95.3FM WHRB (Boston radio station) Taiwan Pop Orgy
Date of broadcast: May 20, 2004

Typed out by Amy of http://f4.azn.nu and JerryJeans of http://jerrybbs.com Please give the proper credits when posthing this elsewhere.

Stanley: Welcome to the Taiwan Pop Orgy here on 95.3FM WHRB. My name is Stanley Chang and I'll be your host for the next 17 ½ hours as we explore one of the most dynamic and vibrant pop culture territories in the world today, Taiwan. We have plenty of music; some interview clips and lots of my own commentary so stay tuned.

3 acts, David Tao or Tao Zhe, Jay Chou or Zhou Jie Lun and F4 are at the forefront of Taiwan's pop culture scene. They've instigated a revolution of Asian pop culture during the last 3 years. Although local Taiwan pop is traditionally taken a backseat to important HK and Japanese stars, these 3 acts has been more successful than any previous Asian acts in exporting themselves throughout the entire continent.

While David Tao has achieved some success in HK and Singapore, Jay Chou is currently the undisputed king or all Chinese-speaking territories of Asia. F4 was not only the hottest fad in those territories in 2001 and 2002, achieving an absolutely stifling ubiquity but they also dominated territories not traditionally in the sphere of Chinese influence, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines among others.

Unlike many stars, David, Jay and F4 are all innovators in pop culture. Through their work Taiwan is now the true leader of Asia pop culture, particularly in Southeast Asia and the Chinese-speaking world.

This orgy will showcase their achievements as well as an attempt to explain how they have conquered a market struggling with piracy and file sharing. Struggling record labels in the US and elsewhere will do well to look to Taiwan for inspiration. This program is sponsored by yesasia.com, the leading online retailer of Asian entertainment products where you can find virtually all the music we're going to play during this orgy. Yesasia.com provides free shipping service for orders of $39 or more only at www.yesasia.com.

We'll begin with the yesasia.com Mandarin Chinese Top 10 Album chart for 2004 so far. At #10 is F4's Meteor Rain, which you'll be able to hear later on in the orgy. At #9 is Anita Mui Forever 1997-2003, #8 is the soundtrack to Leaving Me, Loving You, #7 is Richie Ren's greatest hits album, The Years of Richie. At #6 is the latest Gigi Leung Mandarin album Sense of Belonging, and at #5 is Taiwan pop star Elva Ciao's 5th Avenue, #4 is Faye Wong's To Live, and #3 is the newest from Taiwan girl group S.H.E. Magical Journey, at #2 almost there is Jolin Tsai's Castle, a follow-up to last year's smash success, Magic. And at #1, the grand champion of the yesasia.com Mandarin Chinese Album chart for 2004 is Vic Chou's Remember I Love You, the 2nd album from that F4 member. We'll also be playing that later in the orgy as well.

We have with us today Tom Larsen, director of US business development for yesasia.com to discuss the latest trends in Taiwan's music scene.

Thank you Tom Larsen for joining me here on WHRB's Taiwan Pop Music Orgy.

Tom: No problem, I appreciate the chance to be here to speak with you today. Stanley: So Tom, you work with yesasia.com. Can you give us a prospective at the retail level of how well David Tao, Jay Chou and F4 has sold in the US?

Tom: Yes, since 19…let's see since 2002 the customer demand here in the US for Jay Chou, for David Tao, for Faye Wong, for F4 has been enormous so we receive hundreds, I would say hundreds of emails everyday, demanding not only the new releases on time here on the US market, but also a different personal information, biographies, the ability to learn more about each artist.

Stanley: Can you rank the best selling artists on the website in the US?

Tom: Yeah, definitely. Best sellers, as far as unit sold, CDs sold, would definitely go, #1 Jay Chou, #2 David Tao, #3 F4 and a close #3 #4 Faye Wong and then #5 would be Leehom Wang. Jay is by far leading the pack, no question about it. In fact Jay Chou's 2003 release was by far the best selling CD in the yesasia.com history.

