![]() ![]() Though he has remained humble, Yu is now clearly more confident in his own ability than he was in his younger days. A shy boy, he didn’t think he would ever be able to perform in front of live audiences despite learning how to play the guitar and practicing singing at home. Pursuing a career in the entertainment industry wasn’t something he ever envisioned as a child. In his third year, he signed with a talent agency after being discovered at a campus fashion show. Yu majored in restaurant management at Shih Hsin University, a highly reputed private educational institution in Taipei. I needed to, as all my lessons at university were in Chinese.” Also, as I was serious about my studies, I improved quickly. It wasn’t a big issue, though, because people went out of their way to support me. It meant that I spent much of the first few weeks eating onigiri at convenience stores. I don’t eat vegetables, so I wanted to check if there was pak choi in the soup and things like that, but I didn’t have the vocabulary to ask the waiters properly. “The most difficult thing was probably finding the right things to eat. “I could hold a basic conversation before going, but it was hard at first,” recalls Yu. ![]() Prior to living in Taiwan, he says he had a pretty good understanding of the language in terms of listening and reading but wasn’t able to speak as much as he would have liked. ![]() He began studying Chinese at a young age and, during his junior high school days, spent a year and a half in Shanghai. He already knew the place reasonably well having visited there during summer and winter vacations as a child to spend time with his grandmother. Yu moved to Taiwan, the birthplace of his mother, around a decade ago. It’s the way things are done in Taiwan.” Finding His Footing In Japan, when you communicate with someone in a more senior position, there is often a distance between you. I could also speak freely to the director (Ray Jiang) and the producers. I learned a lot from being able to sit down and discuss things with the other actors. In terms of preparation, I felt the most important thing was connecting with and understanding the other characters in the program. “At the time, my Chinese wasn’t perfect, but everyone was patient. “There was always someone to help me if there was something I couldn’t do,” says Yu. Fortunately, the cast and crew did everything they could to make him feel at home. Entering into a completely alien environment, he didn’t know what to expect and wasn’t sure whether he would truly belong. After all, his only previous acting experience came in the classroom. He then had just a short time before filming began. The casting director, though, was clearly impressed, as Yu landed the part. He didn’t have time to get nervous and felt it didn’t go well. Heading into the audition, Yu says he wasn’t really sure what was happening as it was all so frantic. When I started at the talent agency in Taiwan, I wanted to focus on music more than anything else, but having taken acting lessons, I thought I would give it a go.” A producer from We Best Love heard ‘Blue Lover’ and wanted to use it as one of the soundtracks for the drama. I actually landed that role because of my music. That said, I didn’t expect it to reach the numbers it did, particularly across the continent. “I think people were moved by the story and felt it was unique compared to other productions with a similar theme. “I was very surprised by how big it became,” Yu tells Tokyo Weekender. 2nd) proved hugely popular throughout Asia. The story of their star-crossed relationship set across two seasons ( No. In his first ever acting role, he co-starred as Zhou Shu Yi, the ambitious son of a prosperous Japanese businessman who falls for his classmate Gao Shide, a fellow student who always seems to do slightly better than him at everything. However, it’s the Taiwan boys’ love drama series We Best Love for which Yu is currently most well known. His biggest hit to date is “Blue Lover” from his debut EP, which has, at the time of writing, garnered more than 5.4 million views on YouTube. The 28-year-old native of Aichi Prefecture only burst onto the scene in 2021 yet has already garnered a huge following in Taiwan in addition to a significantly growing fan base around the globe. With his recent role in the medical drama Inori no Karute: Kenshui no Nazotoki Shinsatsu Kiroku and the release of his new single “Footprints,” the man who goes by his stage name of Yu (stylized as YU) is hoping to make as big an impression in the entertainment industry here as he did across the water. Having made quite a name for himself with both his acting and singing skills in Taiwan, Yang Yu Teng is now back in Japan, the country where he was brought up. ![]()
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