With the debut of Chinese all-female idol group SNH48 at this year's Central China Television Spring Festival Gala and the appearance of Wang Yuan, a member of China's hottest boy group TFboys, at a UN youth forum on January 31, 2016, China's so-called "Fostered Idols" are just beginning to show their influence at home and as well as around the globe.
Thanks to the rise of new media and a preference for younger stars in China over the past two to three years, Fostered Idols, or yangcheng ouxiang in Chinese, have swept the country. TFboys has reached an amazing 60 million followers on China's largest social media platform Sina Weibo, while the top three SNH48 members together have more than 7 million followers.
Different from traditional stars who remain out of fans' reach, these Fostered Idols are known as "idols that you can communicate with face to face."
Secret recipe
The word yangcheng means "to bring up," and this naturally makes fan engagement a key part of these idols' success. In the case of SNH48, which started as a sister group of the Japanese idol group AKB48, the group arranges a series of regular events such as a "hand-shaking meeting" to allow fans to get closer to their idols. Moreover, fans are given the opportunity to vote on each members' hierarchy in the group at an annual competition.
"We want fans to witness the way these untrained teenage girls grow into real stars," Yasushi Akimoto, a producer for AKB48, told Quick Japan magazine in 2009, giving a glimpse into the mind-set behind the creation of these all-girl bands.
Age matters, too. For instance, TFboys made their debut at around the age of 13.
"First, they have to be young, of course," Huang Rui, the former major promoter for TFboys, explained at a press conference in December about what makes a good Fostered Idol group. "This is so that their fans can enjoy the thrill of growing up with their idols together."
In order to find potential talent while they are still young, Johnnys, a renowned Japanese idol-training company, sends teenage girls and boys to a sort of "idol boot camp" where they live and train together. This method is very similar to the apprenticeship system in South Korea, which is the typical star-training model used in the K-pop industry.
These trainee idol groups regularly release self-produced videos or hold small intimate live performances that allow fans to get as close as possible, both physically and psychologically, to their idols.
TFboys, who started as three untrained school boys, began to draw public attention in 2013, thanks largely to a number of self-made mini-dramas and video clips showing them training at singing and dancing that were posted online by their team. Wang Yuan in particular attracted global attention after he spoke about the importance of quality education at the UN Youth Forum.
As for girl groups such as SNH48 and 1931, they started attracting fans by holding regular shows at specific theaters, and later expanded to reality shows, TV productions and online games.
New attempts
Although TFboys and SNH48 started out as perfect replicas of the Japanese idol system, their managers have taken a more localized approach in recent years, such as allowing members to appear in local reality shows, star in TV dramas or release original music. In fact SNH48 took this localization to the extreme last year, by openly splitting with their Japanese roots.
Other plans involve tailoring groups to local tastes.
China in recent years has witnessed a boom in ACGN (Animation, Comic, Game and Novel) culture, or two-dimensional culture as it is more commonly called, as well as the emergence of funü fans, a subculture that enjoys productions or literary works featuring male-male romance. As such new groups tailored to attract fans of this genre are on the way. For instance, a number of new Fostered Idol groups set to debut this year, like YHBOYS - which has been criticized by netizens for being a copycat of TFboys - and X-TIME BOYS are all-boy groups.
Another example is the Plan R project, which Huang announced at the December press conference. Financed by investors including Chen Yuetian, also an SNH48 investor, the project aims to "create the country's first two- and three-dimensional all-boy group," featuring members between ages 11 and 18 regularly taking part in traditional Fostered Idol productions such as "three-dimensional" live action mini-dramas and two-dimensional projects such as virtual concerts, animated films and comics.
Vowing to "target the country's two-dimensional cultural groups such as comic and animation lovers," Huang showed his confidence in the project, dubbing it "an innovation for China's idol-making industry."
Management of teenager stars has also adapted to local conditions in China. At the press conference, Huang revealed that his Shanghai-based company has managed to strike deals with local schools to enroll students in the Plan R project. Moreover, special courses will be designed for these potential stars to ensure they attain a high school degree and can pass their college entrance examinations while they're taking part in the project.
