Show Lo Chih-hsiang (born July 30, 1979) is a Taiwanese singer, actor, and television host. He is commonly known by his nickname Hsiao Chu (Little Pig). Lo is recognized for his trademark dance music. He has over 50 million followers on Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo as of June 2018. Show Lo debuted as a member of Taiwanese boy group in 1996 after winning a singing and dancing competition, and began his solo music career in 2003 when he released his first studio album Show Time. His subsequent albums were commercially successful; he achieved best-selling album of the year in Taiwan for four consecutive years from 2010 to 2013. Lo was the first pop singer to hold a concert at the Taipei Arena in 2005, and the first pop singer to hold three concerts within twenty-four hours in Taipei Arena in 2010. Besides his singing career, Show Lo is a successful television host and entertainer. He has been hosting 100% Entertainment since 2001. In 2017, he won the Best Host for a Variety Show Award in the 52nd Golden Bell Awards for 100% Entertainment, with co-host Linda Chien. He is also recognized as a member of the cast for the popular Chinese reality show, Go Fighting!, and as a judge on China's Produce 101 and Street Dance of China. Lo was nominated thrice for Best Male Actor at the Golden Bell Awards. In 2013, Lo was chosen by director Stephen Chow to play the guest role of Prince Important in the movie Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons, which broke Chinese box office records. Chow cast Lo again in a supporting role, Octopus, in his 2016 movie The Mermaid, which also broke box office records.

Early life

Show Lo was born in Keelung City, Taiwan. His father is Han Taiwanese and his mother is Amis of the Taiwanese indigenous peoples. He is an only child, and his parents held multiple odd jobs to support the family when he was growing up. They primarily put up entertainment shows for grassroots events such as weddings, in which his father hosted and his mother sang. Show participated in these entertainment shows as a child, playing the drums onstage when he was just three. Show is nicknamed Xiao Zhu (Little Pig) because he was really chubby when he was young, weighing over 100 kilogram. He was bullied by his classmates for his weight, which made him determined to slim down. During the summer break of his first year in middle school, Show swam and played basketball everyday, shedding weight and reaching 80 kilogram within two months. Show picked up street dance when he was in middle school and was a member of a street dance group, participating in many dancing competitions in Taiwan. He auditioned successfully for Taipei Hwa Kang Arts School, but was only enrolled there for one school term as his family was unable to afford the school fees. He returned to Keelung and enrolled in Pei De high school's media production course.

Career

1996–2002: Debut

In 1996, Show entered and won a singing and dancing competition, impersonating Aaron Kwok. He debuted as member of boy group Four Heavenly Kings with three other contestants who impersonated the other Hong Kong Four Heavenly Kings. The boy group disbanded in 1998 as two members left for compulsory military service, which Show was exempted from because he has Gluteal Fibrotic Contracture. He also suffers from Mitral insufficiency and hence cannot consume food containing caffeine. That same year, he formed a new boy group Romeo with Ou Di. They released two albums, but the group soon disbanded too. From 2000 to 2002, Show's singing career was stalled by a lawsuit with his former management company. He was forced to transit from a teen idol to a variety show entertainer, performing gags on variety shows. His transition into hosting comedy game shows was successful, and he earned the "Triple Crown" title for hosting the three most popular variety shows at one point in time. The sudden cancellation of these variety shows left him jobless for three months, which he refers to as the bleakest moment in his career. During this time period, he also played the male leading role in the idol drama Hi Working Girl, co-starring with Jolin Tsai. The two formed a lasting friendship from this collaboration.

2003–2007: Avex Taiwan, Show Time, Expert Show, Hypnosis Show, Speshow and Show Your Dance

In 2003, Show signed with Avex Taiwan and launched his solo career with the release of his first album Show Time, selling over 80,000 copies. His second album, Expert Show, was released in 2004. The leading dance track "機器娃娃" (Robot Doll), is a hip hop number about the prevalence of electronic pets and on-line relationships. He collaborated with his co-host Dee Shu on the duet "Love Expert" (恋爱达人). Show released his third album Hypnosis Show in 2005. He collaborated with Jolin Tsai for the first lead dance track "Destined Guy" (真命天子). In 2006, Show Lo created fashion brand STAGE which currently has branches in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. STAGE sponsors clothing for many Taiwanese entertainers, and the brand is often seen on Taiwanese variety shows. He released his fourth album Speshow on November 17, 2006. The lead track, "Dance Gate" (精舞门) is a cover of "James Dean (I Wanna Know)" by Daniel Bedingfield. The Music Video features Show Lo's iconic 椅子舞 (chair dance) and him showing off his versatility, performing various dance styles. For the album, he sang a full length English song for the first time, "Twinkle", with Japanese singer Koda Kumi. Show released his fifth album Show Your Dance on November 16, 2007; he sang the duet "Defeat in Love" (败给你) with Elva Hsiao.

2008–2012: Gold Typhoon, Trendy Man, Rashomon, Only for You and 9ood Show

In 2008 Show joined forces with Gold Typhoon (Taiwan) and released his sixth album Trendy Man. On September 19, 2009, Show represented Taiwan and performed at the 6th Asia Song Festival, held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in South Korea. The seventh album, Rashomon, was released in 2010, which held the number one spot on G-music, and the album sold 150,000 copies. His 2010 舞法舞天 (Dance without Limits) World Tour ran for two-and-a-half years, visiting forty-two cities and attracting 600,000 spectators. Show released his eighth studio album, Only for You was released in February 18, 2011, which the album sold more than 150,000 copies. In 2011, Show signed with Pony Canyon Japan. His first Japanese single "Dante" was released on February 15, 2012. This song made it to the 5th place in Japan's Oricon daily chart during its first day of release, and hit 10th place in the Oricon weekly chart. This record made Show the first Taiwanese male singer to be on the Oricon chart after Teresa Teng. Show's ninth album, 9ood Show was released on April 6, 2012. For this album, Show and his partner Rainie Yang teamed up with Tourism Australia to film a short romance film featuring tourist attractions in Melbourne, Tasmania, and Sydney. On June 20, 2012, his second Japanese single "Magic" was released. His Japanese studio album "THE SHOW" was released on September 19, 2012. However, the planned trip to Japan to promote his album was not eventuated due to political uproar over the Senkaku Islands between Japan, Taiwan and China. In November 2012, Show announced his new world tour "Over The Limit", starting from January 2013 at Taipei Arena.