Stanley: Really?

Tom: Or the Chinese music, that's right.

Stanley: And how about David Tao?

Tom: David Tao has been consistent. He's never had a buying part (?) in a way best seller at any given time but he's just been very consistent and has a very loyal fan base here in the US.

Stanley: And how about F4?

Tom: F4, the Fantasy 4ever was huge. We work very closely with Sony International to promote that title, Fantasy 4ever.

Stanley: How about their first album, Meteor Rain?

Tom: It's interesting, not only is Meteor Rain popular, but Meteor Garden, the spin-off from the TV series, everything related to Meteor Garden as a whole would put F4 at the very…close to Jay Chou actually. If you take in not only the music CD sales but also other complementary type products as well.

Stanley: Now I notice that out of the Top 5, Jay, David, F4 and Leehom, the 4 of them are Taiwan acts. Jay, David, F4 and Leehom. Now does this represent a solid, long-term trend in favor of Taiwan?

Tom: Definitely right now I would say that Taiwan is at the center. Definitely the contents originator for the Chinese-speaking world, no question.

Stanley: Does that include both music and movies and TV series and books, etc.?

Tom: I would stick with…definitely stick with music. It's catching up closely to the HK TV. But as far as Taiwan and HK go, yeah, Taiwan is overtaking HK definitely in music. With a close second there in TV series.

Stanley: Before Jay, David, F4 and sort of Leehom, was HK the originator of content as far as Yes Asia is concerned in terms of music?

Tom: Yes, definitely.

Stanley: Something that I think most people would recognize in the Taiwan market is the proliferation of copycat acts. To what extent have these 3 artists produced copycat acts of their own?

Tom: Well, I think if you look at the artists that they influence. Just taking Jay Chou and David Tao, they have helped people like Jordan Chan, helped people like Karen Mwok, helped people like Jolin Tsai, Eason Chan, Edison Chen, all of these upper coming stars are looking to Jay Chou and to David Tao to help write songs, to coach on MV, those kinds of things. And so the record label, they like to put those songs first and I don't want to say an automatic homerun, but a lot of the music labels like to think that if Jay Chou or David Tao helped out the production will at some point, that is should be a smash, it should be a homerun.

Stanley: That was Tom Larsen the director of US business development for yesasia.com

Stanley: Tension is a 5-member boyband from the LA area consisting of Jimmy, Andy, Brian, Raymond, and John. And the first album was totally produced by David. Tension has yet to achieve the heartthrob stats of 5566 and Energy, Taiwan's 2 other main active boybands, or F4, the king of all. However they are widely to be perceived to be more vocally talented than the others.

Stanley: I'm Stanley Chang, thanks for joining me on the Taiwan Pop orgy here on 95.3FM WHRB. Our 2nd act tonight in the Taiwan Pop Music orgy is F4. They are the most sensational act to have broken out of a Chinese territory in the last few years and they have achieved unprecedented success across the region. More than any other act, F4 has been able to break down international boundaries, to globalization pop culture to a whole new level.

Their 4 members, Jerry Yan or Yan Cheng Xu, Vic Chou or Zhou Yu Min, Vanness Wu or Wu Jian Hao and Ken Chu or Zhu Xiao Tian are some of the biggest stars in Asia. They're not singer-songwriters, not producers, they are not originators of content so to speak, but they embody a new spirit of pop culture that embraces all the media at a new spirit of marketing integrating personalities across those media.

The premise of F4 was the keystone to their immense success. They were 2 models, one struggling actor and waiter when popular Taiwan's soap opera direct Angie Cai cast them in her teen drama Meteor Garden or Liu Xing Hua Yuan broadcast in Taiwan in the summer of 2001. Based on a popular Japanese comic book, Meteor Garden followed a clique of 4 very wealthy boys dominating and bulling their schoolmates. They met their match in San Cai, a poor but fiery girl played by Barbie Hsu, an established talk show host in Taiwan. The 2 leads of F4, Jerry Yan as Dao Ming Si and Vic Chou as Hua Ze Le, compete for her affection. The Meteor Garden roles proved to be the perfect launching pad for pop careers. They each had an individual personality that fans related to and their wealthy lifestyles were enormously appealing as well. Since there were 4 of them, they were ready made for a boyband. Here are the 2 theme songs for the TV show Meteor Garden. The first is the opening theme Qing Fei De Yi by Harlem Yu followed by the closing theme Ni Yao De Ai or the Love You Want by Penny Dai.

Plays Qing Fei De Yi and Ni Yao De Ai…

The opening and closing themes to Meteor Garden, F4's debut TV series, Qing Fei De Yi by Harlem Yu and Ni Yao De Ai by Penny Dai respectively.

Stanley: Once Meteor Garden became a runaway smash, F4 recorded their first album. Unlike most boyband albums, F4 as a group only had 2 tracks on the album. The other 8 were credited to individual members of the band, further enhancing each member's status as a solo star. The first track on the album, F4's Liu Xing Yu or Meteor Rain remains today one of the best known pop songs in Asia. It's a remake of a song by Japanese R&B singer Hirai Ken called Gaining Through Losing. Here it is, Meteor Rain Liu Xing Yu, the signature song of F4.

Meteor Rain plays…

Meteor Rain F4's biggest hit from their August 2001 debut album of the same name. Each solo member of F4 had a distinct music personality, which was in some ways reflective of their onscreen personalities. Jerry, the spoiled yet gorgeous stud, specialized in mid-tempo pop, the shy Vic in ballads, the ladies man Vanness in R&B and the caring playboy Ken in guitar driven rock. Their solo tracks on Meteor Rain established this immediately. We'll now hear Jerry's Wo Shi Zhen De Zhen De Hen Ai Ni or I Really Really Love You, Ken's Here We Are, and Vanness' Shui Rang Ni Liu Lei or Who Made You Cry.

Plays abovementioned songs…

We'll continue with 3 more tracks from F4's debut Meteor Rain album. They are respectively Vic Chou's Wei Ni Zhi Zuo or Holding On For You, Di Yi Shi Jian or the First Time sung by the whole group, and Yao Ding Ni or I Choose You by Jerry Yan.

Vic Chou's Holding On For You, the whole group in the First Time and Jerry Yan's solo I Choose You from F4's debut album. Meteor Rain of course was one of the biggest albums in Taiwan history. And now we'll conclude the Meteor Rain album of F4 with a final 3 tracks. Ni Bu Ai Wo Ai Shui or Who Do You Love If You Don't Love Me by Vanness, Ai Bu Hui Yi Zhi Deng Ni or Love Won't Keep Waiting For You by Ken and Zui Te Bie De Cun Zai or Most Special Existence by Vic.

Plays abovementioned songs…

That was F4's Meteor Rain album. A collection of tracks by the members of F4 as well as a couple of songs credited to the whole group. The album was massively successful and today F4 has sold 3.5 million copies of its debut and follow-up albums, an enormous figure in the world's most pirated markets.

Stanley: After having conquered TV and music in Taiwan, F4 really began to take of in other territories, HK, Singapore and even Mainland China. All the Chinese-speaking territories became crazy for F4. Mainland Chinese authorities tried to ban the show because of the confrontational student-teacher relationships that authorities feared would poison students' minds. But nevertheless it became one of the most popular shows in mainland history. Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines all follow the lead of Taiwan, HK, Singapore and Mainland China. Vietnam appears to be the next to be swept by the wave and F4 has even had some success in Japan.

I asked Newsweek reporter Alexandra Seno to explain why F4 was so popular throughout Southeast Asia.

