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A few days ago I heard some intriguing news from a cyber friend who is a follower of Jacky Zhu (Chu) on Weibo. Apparently, one night last week Jacky and the four other members of long lost and much lamented Taiwanese boy band, 183 Club, met at a Japanese restaurant in Taipei for dinner. While there, they asked someone to take a few snaps of them together, which Jacky and Johnny Yan later uploaded to their respective Weibo accounts. Within hours fans discovered these and posted them on the usual fora and Facebook walls. The photos turned out to be very amusing: the xiongdi (as they always thought of themselves), were looking happy, excited and pleased to be each others’ company once again.

Ehlo Huang, Jacky Zhu, Johnny Yan, Sam Wang and Ming Dao, formerly of 183 Club

Image credit: here

The only time Neveridol had seen definite evidence of a previous reunion since the band’s demise in 2007 was at a Nike launch in 2009—and on that occasion only four of the five members were there, with Sam Wang being unaccountably absent. It’s just possible that they have had additonal, less public meetings that were never recorded in the tabloids, although that seems unlikely given the notoriously intrusive nature of Taiwan’s mass media.

The paparazzi turn up only as 183 Club are splitting the bill.

Image credit: here

And indeed the paparazzi were not far behind on this latest occasion, either. (In fact, cultural critic V wondered if the boys from 183 Club had intended to be spotted. In one of the pix, other diners can be seen in the background, so it is evident that they had not reserved a private room). The reunion in 2009 at the Nike launch had raised rumours of a possible concert to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the band’s foundation in 2012 or 2013. These died down very quickly as soon as the boys dispersed again to pick up the threads of their respective careers. At the Japanese café, however, this was nonetheless the theme that journalists returned to: was there going to be a reunion concert? Ming Dao allegedly retorted, ‘Why are you guys so crazy?’

One of the other 183 Club ren then apparently warned, ‘Don’t tell them anything.’

Neveridol, perhaps grasping at straws, wonders if this was the usual admonition never to tell tabloid journalists anything at all, or more intriguingly, if it meant, ‘Don’t tell them anything about the ideas for a new project we were just tossing around.’

A ver, as they say in Spanish. On one hand, in the cold hard light of proverbial reality, a reunion gig seems unlikely. Of the five members, only Ehlo Huang Yu Rong is stil signed with Jungiery Stars, and the remaining four all have different management from each other. And they all have exceedingly busy schedules. Jacky Zhu, for example, has apparently been on call to resume filming Blissful Dandelion, and the date of his proposed birthday gathering for fans has been changed once or twice to accommodate his filming schedule.

Meanwhile, however, Neveridol can only reiterate that many fans remain very keen on the idea and that a clever promoter might be able to make some money out of such an event. And maybe James Zhu, who has been writing some very pleasing and mellow songs of late, could one more time, as the song lyric suggests, write one for his brother’s band to serve as a new single, possibly as the basis of an EP. Now there’s an idea.

Sources:

Translation credit: mingdee@AsianFanatics Forums

http://www.ihunantv.com/news-13722-1.html and http://bagua.ifensi.com/article-428617.html