F4 Interviewed by Kris Aquino

F4 Promo on GMA 7

More talk with Kris Aquino Part 1

More talk with Kris Aquino Part 2

Ken Chu's performance at the Happy New Year Concert in Pasig M.M. Director's Cut.

You can tell when an artist or a group of artists has captured the hearts of the Filipinos when local networks devote their precious airtime featuring the most trivial news about them. Another sign is when teenagers begin to sport their outfits and their hairdos. The most telling of all is when their faces become an integral part of almost every available merchandise in the market—from posters to glass tumblers to pillows to pencils to toothbrushes.

There is no denying it. The four hot and young actors who make up F4 have captivated the Filipinos, and there seems to be no sign of stopping it.

It all began when the Taiwanese-imported soap opera Meteor Garden was aired on ABS-CBN. The invasion in the Philippines only started last May but in other parts of Asia, Meteor Garden has already developed a cult following. In fact, it was adapted from the manga or Japanese comic, Hana Yori Dango, meaning Boys are Better than Flowers, which is where F4’s name comes from. Hana Yori Dango has also been transformed into a highly popular animated series, a movie and, of course, the soap opera every Filipino household is now familiar with.

The story is quite simple. It is about a strong-willed Shan Chai, played by Barbie Xu, and a gang of bullies, F4. When the notorious bullies bump into Shan Chai and her friend, the former stands up to them, especially to the leader of the group, Dao Ming Shi (played by Jerry Yan). As they torment her but are unable to break her spirit, Dao Ming Shi slowly realizes he’s falling for her.

F4 is made up of Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Ken Zhu and Vanness Wu. Incidentally, the characters they play in Meteor Garden correspond to their real-life personalities.

Jerry, who plays Dao Ming Shi, sees himself as aggressive and direct when he likes a girl. Prior to becoming the leader of F4, Jerry was a student and a part-time model. Recently, the local clothing line Bench signed him up as one of its endorsers.

Vanness, who plays the happy-go-lucky Mei Zhuo, is easy-going and loves to have fun. Because he was born in the United States, Vaness is the only F4 member who can speak English. He went to Taiwan to join the entertainment scene and was in a variety show contest when he was asked to audition for the series.

Ken, who plays the playboy Xi Men, thinks of himself as a die-hard romantic. He was originally a chef when he was discovered by Meteor Garden’s producers dining at the restaurant he worked for.

And Vic Zhou, who makes girls swoon as the serious Hua Ze Lei, doesn’t like the attention of being a celebrity, much like his reclusive alter ego. Vic was taking up mechanical engineering at a technical institute; he only accompanied his friend to the Meteor Garden auditions and was spotted instead.

These boys aren’t just handsome fellows; they can also sing and dance. At least, they try. Halfway through the filming of the first season of Meteor Garden, the boys recorded Meteor Rain. The album boasts of 10 radio-friendly romantic tracks, written in Mandarin but with Western influences and some peppered with English lyrics. Some of the songs are group efforts, while the others are solos, featuring each member.
But it is “Can’t Lose You,” that got the Filipinos singing “Oh baby baby, my baby baby…” The single can be found in F4’s second album called Fantasy 4ever.

When half of F4 (Vaness and Ken, together with ASOS which is composed of Barbie Xu and her younger sister) arrived to perform at the Philsports Arena (formerly ULTRA), fans came in droves, notwithstanding the bad weather and the outrageously priced tickets (the highest at P10,000 or roughly US$ 180). In the aftermath of the concert, eight were reportedly injured and there was petty theft. Nevertheless, the organizers are anticipating for a repeat, but this time with the complete F4 performing live.

When fans are asked why they find the group so appealing, the answers vary according to their age. The younger group (17 and below) is attracted to the physical attributes of F4 members while the more mature audience (18 and above) finds them and their vehicle, Meteor Garden, a refreshing alternative to the local soap operas and the Mexican telenovelas that have saturated the primetime.

Rea Cezanne Martinez, 13, a Grade 6 student from Miriam Grade School says, “I like them kasi sobrang cute nila at appealing lalo na si Vic!” (I like them because they’re all so cute and appealing, especially Vic.)

Miray, 21, a communications graduate from Ateneo says, she likes F4 because “they are so darn pretty. I like their hair, it’s a refreshing change from the cropped Pinoys.

And even though they can’t really sing well, I can’t help liking because they are such eye candies. And they are good-looking in an ordinary-guy kind of way. Tipong hindi pang-artista ang beauty nila. Tipong reachable na puwede mo ring makita sa kalye.” (They’re not the movie-star type. They’re more accessible and the type you would encounter even in the streets.)

Jessie Bernal, 27, librarian, “I like F4 because they are a refreshing change from the usual Caucasian-looking boy bands. It also helps that their first exposure is via an entertaining TV show.”

Butch Guerrero, 28, government employee, adds, “ It’s not so much F4 as much as Meteor Garden I’m going gaga about. Meteor Garden is as beautiful and fascinating as the characters who inhabit it. Watching Meteor Garden is as much fun as reading one of those new fairytales where the princess is as swashbuckling as the prince.”

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Me personally, I can't see what Filipinos see in Asianovelas, just because the culture of other countries in Asia is so different from ours. But then again, the majority of Filipinos had a strictly non-Hispanic upbringing, while among Spanish-speaking Filipino families, we're more culturally raised in Spanish norms, which is probably why I relate better to Spanish telenovelas rather than Asian shows. I don't see anything related to my family in those Asian shows, and other Asians look nothing like most Filipinos, but I do see glimpses of my grandparents in Spanish-language telenovelas, in the characteristics of the personas and the faces (and the fact that they speak Spanish, just like my grandparents), and how they relate to the family, and how they sit around the table at dinner time, and retire for a siesta, and the whole maid/nanny aspect of family life and the way the family is arranged and the household is divided into two parts: the family and the maids and nannies, it's my family that I watch on Spanish telenovelas, because me and my cousins, even if we never really grew up speaking Spanish like older members of our family, we grew up with the Spanish cultural norms in a household like that where we wake up, the maids have the food prepared on the table, and then we all sit around as a family and eat, and then our Lola makes us pray at 6 pm everyday, and we have to take a siesta after lunch, and I see that reflected in Spanish telenovelas, the world of my childhood, the old world of the Philippines with it's own charms and graces, a world in the Philippines that is slowly disappearing with every new generation, a world that I wish I could relive again, and in which I'm partially re-living through watching Spanish telenovelas.

In fact, so many of the actors in Spanish-language telenovelas look like people in my family, I was watching this telenovela Tres Mujeres this one time, and it was unbelievable because I saw my grandfather's face in one of the actors on that show, it was uncanny, the pointed Spanish nose, the light brown eyes, the white hair, it was my grandfather on that show. And the way he talked to his family, was always kind, and relaxed on his chair with his cigar and newspaper, it was my grandfather.

But Asianovelas? I can appreciate the story, and there are a lot of good stories, but on a deep, emotional level, I feel more at home watching Spanish-language telenovelas, just because I feel like I'm watching my own family being reflected in the telenovelas, and because I feel more acculturated towards it, because the Spanish culture is my culture, my family spoke Spanish for generations, for centuries, I grew up with the Spanish language (and the Tagalog language), so Latin telenovelas make me feel more at home than Asianovelas, but I can understand why other Filipinos would feel more comfortable with Asianovelas because they didn't grow up with the same Spanish upbringing that my family instilled in me, so I can understand. But for me, it's not something that tugs at my soul.