On a recent sunny Saturday, a dozen adults are in an ice-cream parlour waiting to see Taiwan's hottest child actor of the moment, Xiao Xiao Bin or Little Bin.
If his name rings a bell, it is because he is the son of former Taiwanese child star Xiao Bin Bin, who acted with the likes of Andy Lau and Sam Hui in movies back in the 1980s.
With chubby cheeks, big eyes and a toothy grin, Little Bin looks like a doll and is as adorable as his dad was at that age. Like his father, he is a household name in Taiwan and is poised to break into the overseas Chinese market. He will be singing and dancing in Singapore next month.
He is already famous outside Taiwan. When he visited Hong Kong Disneyland recently, scores of visitors gave Mickey a miss and lined up to take pictures with him instead. "If only I could charge them $10 a picture," jokes his dad, whose real name is Wen Chao-yu and is now 30.
He can afford not to. Five-year-old Little Bin earns enough for his dad and uncle to work as his full-time minders.
It is his uncle Yi-yu, 24, who escorts Little Bin into the ice-cream parlour for the interview.
He is on a break from a studio recording of The Kid Is Very Busy, a variety show featuring him with host Sam Tseng. He has been recording since 10am and will continue till 8pm.
The boy is getting busier by the day. Besides performing in Singapore, he will be acting in a movie in Hangzhou, China.
Then there is also kindergarten. Wen plans to enrol Little Bin in September after he was criticised for letting his son miss school.
At the ice-cream shop, Little Bin behaves like any five-year-old boy.
"Didi, what are you playing?" Little Bin asks, before crawling under the table to get to his younger brother, Mini Bin, three, who is engrossed in his handheld Thomas The Train video game.
A few minutes later, someone asks Little Bin: "Are you tired?" "No, I'm not," he replies distractedly as he digs into a plate of vanilla and chocolate ice cream.
Ironically, Little Bin saw his star rise when his dad was at one of the lowest points of his life.
Like many child stars, Wen did not have the same success in showbusiness when he grew up. With chubby cheeks now more a liability than asset, he was limited to playing forgettable roles in a few TV dramas.
In 2007, his wife walked out on him, leaving him with Little Bin, then 2-1/2 years old, and Mini Bin, then only six months old. Wen appealed for her to return when he went on a TV talk show. With him was Little Bin, who cried at the thought of his mum.
That got the attention of TV producers who noticed the boy took after his dad. That same year, Little Bin was chosen for a remake of the classic 1980s Taiwan drama series The Stars Know My Heart, which had made his dad famous. He followed that with a role in a Chinese drama series titled Love At Sun Moon Lake.
But it was Autumn's Concerto (2009), the Taiwanese idol drama starring Vanness Wu and Ady An, which made Little Bin a star. He stole the show playing a boy who had never known his dad. Little Bin can turn on the tears in seconds, probably because the sentimental boy misses his mum a lot, says Wen. "Once he asked me: 'How can I make mummy come back?' Without serious thought, I told him, 'If you work hard and earn money, she will return,' " says Wen.
"Really?" Little Bin asked.
"Yes, because Papa didn't make enough, mummy ran away," says the father.
Little Bin is working hard but his mum has sadly not returned. Wen says he has no plans to remarry. He is proud of how his son can host as well as act and is more talented as a performer than he was.
But as the Chinese saying goes: A big tree attracts wind. Not everyone likes Little Bin and some criticise his dad for allegedly treating his son like a money tree.
At one stage, Little Bin appeared in a number of shows and activities which got Taiwan's Child Welfare Bureau involved. It said that the boy must not work beyond 8pm and that his dad had to sign a consent letter each time he works.
There are also concerns that showbiz may make Little Bin so worldly-wise that he loses his child-like qualities. Almost 24,000 people have joined a Facebook group titled I Most Dislike Little Bin, with some calling him a "worldly little brat".
Earlier this year, a reporter asked Little Bin whether he knew that there were people who did not like him. The boy turned to his dad to ask: "Papa, is it true that there are people who don't like me?"
"I tell Xiao Xiao Bin we should listen only to words that are helpful and will make us happy, so that we have the motivation to improve," Wen says.
He says he is not hurt by talk that he is exploiting his son.
"If your child has such an interest, you would do the same," he says, noting that Hong Kong artistes Nicholas Tse and Cecilia Cheung are letting their three-year-old son Lucas enter showbiz. Eventually, he hopes Little Bin becomes a dentist "because dentists can earn a lot of money". But in the meantime, he is going to let his son continue in showbiz even after he starts school.
"People say children who act have no childhood but my childhood was better than most kids in kindergarten," he says.
His eyes gleam as he recounts his travels to countries in the region and yachting trips with celebrities such as a young Nicholas Tse and his actor dad Patrick.
"I won't listen to those who say he should quit acting to study so that he can live the life of a normal person," he says.
"As a child star, he's already not a normal person. He's someone whom people focus on. Whatever it is, you can't return to being normal. I'm an example."
