Chinese singer Song Zuying just showed that a female entertainer does not have to wear very short skirts, dye her hair blonde and gyrate on stage to make her audience happy. The trademark of many Asian girl bands differs from her standards which the military folk singer showed in early May when she performed for Chinese soldiers at the Fiery Cross Reef.
Like her, a bigger Chinese girl group is being noticed because, while its members are young and pretty, members of 56 Flowers are decent and wholesome. They don’t just sing about crushes and broken relationships as most girl bands do.
Rather, the members of the group promote China’s core socialist values, although some netizens fear that 56 Flowers would rekindle the Cultural Revolution era, reported What’s on Weibo.
Their debut performance was on April 23 at the Great Hall of the People near the Tiananmen Square in Beijing which is an area more known for legislative and political affairs of the Communist Party of China. They performed “red songs” which praise the socialist regime, China and the Communist party.
Examples of “red songs” they perform include “Sailing the Sea Depends on the Helmsman” and “Don’t Know How to Address You.”
The group, made up of 56 females aged between 16 and 23, are selected from the 56 different ethnic groups of China. Group members are banned from going sexy and even entering into a romantic relationship.
To ensure the members comply with these tough rules, they live in four-person dormitories and follow a daily tight schedule from 6 a.m. until 5 p.m. in which they undergo physical training, figure training, Chinese dancing and lessons on how to be a pop idol. At night, they go through patriotic education, literature lectures and eloquency training.
The contracted members receive a salary of 3,000 yuan ($460) a month, plus performance subsidies. But majority are temporary members who participate in daily training until they become contracted members. In July, two were fired for joining an AKB 48 audition.
The group has been compared to AKB 48, a large Japanese girl band with more than 100 members, and the Moranbong Band of North Korea which is also an all-female group.