Men In The Mirror

The four lads – Jer Lau, 30; Anson Lo, 27; Edan Lui, 26; and Keung To, 24 – were in Malaysia recently to perform at the One Love Music Festival in Sunway Lagoon alongside other Chinese stars such as David Tao, Hebe Tien, Pakho Chau and Show Lo.

Some fans were seen waiting for the Mirror members at the hotel lobby last week during StarLifestyle’s interview, enough to have several security personnel guarding the doors to the venue.

But this scene is unlike the mobs of fans the guys are used to in Hong Kong.

In 2021, a Facebook group in Hong Kong calling itself “My Wife Married Mirror And Left My Marriage In Ruins Concern Group” was set up by men sharing stories (in jest, we hope) of their wives being obsessed with the band.The Facebook “concern” group recruited more than 200,000 members in its first three days.

“I don’t hate Mirror, but I just feel that fellow men need a group to share our thoughts and feelings,” AFP quoted the group’s administrator and moderator, whose username is Tcr Ch.

While Mirror has been around for five years and is wildly popular in its home city, the band knows outside of Hong Kong, it is still at an infancy stage.“We are still a baby,” Lui told StarLifestyle in an exclusive interview.

In order to reach out to more audience, especially in the non-Chinese speaking market, Mirror released its debut English single, Rumours, in March.

At our interview, the members made it clear that the main intention behind the release of Rumours was not to break into the elusive American market, ala K-pop juggernaut BTS, although that would be a bonus if it did.

“The goal of releasing Rumours is not that we really want to go into the US market, or that we can become international. We are not at that level yet,” Lui said.

“The reason we are releasing an English single is because we hope that since it is a language that everyone understands, we will have the opportunity for audience from different regions to listen to our songs.

“Maybe then, they will be willing to learn more about Mirror because of this song,” Lui continued to explain.The 12-member Mirror was established through a reality talent show called Good Night Show – King Maker in 2018.

Apart from the aforementioned guys, other members in the group include Ian Chan, Jeremy Lee, Anson “AK” Kong, Stanley Yau, Alton Wong, Tiger Yau, Frankie Chan and group leader, Lokman Yeung, all aged between 20s and early 30s.

Just like in K-pop groups, the members of Mirror have also branched out in pursuit of other artistic endeavours.Some have released solo singles, others host variety shows, while members like Lui andLo have gone into acting.Lui and Lo acted opposite one another in the hit BL drama Ossan’s Love in 2021.

Their pairing was so popular that they are partnering up again for the Hong Kong remake of the K-drama Business Proposal, which will begin shooting next month according to Lo.

Tragic incident

Mirror’s meteoric rise to fame, however, was halted last year when a tragedy befell the group. In one of its 12-show concerts at the Hong Kong Coliseum in July, a giant LED screenfell in the midst of the group’s performance, injuring two of Mirror’s back-up dancers.

One of them, Mo Lee Kai Yin, suffered a severe spinal injury and is still in recovery. The accident made international headlines. The band immediately went on a hiatus.

“2022 was a really a tough year for us ... and also for Hong Kong citizens. And to be honest, it’s really hard to imagine something like that would happen,” Lui said when asked about the tragedy.

“It took us a lot of time and a lot of help to get through it. Luckily, we have each other (to rely on), our fans and families (also) gave us much support.”

After regrouping and taking time to heal, Mirror felt it was time to get back to what it does best.“We knew that we are ready to perform and to bring happiness to our fans and to society, that’s why we chose to be in the public eye again,” Lui said, adding that from the incident, he learnt that he should not take things for granted and to live for the moment.

At Star Lifestyle’s 30-minute interview, the four members (Lui and Lo took lead speaking in fluent English) touched on the group’s English single, what they constantly argue about and the difficult part about being the most recognised faces in Cantopop.

Congratulations on the release of Rumours. It must be different from singing in Cantonese. What was the recording process like?

Anson Lo: The recording process was fun, but also challenging because it was our first time recording a song in English. We had a coach who taught us a lot about pronunciation, the flow, and how to sing in US pop style.

And this song is special, because it’s kind of a dark, more hip-hop, trap music, something we have never done. Mirror has been seen as the band who has rejuvenated an interest in Cantopop, which was losing its appeal.

What is it about Mirror that’s making young people love Cantopop again?

Lo: First of all, I think that’s an overrated statement. But we’re happy that you would think like that, or some people might think that way too.

