As a former member of the famous Taiwanese idol group F4, Ken Chu needs no further introduction. Yet despite the band’s uber popularity, Ken says he doesn’t have a lot of friends. One would think that he’s at least good friends with his former bandmates who like him were suddenly thrust into the spotlight almost overnight. But alas, Ken hinted that that might not be the case after all.
In a old interview, Ken who was just 22 when the drama Meteor Garden‘s skyrocketing popularity practically made them idols overnight said that he was “Unhappy. Very unhappy. I didn’t wanna do it. You don’t wanna do what other people tell you to do. Having everyone love you is a great thing. But having too much attention on you and receiving too much love is also very agonising.”
He Wasn’t Really Close to Anyone
Almost twenty years later today, Ken was once again interviewed by media who asked him who his three closest friends were at 25. After staying silent for a couple of seconds, Ken finally answered “no one, I didn’t have anyone who I was super close to”. It’s worth remembering that when he was 25, this was around the time when the band still enjoyed immense popularity in Asia. Hence Ken’s subsequent reaction and answer to the question seems to suggest that perhaps his relationships with the other members Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu and Vic Chou were not as close as we think, and perhaps even strained?
This also kind of validates what Jerry and Vanness had already spoken about as one of the reasons for their disbandment in a recent episode of Welcome Back to Sound – that it was mainly a work relationship and that they weren’t exactly friends. That had they felt “safe” around each other and had built that trust, perhaps things might have ended differently for the band.
Ken Chu believes that having friends is important but that it shouldn’t be one of the most important things in your life. He shared that when he was younger, because he never stayed in one place for too long, it made staying in contact with the friends he made a lot harder. Subscribing to the “quality over quantity” attitude when it comes to making friends, the singer-actor also shared a post on social media, reaffirming that “less is more when it comes to his friends”. When asked who he considers his closest friends at the age of 43, he said “my wife is one of them. No one else.”
Ginger
I understand, they were forming a band acting in Meteor Garden. They all didn’t make the effort to be close to each other, and there is no friendship. Just work friends.
True words, friends are nice to have but they are not a priority. Your spouse should be #1. Ken sounds mature and knows his priority :).
Zhishu
The worse is he get the most least opportunity and barely get any recognized beside the other 3.
Applefish
Well, he was the least good looking :/ so that’s why he didn’t get as much opportunities. Can you blame the others for looking better than he was? And even if they have the whole training things together, back then and even still true today, being a solo artist makes more money and more freedoms, that’s why for many of them, their ultimate goal is to break free of the group.
What it says though is only now, they finally don’t need to pretend to be each other good friends. From various articles many years ago (throughout all these years), it always seem that apart from Vic, the other 3 always seem to have a closer bond, as they seem to do things with each other, but now we see that was all an act. You can either say Vic didn’t bother pretend or he isn’t as close to these 3. But since the 3 that seems to have great bonds admit they have none to each other, I assumed vic didn’t want to put up the facades.
Soph
I agree with you Applefish. I also think he’s the least good looking one. I didn’t think so initially because Vanness and his constant hair whipping in Meteor Garden really annoyed me, so I didn’t like him initially. Once he chopped off those long locks, I noticed him more. I think Ken had more of a storyline in Meteor Garden as well with his love line with Rainie. None of their acting or singing were particularly good. They were riding on the coattails of Meteor Garden. Unless you work hard to improve, pick good scripts, no one is going to keep hiring you. Vic Zhou was a surprise in that he’s actually become quite a decent actor. I remember watching him and Black & White with Mark Chao, and thought he was loads better than in Meteor Garden!
Vicboo
out of all four, besides Vic good looks; he is the most popular and popular. He has become a good actor over the years since MG.