5 Years in New York, USA

(News taken from June/September/November 2000)

To pursue his 12-year dream of becoming a movie director, in 1995, Jeremy set off to New York to study filmmaking for 5 years. He left after releasing his album, Work VII “ I Am Who I Am” (Lao Zi You Li). At the time he was full of resentment that no one understood why he was so persistent in composing music, but at the same time he as full of passion to have his movie dream. Due to album preparation and film script problems, Jeremy left his studies which delayed his graduation for 1 year. In May of 2000, he obtained his Master's degree in filmmaking from New York University.

Jeremy said, "I must be a self-torture type of person, leaving behind a good dentist job to become a singer and then going overseas to study." But for him, as a student, sweating in the hot sun for 7 to 8 hours each day just to catch the camera shot that gave the right "feeling" was well worth the hard work. A simple student life that could easily be satisfied was great.

In reality, Jeremy's student life was far from easy. During his 5 years studying filmmaking at New York University, he nearly went broke, using up all his savings of 7,000,000 TWD (223,570 USD). One of his instructors, Christine Choy (a Chinese-American film director), had implied that he was there just for fun but his reply was that he was serious and he was determined to finish his studies for all to see. He suffered more hardship than the average person. He was on a tight budget of 10,000 TWD (320 USD) per month, eating only one meal per day. The rest of his savings was used to purchase filmmaking equipment which included: a 16cm camera, a film-editing machine, a director's lookout device and a sound-producing machine. His parents shook their heads when they heard this, commenting that he had never done anything right in his life. They even tried to persuade him to return to dentistry, to live a life with more reality.

Apart from filmmaking, Jeremy also learned to cook. "I went from not knowing how to cook for myself to being capable of cooking a whole meal for a full table."

Jeremy still made occasional trips back to his seaside home in Keelung city, Taiwan where he would spend his days daydreaming. He said, "If someone said to have seen me in a pub in Taipei, it would be impossible."

In order to forget his singing life and focus on his filmmaking studies, during his first year in New York, Jeremy had to refrain from listening to or singing any songs. But Jeremy was not totally disconnected from the music industry during his studies. He continued to compose for others to make some money for himself. During his stay in New York, many companies flew from Taiwan to invite him to sing. Some of his work which gained success during that time included: "Hiroshima Love", a duet with Karen Mok; "Why Do You Love Someone Else" for Andy Hui; the themesong for the drama "World April Days"; and "I Envy You So Much" for Chiang Mei Chi.

After graduation, he returned to the music industry to give his long time fans a gift and an explanation. Because he had been away so long, he was a bit nervous on the day of his album cover shooting. His coworker Winnie Xin came to visit him during the shot. In order for him to appear depressed, his make-up artist requested that he let his beard grow and starve for 1 week, eating only peanuts and rice each day. The result was achieved within 2 days. He said, "I often let my hair and beard grow long. Shampoo companies should hire me for their ads!"

Returning to Taiwan, he immediately applied for Taiwan Cinema's Film Production Assistance Program loan. He is currently still waiting for the application to be approved. Many people have suggested that if he lowered his budget to 5,000,000 TWD (160,000 USD) perhaps his chances would increase. But Jeremy's reply was, "The movie must be presentable. Why else would I have spent my time going to New York University for?" Music is merely Jeremy's interest but directing movies is his true love. He had also expressed that even if he failed to succeed in show business, he would rather go work for the post office, delivering mail than to return to dentistry.

One of the movie scripts that Jeremy wrote was called "The Siberian Butterfly". It is a love story dating back to 20 to 30 years ago, between a Russian Siberian Butterfly specialist and a Taiwanese girl. The movie contains many Siberian sceneries, plus some history of Taiwan's butterfly kingdom.

(MY: Incorrect information removed from this section.)


MY says:
This certainly shows that if Jeremy wants to do something, it must be his best work whether it is in music composing or film producing. I admire his determination for his dream, but when it comes to surviving, reality must kick in. Jeremy, at least you have a choice. You may not want to hear this, but your parents did provide you with enough education to take a second road when in need -- the skill of dentistry, which you will carry with you for the rest of your life. Many others are not so fortunate.

(MY: Incorrect information removed from this section.)

Source of info:
http://members.tripod.com/~yizhen/
(Jun 9/2000, Jun 20/2000, Sept 21/2000, Nov 17/2000, Nov 20/2000)