Alexandra: They enjoyed this incredible, incredible success not only in traditional Chinese-speaking markets like HK and Mainland China, but also in places like the Philippines, Indonesia and now Vietnam. They became really successful because the local TV producers in Southeast Asia decided to run Taiwan soap operas, following the success that they enjoyed playing Latin American or even Korean soap operas on television.

Being, you know, more closely Asian, most of these places have Chinese population. F4 struck a bond with the local society that maybe, you know, the Koreans and Latin Americans weren't able to, despite the success of their own soap operas. Compared to many of these societies, the Philippines; Thailand; Indonesia; Vietnam, Taiwan is further along on the economic development timeline. The Taiwan lifestyle that Meteor Garden and F4 represented was something that many of these developing societies were looking forward to in their own futures so by seeing these well-dressed, nicely groomed young boys, it was addictive for a lot of people because it represented a dream, a goal that they hope to someday achieve.

Well F4 was successful not only because of the affluent lifestyle they stood for, but also because the Taiwan product is just generally far more superior than many of their own local products technically speaking. They are talented boys, but their musical products benefit a lot from pretty high quality production values.

Stanley: Alexandra Seno of Newsweek. The next F4 music release was F4's solo album; Make a Wish in January 2002. Vic was the second lead of F4 in Meteor Garden where his introverted shy personality and boyish good looks made him the accessible heartthrob of the group. Make a Wish expands Vic's image in that direction, with soft ballads and sensitive lyrics. Of the 10 tracks, we'll hear 6. And the first 3 are his first single Make a Wish, another big hit Ai Zai Ai Ni or Love is Loving You and a more up-tempo track called Qiu Jiu Zhuan Xian or Help Hotline.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Vic's album was another smash hit. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies and the F4 juggernaut rolled into country after country. Here are 3 more selections from Vic Chou's Make A Wish album. Wen Rou De Wan An or Gentle Goodnight, Loving You and Yao Bu Shi Ai Shang Ni or If I Didn't Fall in Love With You. These tracks showcase the delicate sensitive voice of Vic Chou and his popular appeal among preteen girls.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Vic Chou's Gentle Goodnight, Loving You and If I Didn't Fall in Love With You. That's the conclusion of Vic's solo album, Make A Wish.

Vanness Wu's Shen Ti Hui Chang Ge or Body Will Sing solo album in August 2002 was F4's next musical project. By that time they were modified superstars in music and television, especially with solo TV dramas like Poor Prince and Marmalade Boy. They also put on their first concert Music Party to great acclaim and both Jerry and Vic have released solo photo books. The progression from TV to albums to concerts to photo books and then to movies is an affective way to move their careers forward from the built-in launching pad they had with Meteor Garden.

Vanness' background is interesting. He was raised in Los Angeles and worked in a call center before going back to Taiwan to pursue a showbiz career, where his sister had already become a singer. His big break came with F4 but he also seems the most determined in managing a long-term career.

The first songs we'll hear from Body Will Sing are: Xun Zhao Zhu Li Ye or Looking for Juliet; My Friend, a reworking with traditional tune Auld Lang Syne; and Wo Tao Yan Wo Zi Ji or I Hate Myself. Vanness' R&B sensibilities are clearly evident in these songs.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Looking for Juliet, My Friend and I Hate Myself, 3 songs by Vanness Wu of F4 from his August 2002 debut solo album Body Will Sing. Now we'll hear tracks 5,8,9 and 11 on the album. They are: Shen Ti Hui Chang Ge or Body Will Sing, Xiang Xiang Shi Ge Ni or Imagining 10 Yous, Na Ge Nu Shen or That Girl and Yin Wei Tai Ai Ni or Because I Love You Too Much.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Body Will Sing, Imagining 10 Yous, That Girl, and Because I Love You Too Much all performed by Vanness Wu from his summer 2002 album Body Will Sing.

Stanley: To get a better sense of members of F4 as people, I asked Max Woodward of the Taipei Times for the insider's perspective.

Max: They seemed like they were brought from four different corners of the world, and then put together to sell products and sing a few songs along the way. I mean, they are very different people and they don't necessarily get along that well. I am sure they get along fine but don't necessarily, they won't, you know, they don't live together in a house and have a rambunctious rock and roll lifestyles together as friends. They definitely do their own thing and then they get together for videos, for concerts and whatever. Ken, I can only speak about Ken because he is the one that I know better from having talked to him for several times. Seems very jaded with the whole concept of F4. He knew that this was a wave that he was going to ride for as long as it would go but it wasn't going to go that long and he seems cool with that. He was just going to take it for whatever it is worth. For him, it was a stroke of luck. He was, used to be a waiter in Taipei. He was telling me one day he was waiter-ing at this restaurant. I think it was some cheesy chain restaurant and some lady comes up to him and calls him over and say "Hey" After a few minutes of talking to him, randomly, the lady asked him "How do you like to make 10,000 times more than you are making right now?" And he was like "Yeah" Then, he went to the audition and he got it. He is pretty lucky, but he didn't seem to be that enthuse on it. It wasn't going to be that long-term thing for him.

Stanley: What's Ken like in person? Could you give us specific examples?

Max: Well, when we were backstage in Nanjing, Ken is much more relaxed. It seemed like Jerry, well, Jerry was often the main face in the group. In all of the posters, he is the one who is standing most of the front. Ken is actually the one most in the back. He is always been fond over and creamed (preened?) and stuff. He is getting his hair done and it takes forever. Ken just kinds of walks over. I am sure he has people to do his hair but it is much lesser of a production. It is some irony. So, like in Taipei, one of the couple times when I saw him, he was out in nightclubs in Taipei. He's not supposed to be there, and so he's like hiding in the corner. He's afraid his manager's going to walk through the door and drag him out of and make a big scene. I think they don't want him to be caught. This is like two years ago, almost. So that was the time in Taipei when they were doing constant raids on nightclubs looking for people on ecstasy. It is this huge dragnet across the cities. It is kind of sketchy for these stars to be hanging out in clubs, the last thing they need, you can imagine if one of the F4 stars got busted drinking at a nightclub. It would be the end of F4.

Stanley: That was Max Woodward, a reporter at the Taipei Times. He spoke with me from Taipei.

Stanley: It was in December 2002 that F4 launched the second big push of their careers. They had filmed the 2nd sequel to their TV series, Meteor Garden II, and simultaneously launched their 2nd group album and concert world tour. The album was Fantasy 4ever subtitled Yan Huo De Ji Jie or Season of Fireworks in Chinese. We'll now hear the first 2 tracks from Fantasy 4ever, which are also the first 2 singles. They are: Jue Bu Neng Shi Qu Ni or Can't Lose You, the theme song from Meteor Garden II, and Yan Huo De Ji Jie or Season of Fireworks. These 2 songs have lyrics by Francis Lee who also served as the director and creator director of the album.

Plays Can't Lose You and Season of Fireworks…

Can't Lose You and Season of Fireworks performed by F4, the first 2 singles from their 2nd album Fantasy 4ever. They're the same brand of spirited, inoffensive boyband pop that shot them to superstardom around Asia.

3 more songs from Fantasy 4ever. Ai De Lin Yu or Love's Terrain sung by F4, Yi Ge Ren De Dong Ji or Lonely Winter with sensitive ballads sung by Vic Chou and Qing Tian or Fine Day, a simple guitar base song of Ken Chu.

Plays abovementioned songs…

We'll move right along. The next few tracks from Fantasy 4ever. First will be Dang Ni Shi Peng You or You as a Friend, a duet between Ken Chu and Vanness Wu. It's one of the most unusual F4 songs with a Jamaican flavor and Vanness gainly add living the arrangement (?) That's followed by a more traditional boyband ballad, Te Amo Wo Ai Ni or I Love You sung by F4. And Zhi You Wo or Only I sung by Jerry Yan.

