Most of you may know BTS, TFBoys or Fahrenheit but the real OG back in the day was F4, a Taiwanese boyband. F4 was known not just in Taiwan but around the world for their good looks and the drama series Meteor Garden which was based on a Japanese manga. Jerry Yan, Vic Chou, Ken Chu and Vanness Wu were wildly popular in 2001 since appearing in Meteor Garden and the members have remained A-listers ever since.
Since 2008, the group has been inactive but the four of them have maintained being good friends. However, all four of them have been so busy with their own lives and careers that reunions have been few and far between. Their last time appearing together as F4 was at the Jiangsu TV Spring Festival in 2013. On October 30, they are reuniting again after seven long years at the Jiangsu TV’s 1001 Night Festival.
A 19-second clip of the four men (shot separately, of course) confirming their upcoming appearance shot to the top of real-time searches on multiple social media platforms, including Weibo.
“What is it about Jiangsu TV that makes [F4] keep coming back together? Not that I’m complaining!” one netizen quipped. Others have called it the ‘reunion of the century’, with some netizens ‘warning’ other popular boy groups, such as the TFBOYS and NEX7 that their idols should “watch their back because the original heartthrobs are back”.
Fans commented that Jerry, 43 is the only F4 member that looks exactly the same as he did almost 19 years ago. “He takes such good care of himself that he looks exactly the same, only manlier,” one netizen gushed. However, fans are not so forgiving with Ken, 41 and Vanness, 42 saying that they both look like ”absolute uncles” now. On the other hand, Vic, 39, has been dubbed the “guy who looks like he went from being a millionaire to a billionaire”.
F4 also released three albums, Meteor Rain, Fantasy 4ever and Waiting for You.
According to Forbes, F4 has sold 3.5 million copies of their first two albums all over Asia as of July 2003. In 2007, due to copyright issues, the group changed its name to JVKV, using the descending age of the initials of its members. Other than their hometown, Taiwan, they have also attained popularity in other parts of Asia, such as the Philippines, mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea.