to get Jerry as her leading man. She evn "lowered" her talent fee to get him on board.

Zhang Jia Xuan: Actress, and alleged by Hong Kong’s Dong Fang Ri Bao (June 15, 2003) to be the daughter of a former Taiwanese Mafia. She and Jerry have been spotted playing billiards. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily (June 21) also reported that Jerry would be Jia Xuan’s ideal partner, but she’s afraid that "dating such a famous person, there would be too much pressure." Jerry denies the rumor completely.

· The Latest Bench Model, Jerry Yan, came to Manila last November 7 to promote the clothing line. The original plan was to sign up F4 member Vic Zhou, but Bench owner Ben Chan chose Jerry instead.


VIC ZHOU

"Jerry Yan in the Philippine Star: "Vic is very cute, that’s why everyone likes him, because he is so lovable like a kid."

YOU CAN CALL HIM IDOL. Asked what he thought of being called an "idol," Zhou Yu Min – a.k.a. Vic Zhou, nicknamed Zai Zai by his grandmother, and popularly known as Hua Ze Lei of "Meteor Garden" – told FHM Taiwan:

"I know a lot of young celebrities don’t like to be called an idol. Everyone perceives it as a negative label. But for me, it’s okay because I really don’t have a choice. It doesn’t matter because I can strive to become a real idol, or in the end I can just throw it away and be my real self."

Vic, 22, is the lead star of the TV series "Love Storm". Vic plays Lu Ying Feng, manager of a shopping channel, who is secretly in love with Jia Le, played by Vivian Hsu. Lu Ying Feng was raised by a member of a Mafia after his parents died in a flood. In the series, he struggles to keep his Mafia connection a secret as his feelings for Jia Le grows stronger.

"Love Storm" has finished airing in Taiwan. Vic performed two songs in the closing episodes of the series.

Incidentally, Vic and another co-star, Xu Wei Lun, who plays the gangsters daughter Jing Jing in "Love Storm," are said to be singing sweet music together. For now, they’ve been going out on group dates – "eating and singing" – but Hong Kong Apple Daily quotes

Wei Lun as saying: "I’m just good friends with Zai Zai." In fact she says, no sparks flew the first time she and Zai Zai met.

But crew workers on Wei Lun’s new project, "Lian Xiang", that Vic visited her on the set.

Meanwhile, Vic is preparing to wax his second solo album, to be released by Sony. Will he dedicate one song to Xu Wei Lun? His fans can’t wait to find out.


KEN ZHU

"In the Philippine Star, Jerry Yan describes Ken as "the more mature guy in our group, and he often teaches us how to act during our tapings."

IN HIS DEBUT MOVIE SKY OF LOVE, ZHU TIAO Tian, a.k.a. Ken Zhu, 24, portrays Wen Jia Hui, a freshman student who receives a message over his radio from Xiao Jia (Gigi Leung), a junior student of the same university. The two students agree to meet at 2 pm the next day. But they don’t meet because Jia Hui is living in the present time while Xiao Jia is living in the past - a distance of 20 years.

In his new TV series "Love Storm," Ken plays Wang Bao Long, who’s secretly in love with his friend Jia Le (Vivian Hsu). Also starring in the series is F4 bandmate Vic Zhou.

Wang Bao Long - Ken Zhu
Zhao Jia Le - Vivian Hsu
Lu Ying Feng - Vic Zhou

Little is known about Ken, or the rest of the F4 members for that matter. We were lucky to have come across a Website, www.newspaper.asia1.com, where we read this interesting headline: "S’pore foster mum guides privacy." The report says that Ken came into the custody of a certain Connie Chan of Singapore when he was seven years old. She took care of him until he was 17. But Madame Connie refused to be interviewed for the article, saying: "Now that Ken is famous, I don’t know what can or cannot be revealed. I need to check with him first."

The website also quotes Ken as saying: " I don’t really know how to describe our relationship. She took care of me when I was in Singapore, I called her mummy, and I grew up with her son. And this Chinese New Year, I will give her a big red packet."

Ken went to Boon Lay Secondary School, where he remembers being prefect in Sec.3. But he wasn’t your ideal student according to the website.

"I would just stay at home and not go to school," he is quoted as saying. "I didn’t like to study. But I didn’t go out either because all my friends were still in school, unlike me." Ken only joined the Air Rifle Club because it was an easy extra-curricular activity, the report added.

Last September, Ken flew to Singapore to promote Asia Plus, the new StarHub CableTV channel. He was able to move around the city-state and even take public transport without being mobbed or noticed.

"I could walk down Orchard Road just like that and nobody recognized me at all! Maybe it’s because I don’t put make-up and I tend to dress down. Nobody would think I’m Taiwanese when I’m dressed in just my T-shirt and jeans."

Ken revealed that it was in Singapore, where he spent most of his teenage years, and that he met his first love, a Malaysian Girl.

* Ken Zhu and Vanness Wu accept F4’s Global Mandarin Award for Best Band in Asia. The awards ceremony was held last September 19.

(Vanness' part is missing)