Plays abovementioned songs…

You as a Friend, Te Amo and Only I from F4's Fantasy 4ever album here on the F4 tribute on the Taiwan Pop orgy on 95.3FM WHRB. The next 3 songs are: Xin Li Ce Yan or Psychological Test sung Vanness Wu, Zen Me Hui Shi Ni or How come it's you by Vic Chou and Ask For More, an official Pepsi commercial song sung by F4.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Vanness Wu singing Psychological Test, Vic Chou singing How come it's you, and all of the members of F4 singing Ask For More, an official Pepsi commercial song on their 2002 Fantasy 4ever album.

Commercial endorsements for brands big and small has been a critical part of F4's career. Asian stars are much more active in endorsements than their American counterparts. The ubiquity of F4's endorsements builds a more intimate relationship between consumer and singer. Pepsi is F4's most important endorsement. Just a few weeks ago, Pepsi's flew its entire raft of Asian endorsers, including Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, Aaron Kwok, and Sammi Cheng in addition to F4, to Jordan in the Middle East to film a commercial. As a group, F4 endorses Samuel & Kevin clothing in HK and Mainland China, Yamaha motorcycles, Siemens mobile phones and Pepsi. Each member also endorses numerous brands individually. Jerry Yan for example Bench clothing in the Philippines for a reported 500,000 dollars. During one promotional trip there, Jerry was even invited to the presidential palace in Manila to meet with President Gloria Arroyo.

The final song of the Fantasy 4ever album of F4 is Can't Help Falling in Love, a cover of the Elvis Presley tune and the theme song to Disney's Lilo and Stitch movie. While not a major hit, the connection of the movie further cemented F4's profile as the biggest band in the Asia region.

Plays Can't Help Falling in Love…

Can't Help Falling in Love, the final song of F4's 2002 album release, Fantasy 4ever.

This is the Taiwan Pop orgy here on 95.3FM WHRB Cambridge on the web at whrb.org. While the TV series Meteor Garden II did not quite perform up to expectations in ratings and the F4 Fantasy 4ever album didn't sell as well as its predecessor, the concert tour was a huge success, selling at arenas in minutes in places like HK. The HK concert was recorded and released as a live album in May 2003 called Fantasy World Tour. F4 performed all the big group and solo hits. But today we'll focus on unique songs from the concert.

The first 3 are Qing Ren or Lover, a Cantonese song performed by Ken, a lively version of Jue Bu Neng Shi Qu Ni or Can't Lose You performed by the whole group and Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin or the Moon Represents My Heart, Teresa Teng's song sung by Jerry with a little bit of audience participation.

Plays abovementioned songs…

The 2nd part of the concert we'll hear is a five-song series of old time Cantonese hits that F4 performed wearing tuxedos in a throwback to the heyday of the rat pack. The 4 boys came out one at a time with dancers, one of their most electrifying concerts segments. First is Dao Zhuan Di Qiu or Earth Spinning Backwards sung by Vic Chou. Then Qiu Huan Ru Meng or Dream Like Old Love sung by Ken Chu, Jin Cheng Xiao Ying sung by Vanness Wu, a song with Jerry Yan and finally Zui Gan Pao Tiao Peng or Follow, Catch, Run, Jump Up featuring all 4 boys.

Plays abovementioned songs…

A series Cantonese songs performed by F4 in full rat pack tuxes and cabaret dance moves from their 2002 live concert in HK.

Stanley: The rest of 2003 was relatively quiet for F4. They continue to endorse products, mostly individually, but there were no new musical materials released. Their popularity, however, continued to spread abroad. In her article about F4, Newsweek reporter, Alexandria Seto, noted when local communities have sacked and burned Chinese-owned businesses and racial riots in just a few years ago, today young people are learning Mandarin to sing F4's songs. I asked her about the broader social and ethnic applications of the rise of F4 across Southeast Asia.