2013–2014: Sony Music, Lion Roar

In August 2013 Show had joined Sony Music along with Elva Hsiao. He went on a Japanese Tour with partner Rainie Yang to make up for the cancelled tour in 2011. He also released the tenth album Lion Roar, which became the fourth consecutive album to reach over 150,000 copies. In the album, he wrote Taiwanese lyrics for the love song "You Are Mine", which is his first Taiwanese hip-hop song. In his words, the song is about the kind of love that never ends and continues beyond this life, written based on his own experience of a love as deep as that of his parents. In December 2013, Show announced his new encore world tour of "Over The Limit — Dance Soul Returns", starting from January 2014 in Kaohsiung Arena. In 2014, Show joined EMI Music Taiwan along with Rainie Yang and A-mei.

2015–2019: EMI Music Taiwan, Reality Show?

In 2015, he joined the famous Chinese variety show Go Fighting! with Zhang Yi Xing, Sun Honglei, Huang Lei, Huang Bo and Wang Xun. Show Luo's eleventh album Reality Show? was released on November 20, 2015. The title is derived from Show's personal reflection on his persona, commenting that what he presents has elements of both 'Reality' and of putting on a 'Show'. He co-wrote the music and lyrics for the leading track, "Let Go", which discusses the issue of cyber-bullying. The music video depicts three subjects representing the demographics most vulnerable to cyber-bullying. Show also created his artist management company, Creation, signing on Linda Chien, his co-host on 100% Entertainment, re-branding her from a children's television presenter to a singer. As of May 2018, he has gone on four world tours.

2020–present: Controversy and musical comeback

In April 2020, Lo became the subject of significant controversy, for his infidelity and improper behavior with women during a long-term relationship with Chow. Lo reportedly lost US$20 million in appearance fees and endorsements, as companies began removing him from broadcasts and advertisements, including Produce Camp 2020 and Go Fighting!. He staged a comeback on November 20, 2021, with the release of a new song, "Trap Game." In October 2022, He joined ''Warner Music Taiwan. '' In 2023, his first come back TV Reality Show “Top Dog” (Top Dog: 回家) premiered on SET Metro on March 25. Each MC trained and took care of a stray dog for two months and searched for suitable adopters for them. “Top Dog” was nominated for the 59th Golden Bell Award (Best Reality or Game Show) in 2024. On July 30, 2024, Lo released his 13th album “Wu Zhuang Yuan (Dancing Champions)” (舞状元) five years after his last album. “Wu” referred to “dance”, while “Zhuangyuan” stemmed from the title given to the first place of the ancient Chinese Imperial examination. It is also the name for Show’s lead track. This album consisted of nine songs, four of them are new songs, and the rest are a collection of singles he released after 2020. Besides writing lyrics and music for six of the songs, it was the first time Show became the music director for the entire album. Show was also the story writer for his music video “What Else Can I Do?” (我還能怎麼伴.) The inspiration behind the lead track was Suona, a traditional Chinese instrument Show added to his music. To introduce more oriental styles into his work, Show also added Erhu, Guzheng, and Yangqin, together with hybrid trap and boom bap rhythms, creating a collision between Eastern and Western music. Moreover, “Dancing Champions” resonated with Show’s song “Dance Gate” (精舞门 2006), where he incorporated Dizi. With the release of his new album, Show held his disc-signing event in Ximen Red House Plaza, Taipei, on August 3, 2024. Such disc signing events became rare in Taiwan as more record ccompanies chose to do online fan meetings. Show announced that this event is free as long as supporters bought his new album. Show also encouraged people to bring all of his past albums for him to sign all at once. Also, he decided to take photos one by one with all the participants. Initially, only the first one thousand fans could get entrance tickets. However, after these tickets were distributed, still there was a long line of fans. So the record company had to rearrange, making sure all fans who purchased the album could enter. This event lasted for twelve hours. Correspondingly, the album sales ranked first during the week of this event, accounting for 5% of total album sales in Taiwan. Starting in September 2024, he became the dance mentor for TV reality show Scool. This show aimed to select a seven-person boy group through months of training, competitions, and rounds of selections. He worked with several famous Korean singers such as Leeteuk, Eunhyuk, and Hongki. Forty young males from Taiwan, South Korea, and mainland China were contestants in this show. “Scool” first premiered on September 28, 2024. For the 30th anniversary of Show’s 1995 debut, he plans to run a new round of world tours with his fans, celebrating this milestone. The first stop of these World Tours is on December 28 and 31, 2024, in Kaohsiung Arena, Taiwan.

Personal life

Lo publicly dated Grace Chow (Zhou Yangqing), a Chinese fashion blogger, from 2015 to 2020. On April 23, 2020, Lo courted significant controversy after Chow accused Lo of serial infidelity and improper behavior with several women, including artists signed under his entertainment agency. Lo apologized to Chow via an online post the next day. On April 25, Linda Chien also posted an apology on Instagram, for being a third party to Lo's affairs.

Discography

World tours

Filmography

Television series

Feature film

Short film

Host

Books

Awards and nominations