Mirror, the wildly popular Cantopop boy band 'stealing wives' in Hong Kong
Boy bands have been a phenomenon since the 1990s with famous groups like Backstreet Boys, Westlife, SMAP, and Arashi. It peaked in the early 2000s with Taiwanese groups like F4 and 5566, before dying down and being picked up by the Korean wave. Since then, the trend for new boy bands, such as the Filipino group SB19, has been to incorporate K-pop elements, be it in the music, dance or the members’ appearances.
The latest sensation is Cantopop band Mirror, which is made up of 12 members, each with their own representative colour: Keung To (dark blue), Ian Chan (ocean blue), Anson Lo (pink), Edan Lui (grey), Alton Wong (bright orange), Anson Kong (dark green), Frankie Chan (ash blue), Jer Lau (glacial blue), Jeremy Lee (Venetian red), Lokman Yeung (olive green), Stanley Yau (green) and Tiger Yau (purple).
Mirror was formed through the first season of ViuTV’s talent show Good Night Show — King Maker (2018), which selected these 12 young and budding Hong Kong talents from a pool of 99 male participants. King Maker is now preparing for its fourth season, which will turn its focus to female participants this time round.
Although they made their debut only in November 2018, Mirror has released one album and multiple singles, and held two concerts. The individual members, such as Keung To, Ian Chan, Anson Lo, Anson Kong, Jer Lau and Edan Lui, have also released their own singles. The music video of Mirror’s latest song Boss has received more than 2.5 million views on YouTube since its release last month.
Mirror even revealed on their Instagram that they would be dropping new songs every week this July and August. At the time of writing, they have announced the songs Unlovable Leader by Anson Lo and Sand’s Ware by Jer Lau.
As for the reason behind their name, “mirror” signifies their potential as an individual and as a group. “Together we reflect unlimited possibilities,” Mirror wrote on their Instagram profile. Mirror has seen increasing popularity in Hong Kong since their debut — so much so that husbands are complaining on Facebook that Mirror has stolen their wives’ hearts.
A now-private Facebook group titled “My wife married Mirror and left my marriage in ruins” was set up by a distressed husband on 3 July, who wrote in the group description, “I don’t hate Mirror, but I just feel that fellow men need a group to share our thoughts and feelings.” The Facebook group went viral and attracted more than 200,000 members within the first three days. It currently has over 300,000 members.
Among the 12 Mirror members, the ones most discussed in the Facebook group are King Maker champion Keung To, King Maker runner-up Ian Chan, and former professional dancer Anson Lo. Prior to joining King Maker, the three of them already had some achievements.
Keung To participated in the Chinese talent show Super Boy in 2017, and was one of the four representatives of the region of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; Ian Chan, who was a national volleyball player, won first place in his university’s singing contest; Anson Lo was the back-up dancer for Hong Kong stars like Aaron Kwok and Coco Lee.
Like most idol groups, apart from the regular singing and dancing, Mirror is also active in dramas, films and variety shows. Anson Lo and Edan Lui recently starred in the Hong Kong remake of the Japanese boys’ love drama Ossan’s Love. The drama series, with a total of 15 episodes, aired its finale a couple of weeks ago. It was such a resounding success that fans are yearning for a drama sequel and even a movie.
Mirror may be new to the entertainment industry, but we have already witnessed how much the group has grown and achieved. In fact, Cantopop is seeing a revival since Mirror came into existence!
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