Alexandria: I think the history of, you know, Chinese societies in Southeast Asia, has a pretty checkered, up and down history. I thought it was kind of interesting that there is a greater interest and respect for Chinese culture, not necessarily just because of F4 but also because of a greater interest in the larger China story. With Mainland China opening up, there's a lot more interest in how a lot of these places in Southeast Asia can participate in that larger story. It has helped that Meteor Garden and F4 has been popular as they have been. In the future, when people are studying the evolution of many Southeast Asian societies with regards to their relationships to Chinese culture, I think F4 will definitely be a landmark. The F4 boys are such incredible phenomenon in Southeast Asia. In many ways, it has pushed along the acceptance and standards for what is good looking for boys, for example, what is good taste, how people want to dress, you know, what you want your hair to look like.

Stanley: Two by-products of F4's success are changing standards in good looks and greater acceptance of Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Alexandria Seto spoke with me from Newsweek Hong Kong.

The last F4 album released was Vic Chou's Remember I Love You in January 2004. It achieved only middling sales despite a full court press and promotional activity by both Sony Music and Vic. Still, it's a very pleasant, enjoyable album, even if it treads little new musical territory. Here are the first 2 songs from the album: the ballad Ji De Wo Ai Ni or Remember I Love You, the first single, and Ni De Ti Wen or Your Body Temperature, another song that received a lot of radio airplay.

Plays abovementioned songs…

Remember I Love You and Your Body Temperature from Vic Chou's Remember I Love You album. We'll listen to 3 more songs from the album: Shi Zhe Ai Wo Yi Tian or Try Loving Me For A Day, the more up tempo rock flavor track Mama Shuo or Mom Says, and Wo Hu Xi Ni or I Breathe You, another standard Vic ballad. I Breathe You was the theme song to Love Typhoon, a recent TV series starring Vic and Ken of F4.

Plays abovementioned songs…

That's all the time we have for Vic Chou's Remember I Love You album from January 2004, F4's most recent musical release.

Since then they have been busy with movie projects. Vanness was the lead in Star Runner, a boxing movie, but failed to ignite box office sales. Ken also tried his hand at movies with Sky of Love opposite HK star Gigi Leung. But again, the film flopped. The only real movie success of the F4 boys is the Jerry Yan, Sammi Cheng and Andy Lau vehicle Magic Kitchen, released over this year's Chinese New Years holiday. As for Vic, on April 30th the apartment he bought for his brother suffered a fire. He and his brother were spotted outside, neither hurt, but contents of the apartment were totally lost. He's working on a new TV series called Mars with his Meteor Garden co-star Barbie Hsu. Jerry had his debut solo album scheduled to come out later this year after many delays. Ken's also slated to release his solo album. Because F4 has kept a relatively low profile through 2003, 2004, constant rumors swirled about a breakup. So far, the boys of F4 had denied such rumors vehemently. They still work together as a group occasionally for commercials. For the moment, while F4 seems to have fizzled out from Taiwan and some other territories, they are still catching on in places like Vietnam as F4 fever continues to sweep around the world. Although F4 may seem like the traditional boy band with its legions of preteen girls and bland pop tunes, F4 has innovated truly to become the biggest sensation across Asia in recent memory. Their roles in Meteor Garden struck deep core in some viewing audiences and they parlayed them into distinct personalities in music and screen. An they established themselves as multimedia force, tapping revenue streams and virtually all of the media. F4 is a landmark in pop culture history. If you're an F4 fan, old or new, visit f4.azn.nu. A leading English language F4 fan site with information on their music, TV and movie projects along with a large news section. Now if you enjoyed this segment of Taiwan Pop orgy please write us an email at mail@whrb.org or send us a letter at 389 Harvard St., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. We value your comments.