Edan Lui: I think we are very lucky. We have fans who really love us, so whenever we release a song, they will help us advertise it or looping the songs (on radio by requests) and that will get more Hong Kong citizens exposed to our songs.

We are influenced by K-pop and other music styles. So, the music we put out are more trendy. Perhaps this helps attract more Hong Kong people to listen to us.

Growing up, who are your musical heroes and inspirations?

Lui: I love Jay Chou.

Jer Lau: Coldplay.

Keung To: Ne-yo, I love R&B.

Lo: Justin Timberlake, Usher, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, all the pop divas and kings. I’ve always liked US pop culture.

I started falling in love with dancing because of Justin Timberlake’s live performances. I learned his dance routine by myself, just fooling around at home.

In Hong Kong, there are many singers with great careers. Whose career do you hope to emulate?

Lo: I look up to Aaron Kwok and Sammi Cheng because, yeah they sing, they dance, they act very well. If one day I can work with them, be on the same stage with them performing together, then that will be a dream come true.

Lui: Maybe Andy Lau because I hope that I can have a career that people will respect. Maybe someday when you become older, you can offer something back to this industry or you can help artistes of the new generation. So I think he is one of my role models.

Lau: Eason Chan, because because he sings very well. His voice always manages to touch me. So, he’s my idol.

Keung: Aaron Kwok too. Because I love to dance. If I have a chance, I want to learn how to dance like him.

In recent years, you guys have pursued solo careers as well as branch out into acting. Which artistic pursuit is your priority – music or acting?

Lo: We’re greedy. We want both, so we do both. But it’s very time consuming and it’s quite tiring as well. But I think we can manage that.

Lui: I think it depends on the ability and the desire of different individuals.For me, I like performing, dancing and singing, but at the same time, I also like acting and doing variety shows.But for Jer, he really loves singing.

So it depends on what role we choose to concentrate on. What’s the most difficult part about being a celebrity?

Lui: The loss of privacy. For example, like today, maybe we want to go shopping, or explore Malaysia but we need to be concerned about the safety and other issues. In the end, we will just choose to stay at the hotel. But I think when you get something, you must lose something. This is fair.

Lo: Dealing with rumours and also the false statements made about me. My preference is not to explain or to clarify (every rumour) on my social media every time. So a lot of the time, I have to just deal with it, pull myself together and not be affected by it.That’s kind of stressful because we are human beings too, and we have feelings. So I think being misunderstood is one of the one of the biggest difficulties.

How do you care for your mental health then?

Lo: Turning to someone you trust is the most important thing. I turn to my family and friends. I talk to them every day so I won’t explode or say something bad on social media.

Lui: I do things I like, such as playing basketball and computer games. You need to know how to ignore negative comments on the Internet, especially when they are ridiculous.

Lo: You have to be clever about (reading comments). When they are not facts, we ignore them. But actually, sometimes some of (these comments) are quite helpful. Maybe they’re criticising your singing skills, or your dancing skills or acting skills, and when you see those comments, it reminds you that you have to be better.

You intentionally read comments about yourself? That seems counterintuitive.

Lui: Reading comments is one of the ways for us to keep our minds clear so that we won’t fall into a trap and think that we are really good or that we are doing well. We need to know the truth.

Lo: So, yeah, we just need to know the balance between ignoring some comments and also making use of others.

There are 12 of you in the group. Twelve guys with 12 different personalities. Tell me, what do you guys argue about and how do you solve disagreements in the group?

Lo: We disagree on so many things (laughs). You’re right, 12 different people with different personalities, different tastes in music and dance styles ... we actually fight a lot.

In terms of choosing songs or dance styles, we have our weekly or monthly meetings where we have discussions.

Also, luckily we have a leader (in the group), so when there’s a disagreement or we can’t have a conclusion, we leave it to Lokman to decide and then we will agree with his decision.

Finally, since your English song is titled Rumours, what’s the most ridiculous rumours you have heard about yourself?

Keung: That I am dating this person or that person.

Lui: That we hate each another (in the group). People creating dramas about us.

Lo: Yes. (One where) maybe someone took a photo of me and I happened to look at another member a certain way, and they would start to say that I’m giving this member the evil look, that I hate this member. That’s ridiculous! We usually just laugh about it.

Lau: That I like to eat.

Lo, Lui, Keung: That’s not a rumour! (all three laugh)

Lau: C’mon man!