How I Got into Chinese Entertainment

I guess this is one article I felt I need to write.  Just me following a bit of Shougo B'Stard's style of writing here.  Now here's how I got into Chinese drama...


I remembered there was the meteoric rise of F4 which is currently known as JVKV.  WHen I first saw Meteor Garden and didn't really see the first episode until I borrowed a copy of it on VCD with subtitles, I really thought it was one of my paternal grandmother's shows.  That was because the first scene I saw was Dao Ming Feng/Kaede Doumyoji attempting to pay off Shan Tsai/Tsukushi Makino away.  But when I saw the F4, I really had my thought that I thought they were Japanese until I saw the F4 music video "Can't Lose You" which became a huge hit.  In fact, at that time I was taking sort of a hiatus from Super Sentai or Kamen Rider because I felt like I wasn't ready to adjust to newer Tokusatsu out of close mindedness but fortunately I got out of that shell but Chinese entertainment is basically riding over me than Tokusatsu is.  For one I wasn't ready to accept Meteor Garden because it felt like a cry buckets of tears type of drama then I attained the taste for Chinese drama... while later figuring out that some of my favorites were based on Anime.  Then it began my preference of live adaptations of Anime over Anime.


Then there was also the emergence of 5566 dramas "My MVP Valentine" and "Westside Story."  In between I remembered spending my afternoon watching dubbed versions of those shows then came "At the Dolphin Bay" which starred Angela Zhang who was previously in "My MVP Valentine".  I also got into the tragedy of "Lavender".  Which of course I would say F4's Meteor Garden started the craze.  If you're some kind of person who doesn't know anything about Chinese drama, you might think some of them with the Anime hairstyle are Tokusatsu.  In fact, you might think one of the four people above was in Abaranger.  They are NOT the same person.


I got very immersed in love stories with 100% Senorita which was also pretty hammy in itself.  So far, I had F4, 5566... and more.  And of course, I was more weibo than otaku in a way.  At the same time, Kamen Rider Ryuki was airing and during that time, I freaking had a hard time accepting the way the Heisei era was since I was stuck with Showa.  In fact, these slice of life stories had become part of me and well it was because of Meteor Garden that this craze started.  In fact, I began to start viewing undubbed but subbed Chinese films like "So Close" and "Magic Kitchen" each one with their own reception from me.  Again for me, I would thank F4 for dragging me into the world of Chinese entertainment at the age of 19 despite the fact in my teenager years, I freaking hated studying Chinese courses!  Eventually this craze also got me sucked into checking out J-Drama which for me is something I'd watch more than Tokusatsu eventually as well as checking out the golden oldies like Qin Han's streak of Qiong Yao novels (which then again cries BUCKETS and I mean BUCKETS of tears) or that of my mom's time.


And not to mention, I really am also into some Chinese films because of the girls.  In fact, I remembered having an attraction to Vicki Zhao's beauty (but not her) during the earlier days.  Then there was Penny Lin and Barbie Xu.  Then came in girls my age like Esther Liu (pictured above) and Liu Yi Fei.  So far, it really got me sucked into as well because of some of the pretty girls.