• The Smile Girls is the first-ever Korean-Chinese pop duo.

The Smile Girls is the first-ever Korean-Chinese pop duo. (Photo : www.allkpop.com)

From the combined talent and genius of Korean and Chinese entertainment agencies comes the first-ever Korean-Chinese pop female duo, Smile Girls. With the combined industry experience and business sense of Starhaus Entertainment, a Korean agency owned by actor Lee Min Ho, and Shanghai Media Group (SMG), the new duo is guaranteed to succeed.

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Starhaus said in a press conference on Feb. 17 that "the two companies plan to collaborate and share business strategies in an expansive family strategy." Smile Girls is the collaboration's first project.

Smile Girls is composed of Korean singer Yoo Hye In and Chinese singer Zeng Qui Hong. The duo already have a debut song titled "1001 Wishes," which they sang at "Chun Jie Wan Hui," a popular Chinese program.

Although the two girls are considered newcomers, mainly due to the fresh impact they have on their audience, they have ample experience in the entertainment industry. Yoo Hye is an actress playing the major role in an upcoming movie "Summer Snow," while Zeng Qui Hong was a contestant on the reality show "Chinese Idol Season 2" and her talent made her advance to top four. This is where SMG discovered her.

Korean fans of mainstream pop have always been delighted to see very own Korean artists collaborating or performing with Chinese artists. Same goes with the Chinese fans outwardly expressing their delight upon seeing Chinese artists performing with Koreans.

Despite positive fan reaction whenever there is a collaboration by the two countries, the artists themselves feel tension when working with the other camp. The backstage of these artists are often full of feelings of prejudice toward the other camp, depending on whose side of the story is to be believed.

However, as art is a unifying language regardless of race and culture, these talented artists of extremely different backgrounds have managed to be civil toward each other, and as they continue to work together, the tension decreases. Fans are hoping that in due time, all these nationality prejudice will be overridden by everybody's devotion to art and performance.

The formation of Smile Girls, the first-ever Korean-Chinese duo, is seen as a step toward unification.