Jolin Chien

Jolin Chien (Chinese: 簡宏霖; pinyin: Jiǎn Hónglín) is a Taiwanese singer, actor and model. He formerly went by the western name Samuel Chien. He was discovered while competing in a singing competition. He is a former member of the dual boy band group StyLe and current co-leader of Taiwanese boy band 4ever. He and his group members were under Avex Taiwan for their music management and currently under Chou’s Entertainment for their acting and commercial management.^[1]

Biography

Jolin Chien was born on April 4, 1986 in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. He is the youngest of a two child family with a brother older than him by two years. Not much is mentioned about his father, all is known is that he grew up in a single parent household mainly raised by his mother. Chien has said during his teenage years he was very rebellious and radical.

Career

Pre-debut

During his late teens, Chien entered a lot of local singing competition and was eventually discovered at a contest. In 2005 he signed with Universal Taiwan to form the musical dual StyLe with Lawrence Chen (陳浩偉). He went by the name Samuel during his time with StyLe. The group performed live throughout school campuses in Taiwan before releasing their self titled debut album in 2007.^[2] After finding little success with the group Chien decided to serve his mandatory military conscription and the group officially broke up in 2008 after he competed his military term.

After that Chien went on to work odd jobs such as bartending and cafe barista while trying to break back into the entertainment industry. While working at a cafe called "Homey’s" in Taipei he met Yorke Sun who went on to become one of "4ever" memebers.^[3]

Music

In 2011, Chien signed with Avex Taiwan to form four member boy band "4ever". The group debuted in 2012 and slowly found recognition when member David Hsu debuted in acting by starring in a supporting role in the critically acclaimed and award winning Taiwanese idol drama In Time with You. They released their first EP album that same year, but however Avex Taiwan terminated their Taiwanese music division in 2013 and the group was left without a record label. Currently the group is not signed to any record label, but is still active as "4ever" and continues to perform together.

Acting

Chien made his acting debut in TTV 2013 romance drama The Pursuit of Happiness in a minor supporting role as the eccentric office homosexual "Simon". His acting was well received and the following year he landed the role of second male lead in 2014 SETTV romance comedy Pleasantly Surprised playing all around nice guy "Cheng Hao Wei" who is loyally devoted to his love interest since college. The drama also stars his bandmates Yorke Sun and Deyn Li in supporting roles. With the success of Pleasantly Surprised, Chien gained further recognition and SETTV once again offered him the second male lead role in 2015 romance comedy Murphy's Law of Love playing ideal perfect guy "Xiang Zi Yan"^[4]

Personal life

Chien has a huge tribal tattoo on his right shoulder that can be seen when he wears a tank top.

His hobbies include drawing, cooking and singing.^[5]

He and the entire cast of Pleasantly Surprised became close friends after filming the drama. The cast continues to have friendly get togethers during special occasions and shows support for each other in each persons new work project.

Television series

Discography

• with StyLe

• with 4ever

Music video appearances

References

External links

• 4ever Avex page(Chinese)
• Jolin Chien Facebook page(Chinese)
• Jolin Chien Weibo page(Chinese)
• Jolin Chien instagram(Chinese)
• Chou’s Entertainment Facebook page(Chinese)