History
Formation and Meteor Garden: 2001
The group formed as a result of the success of a Taiwanese drama series, Meteor Garden. The series is an adaptation of the Japanese shōjo manga series, ' (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. Chou, Wu and Chu play as his friends Hua Ze Lei, Mei Zuo, and Xi Men, respectively. In the series, the four guys identify themselves as a group called "Flower Four", or often shortened as F4.
Meteor Garden was released in Taiwan in 2001 and turned the leads into stars virtually overnight.[2] In 2002 Meteor Garden was released in Hong Kong, Singapore,Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and in the Philippines in 2003. It was also released in some place of Europe. The series was aired on Xing Kong channel, and was later remade in China. A sequel, Meteor Garden II, was shot in Spain later and released in 2002.
Musical venture, Meteor Rain, and Fantasy 4ever: 2001-2003
In 2001, F4 became a boy band and signed a record deal with Sony Music Taiwan. In the same year they released their debut album, Meteor Rain, and in the following year they released Fantasy 4ever. The album includes the Mandarin cover of "Can't Help Falling in Love" they recorded for the Asian version of Walt Disney's Lilo & Stitch soundtrack,[3] a Mandarin cover of "Yo Te Amo" by Chayanne, and a Pepsi advert theme song "Ask For More".
In 2003 they embarked on an Asian tour to support Fantasy 4ever, and went on an unannounced hiatus afterwards as the members began to focus on their solo careers.
Waiting for You and name change to JVKV: 2007-2008
On April 29, 2007, Meteor Garden producer Angie Chai announced that the group would no longer be known as F4. The change in name stemmed from copyright-related issues. Japanese publisher Shueisha, who owns the copyright to Hana Yori Dango allowed the group to use F4 as its band name in 2001. However, as Japan had filmed and aired its own live action versions of the popular manga, with its own cast of four, the publisher felt that there may be confusion over the name in different countries.[4][5] Due to this conflict, the group was renamed JVKV using the first initials of each of the group's members. 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 Chou's.[1]
Despite rumours of disbanding,[6] JVKV released their third album, Waiting For You, on December 28, 2007.[7] Their third album still bore the name F4, not JVKV.
F4 were the first foreign artists to hold 7 consecutive concerts in Japan. Thousands flooded Narita Airport when the band's plane touched down. Jerry Yan even attracted two thousand fans at the airport during his solo fan meeting.
Jiangsu TV’s Spring Festival: 2013
In January 2013, the group was confirmed to perform at Jiangsu TV’s Spring Festival in China.[8] The performance was taped in Beijing on January 30, 2013,[9][10] and was aired on February 10, 2013. It was their first performance together in four years. During the show, they hinted that they were going to have a concert tour in China.
Solo projects
JVKV are also individually concentrating on their solo careers in both acting and music. Three of them appeared in Wish To See You Again, starring Chou and Chu, while Wu made a few guest appearances in a few episodes. Due to scheduling conflicts, Yan did not star in the series; his part was played by Kingone Wang. Yan filmed a series in Taiwan alongside Wu Chun of Fahrenheit and Show Luo, called Hot Shot otherwise known as 篮球火 which was released in the Summer 2008. The series revolves around basketball and the boys' competition on court. This series was highly anticipated due to the star status of the three male leads.
