China’s Most Anticipated Boy Band Idol Group FFC-Acrush Turns Out to Be Five Handsome Androgynous Girls
A new idol group is about to debut in China and the five members looked sourced exactly from the EXO/BTS/WINNER playbook. From the stylish male cuts artfully mussed, dressed in varying looks of street punk, rococo, and even grunge, soon to debut FFC-Acrush has already amassed over 900,000 followers on Weibo and growing. Their fans have been following their training and pre-debut activities since forming in September of 2016 after their management company undertook a nationwide search for 5 girls who with music talent who could pass for flower boys. The five are in their early twenties to late teens and have been dressing as boys since before their selection to Acrush. I’m actually floored at this groundbreaking development coming out of China and find it super cool and fun, with the group explaining that their concept is breaking boundaries and embracing freedom to be themselves.
The 5 members of Acrush are Lu Ke Ran, An Jun Xi, Peng Xi Chen, Min Jun Qian and Lin Fan. The get tons of fan love letters from their mostly female fans but explain that around 15% of their communication consists solely of vitriolic anti-fans who rail against their boyish ways. Whatever, rock on ladies!
The ultimate girl-crush concept.
I don’t know but I find the whole concept is sending a wrong message to the youngsters out there. I find boyish girl is ok just like Amber of f(x), which happened to give variety image among the band but to gather them all and set a boy/girl band? And the idea of love letters from girls? I seriously have no idea what they are trying to promote.
I’m not sure what kind of “message” you think is is being sent out to the “youngsters out there.” But this article right at the end explicitly states that the group’s concept is breaking boundaries and embracing freedom to be themselves. Maybe you didn’t read the article or maybe you ignored that part. And why is it strange for them to get fan letters from girls? Other female celebrities probably get letters from girls and Male celebrities probably get letters from boys. Does that make you uncomfortable? Is it because of homosexuality? Did you just not want to be thought of negatively on the internet because it’s true?
I think they are trying to say that it is alright to be who you are which I think is fine. People should have the freedom to be their self. Male, female, intersex, etc., are all still human. We shouldn’t hold onto the concept that there are only exists of male and female.
Mte.haha. as someone who loves handsome and sexy oppa oppa, and like girlband such as 2ne1 for their baddest songs and fashion, or snsd for their makeup.. I probably 99% wont like this group.
I understand your sentiment here. Love letter from girls hahaha. Well, i dunno that China is sooo open nowadays. My conservative side is too old for this concept haha. But nothing against this. Preference tho.
the idea is just being stupid, that’s all….
Cool! I really thought they were teenage boys if not for your introduction.
Right. And not to mention how hot they are.
My cousin was laughing at me the other day when I was rewatching “You are beautiful” and saying how can a girl pass off as a boy group member,it’s not believable at all! Have to show him this article. 😀
How good looking are these girls!
Wow… but that one gal at the far right in the first pic, her nose look weird
Hmm….I guess the company must have thought if boy bands look like girls, why not just use girls! It is actually not a bad idea, if boy bands can look like girls why can’t girl bands look like boys? But are they promoting as a boy band or girl band or androgynous band? That’s confusing…and wouldn’t seem right to promote as a boy band. The problem with these groups with a concept/image/product they are selling is that like everyone else they age and change. The Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls unfortunately only survive until a certain point. What happens when/if they decide to want to be and look like girls/women in the future? Is that ok too? I hope they will indeed be able “to embrace the freedom to be themselves” whether they choose to be tomboyish or girlish or whatever. Good luck to them!
That’s my reaction as well. I hope they don’t pigeon hole themselves into being tomboys forever. If in the future they wish to embrace their femininity and dress like women or girls or even be more sexy, I hope their fans will also embrace them and applaud them.
I am supportive of this only if the girls actually identify as both male or gender fluid. If not then this concept makes me feel very uncomfortable because there is a population out there who actually Identify as such and are either ostracized/harassed/bear/killed over it. If this is just a concept to just sell music and 7 years from now the girls actully want to start dating and be girly then this is going to be a big issue. True colors always come out in the end, people get tired of pretend and they get sloppy with their act. This is either a very touching and progressive idea. Or it’s sick and greedy. Only time will tell.
I was concerned about this too! But then it was stated in the article that these girls have been dressing like this since before debut, so I guess it is really their true selves (so to speak)?
if they are androgynous, it seems they have already identify themselves as males, not female. Interesting concept to bring attention to the group, but really they are just a regular male idol group.
Scary
Same thought here…
I’m actually surprised at how many people in China “buy” the tomboy concept (not meant to be disrespectful to androgynous people).
I was having a peek on Super Girl contest last year, and there were quite a few “common” girls who were dressed like boys. They were quite popular with the crowd. Also, they seem to have a soft spot for these girls since years ago with Super Girl 2006, in which both Chris Li and Bibi Zhou won first and second place, and the somewhat “more girly” second runner up Jane Zhang was way less popular than Chris and BiBi.
Yeah… I prefered when the concept was about the music they wanted to create… And either guys or girls, they’re not so attractive. They lack natural for me.
Wow when I look at them it makes me question if they really are girls and are just playing with us. Well over all I wish them the best cause I know they are going to struggle in the public eyes. I mean, Amber from fx is struggling with her agency to land jobs and I think it has to do with her tomboyish self. Lets face it not many successful women make it big by dressing like a man, but for looking beautiful and dressing fashionable.Thats the reality of this life.
What does a beautiful women dressed fashionably look like?
Skinny girl showing as much skin as she can,crop tops that look like underwear or straight out bralettes, cleavage reaching their belly button,mini skirts that don`t even cover their rear ends, or shorts that look like bikini. Why a man on a beach can wear swimming shorts waist to knee, and woman tongs or bare ass under pants? Who said that all women like to dress like they are undressed, I as a woman find this trend in celebrities ugly, I wear shorts and skirts the normal kind that cover my underwear not try to replace it.
I am no tomboy but I don`t think that these girls look unnatural or fake they are very feminine looking to me, I wear jeans and loose t-shirts and button down shirts it does not make me a man and nobody has mistaken me for one.
The flower boy theme in asian boy bands with the make up and feminine looking fashion worn by men even when some of them sometimes cross dressing in a girls high school uniform (skirt and all in varieties and videos)is all “cute and ohh`s and ahh`s oppa looks so pretty ” comments from females why the hate for these girls they are basically doing the same thing.
This is a popular theme in Japanese manga. I must admit I would not have guess they are girl if not told in advance.
Yet to hear their singing. Imagine if they still have girlish voice with boyish looks…awkward and creepy! Don’t buy this. Bye! LOL
My teen bro could tell they were all girls without any hesitation the second he saw the pics. I couldn’t. He said they were girls cosplaying. LOL
Your bro probably checked for the adam’s apple and saw that none of them have it.
My 11yrs son said the same! I even ask if he notice anything different about this group of boys. But he said they look like girls.
This is a gimmick to make money, I doubt very much if the Chinese music industry has a meaningful reason for doing this. People will either love or hate this idea. China is so weird, they do not do anything without a motive. Wonder how many people in China will actually see this group perform?