The Taiwanese boyband craze in the early noughties — yes, way before current heartthrobs like BTS came along — gave us acts like F4, 5566, Energy, and many others, although not all of them were fortunate enough to experience huge levels of success.

One of the groups that didn’t, um, quite live up to expectations was Comic Boyz, or Ke Mi Xiao Zi, which consisted of Kingone Wang, Eddie Hsu, Shone An, Arroy Shen, Figaro Tseng, and Peter Chang.

The sextet was formed in 2001 but disbanded just four years later due to poor record sales. Hey, it’s tough making it in showbiz.

However, by the time the members all went their separate ways, Eddie, who turns 41 next month, was already out of the group. He made the decision to quit after suffering a bad fall during rehearsals for a performance in 2003.

Eddie later decided to follow his father’s advice and enrol in Sichuan University’s West China College of Stomatology. He then obtained his Master’s in Dentistry in Germany and earned his licence to practise in China in 2015.

Today, Eddie runs his own dental clinic in Chengdu, where he is said to be beloved by patients thanks to his “handsome appearance” and “professional skills”.

Recently, Eddie made a rare variety show appearance on Hunan TV programme See You Again, where he admitted that, for a very long time, he was reluctant to talk about his showbiz days.

“I’d already been away from the stage for so long and had joined the medical field, I didn’t want to tell others about what I used to do,” he explained. “It was better if they didn’t know.”

In fact, Eddie was so determined to distance himself from his past that he shaved off all his hair at one point, but he eventually learned to “recognise every choice” he has made and has no qualms about opening up now (which is pretty evident from his willingness to come on a talk show).

While it appears Eddie hasn’t really kept in close contact with his remaining former bandmates (Arroy passed away in 2012 due to kidney failure caused by a brain haemorrhage, while Shone died of liver cancer in 2015), he confessed that he still has “a lot of things to say to them”.

“I want to say sorry to some of them, and to others, what happened back then was necessary,” he said, although he did not go into further detail.

On a more light-hearted note, he quipped that they should make a comeback and call themselves “Ke Mi Lao Zi”, which we guess can be translated as “Comic Old Men”.

Well, big nostalgic reunions are all the rage these days.

Photos: Eddie Hsu/Weibo, See You Again/Weibo, 娱闻少女/Weibo, China Times