I’m adding a separate topic in travel because I’ve noticed a lot of tourists are interested in visiting the set of the Meteor Garden TV show in Chiayi at National Chung Cheng University. A lot of them are from Singapore and other countries in Southeast Asia.
I have never been there and think I’ve only seen the show once.
Has anyone been there, is it really that interesting, and does the TV show have a cult following or something?
Had to watch that whole series with my wife (at-that-time girlfriend).
That’s how I got to know those stars before they became a lot more famous.
Jerry Yan still trying to decide whether to marry model Lin Chih-Ling or perhaps have to convince her (depending on who wears the pants in that relationship), ha ha.
Was 17 years ago. My, how time flies.
17 years ago, Lee Teng-hui time. So does that mean the people interested are thinking about a TV show 17 years ago? Or current reruns?
Perhaps because the DVDs of those past dramas are now easily available to buy over Asia.
My wife (when we were going out) dragged me on a 4-day package tour with other Taiwanese to South Korea, and part of the package was a half-day excursion to visit some frozen (small) island where a famous SK soap opera had been shot. Forgot the name, but that was another drama I had to watch and subsequently got to know some SK actors/actresses before they became big, because of that drama.
About 8 years after the show aired, I was on a business trip to Japan. I was flipping through the channels and saw Meteor Garden on NHK, dubbed in Japanese… It was much better in Japanese…
But 2001 was CSB time! 
I don’t know, I wiki’d it.
Makes sense since it’s a Japanese shojo manga and always made more sense to be based there than in Taiwan (elite private academies for rich Japanese families is a common trope in Japan but not really for Taiwan). I suspect that Meteor Garden was the first really popular shojo-like drama in Asia (and thus the ancestor of all the stuff that Taiwan and SK pops out) and why it still has such a large following even today.
Yeah, but it was still quite an experience seeing a Taiwanese TV drama dubbed in Japanese airred on Japanese TV, usually it’s the other way around.
I have 2 DVD’s on auction. Current bid is 20 NT’s.
Seems like a cult member would pay more.
Oh. THAT show.
1600 to 400 NTD in Yahoo.
正版 台灣愛情偶像電視劇 流星花園DVD碟片 徐熙娣/F4/大S 二手 無缺 https://tw.bid.yahoo.com/item/100366145782
The bid for $30 fell through?
btw, @tango42, where did you get all those tourists interested in going to the set at CCU? Chatter on some website? What part(s) did they shoot there?
Shhhhhhh…
I think you bid 20NT and nobody offered 30… Yet.
I look at a lot of travel websites and chats and Forums on travel and especially focused on Taiwan. It just seems like there’s been a recent high interest in the last 6 months or year.
I don’t know the show but I heard it was all filmed at the University because the storyline revolves around University students or something. No idea.
There is like a new generation reboot in progress, so that is why there is renewed interest. However, truth be told, this soap opera was a big hit and hence has a following.
Location “punch card” -meaning taking pictures and tagging yourself at X location- is very popular here. Visiting sites of popular dramas, movies, ads, etc. is what we could call a hobby for the young. Older people prefer temple pilgrimage, and all age groups go to “famous” food places.
CCU has an amazingly beautiful campus, but its remote location from Chiayi city means it’s quite a trek for tourists to get to. Once you are there, there’s also little things to do in the surrounding area. Hats off to tourists making their way to CCU, that’s some dedication to the show.