F4

The Meteor Garden series is an adaptation of the Japanese shōjo manga series, Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango). Yan plays the lead role of Dao Ming Si, an extremely arrogant and rich university student who meets his match in the poor but proud girl, Shan Cai - played by Barbie Hsu. Zhou, Wu and Zhu play his friends Hua Ze Lei, Mei Zuo, and Xi Men respectively. The four boys were the most popular and handsome boys at the university; they were recognised as the group named the "Flower Four", hence the title: F4.

Meteor Garden was released in Taiwan in 2001 and turned the leads into stars[citation needed]. In 2002 Meteor Garden was released in Hong Kong,Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and in the Philippines in 2003. The series was smuggled into Mainland China in 2002 despite an official ban by the authorities there on its showing due to its emphasis on power and materialism[citation needed]. A sequel, Meteor Garden II, was shot in Spain later and released in 2002.

In 2001, F4 became a boyband and signed a record deal with Sony Music Entertainment. Together they have released two albums, Meteor Rain and Fantasy 4ever. Zhou and Wu had released two solo albums each. Yan and Zhu have released one each.

In 2002, F4 sang the Mandarin cover of Can't Help Falling in Love included in the Asian version of Walt Disney's Lilo & Stitch soundtrack. The English version of this song is sung by A*Teens, which is a cover of the 1961 Elvis Presley hit of the same title.

They also made the Mandarin cover of Yo Te Amo by Chayanne.

F4 has been sponsored by Pepsi, Yamaha Motorbikes and Samuel & Kevin.

F4 are currently working on their solo careers in acting and music, but are also preparing for their 3rd album. A drama that involves all four of the F4 members has been confirmed by several sources.

The Taiwan Tourism Bureau appointed members of F4 as Tourism Ambassadors on March 9, 2007. Their "Wish to See You in Taiwan" campaign involves filming a television advertisement and a drama series filmed on tourist locations. As tourism ambassadors, F4 members also invited its overseas fans from South Korea and elsewhere to visit Taiwan.[1]

On April 20, 2007, Wu released his 2nd album titled V.Dubb (his nickname) since his last album "Body Will Sing" five years ago.

On April 29, 2007, Meteor Garden producer Angie Chai announced that the group will no longer be known as F4. The change in name stems from copyright-related issues. Japanese publisher Shueisha, who owns the copyright to Boys Over Flowers allowed the group to use F4 as its band name in 2001. However, as Japan has filmed and aired its own live action versions of the popular manga, with its own cast of four, the publisher feels that there may be confusion over the name in different countries.[2][3]

Due to this conflict, the group has been renamed JVKV using the first initials of each of the group's members—Jerry, Vanness, Ken, and Vic. According to the producer, the members are listed in the new name by the order of their birth dates from oldest to youngest, thus Vanness Wu's name appears before Vic Zhou's.[4] · close