In June 2007 when Jacky Zhu was expelled from glamour singing act 183 Club and his management company, Jungiery Stars, after a conviction for marijuana use, one of the numerous adverse consequences for him and his family was that Jacky and his serious-minded elder brother, James, found themselves marooned in different agencies. Jacky quickly signed with Tangerine, while James stayed behind with the J-stars.

James Zhu (right) and Victor Lau

 While following their respective careers since 2006, I had enjoyed the brothers’ collaboration in front of the cameras in a few memorable J-stars New Year extravaganzas. Moreover, behind the scenes, James and his songwriting partner Victor Lau had written at least one of 183 Club’s hit singles, and James had also served an exacting producer of several of their MVs. I was disappointed to think that James and Jacky might never work together again.

James, however, by reputation always fiercely protective of his uber talented but volatile younger sibling, soon found ways to try to assist him in his recovery from drug abuse and months later, with his comeback as a singer. As reported previously on Neveridol, in November 2007 James went on Taipei Superidol as a contestant, and progressed quite a long way. In one  memorable episode he sang his brother’s signature ballad, Gao Jie, and afterwards reduced some of the judges and most of the audience to tears with a heartfelt personal message to Jacky, then in still in compulsory rehab.

After Jacky’s release from rehab in November after forty-seven days, he opted to take a full year off before attempting to relaunch his singing career, and it was only in a series of interviews in the tabloids late last year that more details of James’s positive intervention in his brother’s life came to light. Conditions inside the rehab centre (part of a prison complex) are notoriously severe, and in October-November 2008 Jacky told both the Liberty Times and Baidu that when he had to sleep on the floor with (an unspecified) backbone infection he had suffered thirty days of severe insomnia. Then there was the shame of constantly being pointed out as a celebrity. The worst torment of all, however, the singer admitted to the Times, was seeing his mother’s distress when she came to visit him. ‘She cried coming in and she cried going out,’ he said. There was a glass or hard plastic partition between the inmates and their visitors and the singer found the lack physical contact between himself and his family devastating.

A Liberty Times article of 20 October  went on to recount under a subheading, ‘Big Brother’s Big Heart Made Jacky Burst into Tears’:

‘After Jacky got out of rehab and went back home, his big brother went to him and gave him a big hug and a pat and said, ‘Finally you’ve come back!” So Jacky felt his family’s warmth. Jacky cried and couldn’t talk. Finally he found the things he had lost.’

 Two months after Jacky’s successful comeback appearance as a PK singer on One Million Stars in December, James once again took on a central role in a piece of television theatre seemingly designed to set the seal on Jacky’s reformed character and eligibility for readmission into respectable society and the world of entertainment. This was on a popular variety show called Wang Pai Jian Ding Tuan, on an episode stacked with Tangerine artists as guests. Jacky was the last guest to be featured and he had to guess the identity of a mystery person hidden behind a screen. This person had already revealed two of Jacky’s bad habits (and given his playboy past, they could hardly be more innocent): his tendency to scrunch up handkerchiefs when anxious and his hatred of anyone stepping on his feet. (Apparently, the singer loves running shoes and doesn’t want them ruined by being trodden on).

Jacky Zhu and some of his sneakers: he hates it when people step on his feet.

Invited to guess who this person who knew so much about him was, Jacky first missed the mark by saying Sam Wang Shao Wei of 183 Club, but then correctly concluded the holder of family secrets was his devoted brother. James soon launched into an account of his brother’s privations in rehab, while Jacky looked chastened. Meanwhile, a piano softly played variations on the song, Yuan Liang Wo (Forgive Me) in the background, and in a reprise of SuperIdol, a photo of the brothers as Vancouver schoolboys, this time in winter jackets with a background of snow, was projected at the back of the stage.

James Zhu supported his brother on Wang Pai Jian Ding Tuan

Before long, James could hardly speak, and tears ran down his face. The Tangerine guests on stage and much of the audience were also much affected. Just when it seemed that the scene could not become any more emotional or melodramatic, someone handed Jacky a book, he opened and in a choked and hesitant voice read out a heartfelt letter from his mother. Then the compere asked him to sing Yuan Liang Wo. He quickly got over some initial croakiness and quietly took control of the song.

Jacky read aloud a letter from his mother.

A cycnical viewer might feel that all this teariness was manipulative, but this is decent and respectable James we’re talking about here, and Neveridol is inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. There are a couple of truths about the brothers, underneath their showiness: one is that Jacky is a versatile and expressive singer, and the other is that James has a generous heart.

The brothers and a tall friend after the Rock Anthem concert.

And the brothers have recently appeared as singers on the same live show after all: a Rock Anthem concert last month in Taipei. Meanwhile there is a lively subtopic on Jacky & James on the vibrant new fan forum Hong Ju Zi Fans. Check it out!

Translation credits: Liberty Times article: Emily Wang; Baidu: James Tian; Wang Pai Jian Ding Tuan: Tammiest

Image credits: 1 and 2 and 3-4 and 5.