Meteor Garden

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Meteor Garden (traditional Chinese: 流星花園; pinyin: Liu Xing Hua Yuan) is a Taiwanese drama that began its broadcast 12 April 2001 on China Television. It is based on the Japanese manga Hana yori Dango. It stars Jerry Yan, Vic Zhou, Vanness Wu, Ken Chu and Barbie Hsu. The plot centers on a plain and poor teenage girl called Shan Cai, who goes to a university for rich people, forced upon her by her parents. The university is dominated by a gang of handsome but arrogant students called F4, who are the heirs of the most influential families in Taiwan.

In the beginning, Dao Ming Si, the gang leader, hates Shan Cai so much that he makes everyone in the university play tricks on her. However, Shan Cai's persistence gradually gains Si's respect and later he falls in love with her. Like many other TV series, the lovers end up getting together after going through a series of painful challenges.

Meteor Garden was very popular in Asia. In the Philippines, the four main male characters, with a band called F4, had a sold-out concert. Due to the popularity of the series throughout Asia, two sequels, Meteor Rain and Meteor Garden II, were produced.

The main antagonist is Dao Ming Si's judgmental, arrogant mother Dao Ming Feng who is somewhat based on Kaede Doumyoji in Hana Yori Dango. However she is seen to be not as evil as her Japanese counterpart.

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[edit] Cast

Main Cast:

Supporting Cast:

  • Zheng Mei Dai (Belinda Cheng) as Baihe
  • Zhang Ruo Zhen as Qianhui
  • Ye An Tin as Lizhen
  • Wang Yue as Shan Cai's Mother
  • Tung Chi Cheng as Shan Cai's Father
  • Zhen Xiu Zhen as Daoming Feng
  • Edward Ou as Qinghe
  • Rainie Yang as Xiaoyou
  • Winnie Qian as Tengtang Jing
  • Ke Huan Ru as Xiaozi
  • Mary Hsu as Dao Ming Zhuang

[edit] Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Zhen Xiu Zhen is frequently mistaken for Liu Xue Hua by some fans in the Philippines. She seems to bear certain facial similarities to the mother of Girls Marching On , aired also on ABS-CBN.
  • Shan Cai's Japanese counterpart, Tsukushi, had a younger brother in Hana Yori Dango who played a small part in the story.
  • Shan Cai's mother sings the first two lines of Teresa Teng's song "When Will You Return" in some scenes.
  • One of the major differences between Hana Yori Dango and Meteor Garden is that in Hana Yori Dango, the ending is more concrete than the first season of Meteor Garden, such as Doumyoji and Tsukushi being together, and Rui reunites with his first love. These events do not happen in Meteor Garden.
  • Meteor Garden remains as the highest rated Asian drama overall shown in the Philippines, garnering a 57.4% peak rating with an average rating of 42.9% in mega manila and a peak of 73.0% nationwide with an average of 62.0% which was shown over ABS-CBN. The replay value was just so high, that when it was replayed again every Saturday and Sunday, it rated an amazing 42.0% on its finale.
  • Spawned 2 sequels (Meteor Rain and Meteor Garden II) due to its high ratings in Taiwan.
  • GMA 7, ABS-CBN's rival network, reairs Meteor Garden in their own re-dubbed version but unfortunately it didn't show good ratings. Its highest rating in gma7 is just 30.0% in mega manila and 13.0% nationwide.
  • Before, GMA 7 told the press that the series was first offered to them and they turned them down because the series has no moral values or lessons, but when the series became very popular, they started showing "Meteor DreamLand" and some of F4's shows.
  • F4 members are now officially known as JVKV, after Japanese TV producers decided to use the name F4 in the live version of the anime "Hana Yori Dango".
  • Meteor Garden, Meteor Rain and Meteor Garden 2 are the most reran Taiwanese drama soaps aired on ABS-CBN, having played a total of three times for seasons one and 2, and two for Meteor Rain, including their run on cable channel CinemaOne.
  • Female lead Barbie Hsu (ShanCai) has been dating co-star Vic Zhou (Lei) for 2 years. It is very ironic because ShanCai is dating another guy on screen in front of her actual boyfriend
  • GENERAL SUMMARY: ShanCai detests F4, the group that makes many lives miserable, including her own. While F4 torments her, the lead man, DaoMing Si falls for her. Soon, they start to date. However, there are many in their way, like the two popular girls jealous of DaoMing Si and ShanCai's relationship and Daoming Si's mom, one of the main causes of the break-up of their relationship. His mother goes all out in an attempt to try and break them up. For example, she hires a shady man posing as DaoMing Si's cousin to seduce her.

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