Oh boy! Another youth sensation

Youngsters dream of fame. Entertainment executives dream of making a fortune. Here is where they meet.

Resistance is futile. How can a girl possibly not fall instantly in love with five impish boys and, thus smitten, reach for the "like" button?

Surely, this is part of the calculation of Yue Hua Entertainment, which seems to have timed and choreographed to perfection everything related to the singing and dancing group YHBOYS.

And so it was that five boys, aged 10 to 13, were unfurled in China in a three-and-a-half-minute video called Brand New World a few weeks ago, as the country was awash in the saccharine sentimentality of Valentine's Day.

In the video, the five, all of whose voluminous hair mops are adorned with cute headgear - including the seemingly inevitable backward baseball cap - are garbed in loose-fitting hoodies. They prance about in a synchronized routine interspersed with shots of group members gesticulating with their hands, giving the thumbs up, giving each other high-fives, jumping for joy and generally having a hoot of a time - and all this to the sound of unrelentingly upbeat, feel-good music.

Little surprise, then, that 24 hours or so after YHBOYS first saw the light of day, their video was reported to have been viewed more than 10 million times. They now have more than 27,000 followers on Sina Weibo.

Getting an early start in show business is not exactly new. After all, American child star Shirley Temple made her debut at the age of 3. But the sudden appearance and instant success of YHBOYS has raised some eyebrows in China.

First, there is the name, with some suggesting it has an uncanny resemblance to TFBoys, a Chinese teen boy band put together by the Beijing company Time Fengjun Entertainment, and which gained rapid popularity, essentially through the internet, after issuing its debut promotional video Ten Years, in August 2013.

However, for every person who raises questions about Yue Hua Entertainment's commercial intent with the latest gaggle of youngsters, there seem to be 100 others who cannot get enough of them and eagerly await more videos - and the merchandise that is doubtless on its way.

To bring the group together, seven boys from Jiangxi and Hebei provinces, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Taiwan were chosen from more than 3,000 candidates who applied in an internet talent search, says Du Hua, founder and chief executive of Yue Hua Entertainment, which has been creating Chinese pop idol groups since 2009.

Five of those boys appeared in the video released last month; the two others will appear in two videos to be released on the internet this month. Eventually, more boys will be added to the group.

The recruitment process and getting the boys ready to appear in public took more than two years. Having invested so much time and effort in bringing the YHBOYS together, Du has laid big plans for them. In fact those plans appear to go well beyond China. A Twitter account, @YHBoysGlobal, was set up for them, although for the moment it has just a few hundred followers.

Plans are also afoot for a YHGIRLS group whose members will be between 16 and 18 years old.

"There is huge potential for developing Chinese pop groups. More than 200 pop groups are set up every year. China has a huge population, but only a dozen or so new groups appear each year, and most of them fizzle out, Du says.

"These seven boys are not just good looking but also talented, some playing instruments, such as the guitar and piano, and some dancing hip-hop and speaking English. We want them to be role models for Chinese youngsters."

The members of YHBOYS and their parents contacted for this article declined to be interviewed, but it is apparent that at least one of the boys, who is 11, is already well into his show business apprenticeship.

Zhang Minghao, born in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, made his TV debut when he was 9, performing on Go! Baby!, a variety show produced and aired on Anhui Satellite TV in which youngsters take part in quizzes and show off various talents. Zhang has since appeared in other variety shows aired by Hunan Satellite TV and Beijing TV. Last April he starred in a movie, After School, directed by Liu Yijun, whose theme is school bullying.

The other members of the group are Guo Dianjia, Li Linma, Liu Guanyi, Sun Jiakai, Zhang Enshuo and Zhang Junyi.

Another priority for the company is ensuring that YHBOYS fans get every possible opportunity to observe their training, rehearsals and the minutiae of their daily lives, which in turn becomes fodder for live-streaming on social media.

"It's all about communication," Du says. "The boys grow up and their fans are able to see the ways they are changing and how they are progressing. This kind of bond between the pop group and fans is important."

All-girl version

Even as Yue Hua Entertainment prepares to put a girl band together, Nook (Beijing) Culture Media Co, which publishes the fashion magazine Xin Wei - whose target readership is college students and young female office workers - continues to seek the next Chinese female pop stars through a competition called China Girl.

The annual competition, which began in 2010 as a beauty contest, sends its top 10 winners to Japan, first for training as models and later given a chance to be presented as a pop idol.

Xin Wei is the Chinese-language version of the Japanese magazine Vivi, one of Asia's top-selling fashion magazines. Editions localized for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand are also published.

Zhu Guangrui, publisher of Xin Wei, says that when China Girl was first held, the winners' main job was modeling for the magazine and attending fashion events in China and Japan. Over the years the competition has expanded so that successful entrants take part in TV shows, movies and video games.

Jia Qi, 28, from Inner Mongolia, was selected as one of the top winners from China Girl in 2010. She learned traditional Chinese folk dance starting when she was 7 and later graduated from Minzu University of China in Beijing.

She is now a TV presenter and trains others who have been successful in the China Girl competition for careers in the entertainment industry.

"Unlike in South Korea, where pop groups' managing companies keep a very tight rein, in China we have a lot of freedom," Jia says.

"The lines between various industries, such as TV, movies, online broadcasting and modeling, are blurred. Competition is fierce, and these days, young people are much more hungry for fame than they were when China Girl began. From a very early age they want to become a star."

More than clones

Zhu says she is keen to create stars with something special, rather than just South Korean-Japanese pop star clones. This month her company plans to open a school in four floors of an office building in Tianjin that will recruit young people who hope to become pop idols.

One of the hardest tasks in creating a pop group is coming up with something that is highly distinctive and adaptable to the individual styles of members, thus setting the group apart from other pop acts.

"Content is crucial," Zhu says. "We will design courses tailor-made for each student. Some will be good singers and others good dancers. If you want to attract fans you have to make maximum use of your own specialty."

Any young person keen on an acting or music career once required a talent agency - or had to impress somebody enough to want to record them or stage professional performances, she says; but now, by virtue of the internet and social media, a person can attain overnight fame simply by posting a video online.

Besides looking for newcomers to the scene, Zhu is also interested in young performers who already have an online fan base.

"With a fan base, and us giving them training, they are highly likely to strike success in the market," Zhu says. "For attractive young men and women, the idea of being in a pop group seems glamorous, but it involves extremely hard work, and you really need to enjoy what you are doing. Yes, you may look fabulous on stage, but behind the scenes you have to go through a heck of a lot physically and mentally."

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn