From Flowers to Fanfare

'Big' Zhang Wei experienced fame at a young age with the boy band Hua'er but is now looking for success as a solo performer. Chen Nan reports.

'Big' Zhang Wei was a founder member of China's first famous teenage band, Hua'er, or The Flowers, which was established in 1998 and split up 11 years later. Now age 28, Zhang still has a strong fan base, as was evidenced by the number of people who turned up at a Beijing courtyard house recently for his album release.

The young, almost exclusively female, fans screamed when Zhang walked out in a white wedding gown and again when he sang songs from the album Fanfare.

While covering one of the album's songs, accompanied by four young dancers in black suits, he cast off the gown to present a clean and serious image, conveyed by his white suit.

He jokes about his two sets of clothes, saying, "I know I look good in both of them". He says they reflect his album, which has a variety of styles.

"Some producers told me to make the album's style consistent, but I disagreed. As long as the tunes are good and well-received by my fans, I will be happy," he says.

Such songs as Style, New Speechless Ending and Money Can't Buy Anything, written and produced by the singer, are humorous takes on life, heartbreak and pressure. He also designed the cover and inside pages of the new album.

"For us balinghou (people born after 1980), we face various challenges, such as buying a house to get married and building our careers," Zhang says. "I am stepping up to the age of 30, which means I need to take on more responsibility. I hope my fans can share my views through the lyrics. Even if bad things are inevitable, I want to sing and express them in a cheerful mood."

He says the idea of wearing a wedding gown was inspired by his urge to get married.

"Many friends have gotten married and had babies during the past few years, which makes me want to move on to the next stage of life," he smiles. "I even thought of writing a song for my future wife and kid."

Born and raised in Beijing, Zhang and three classmates decided to have some fun at school by forming the band Hua'er, with Zhang as lead vocalist and guitarist, Wang Wenbo on drums and Guo Yang on bass. They were 15 at the time.

"We were so young, our parents would accompany us to perform at clubs and bars then," he recalls.

Drawing from US pop punk bands, such as Green Day and Nirvana, as influences, Hua'er released its first album, On the Other Side of Happiness, in 1999, under the Beijing-based indie label New Bee Music.

The sudden commercial success and critical acclaim of songs, such as Stillness, Disillusion and School's Out, conquered the mainland music market, as Chinese teenagers could relate to them.

Their success also attracted attention from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and female singers, such as Karen Mok and Faith Yang.

Guitarist Shi Xingyu joined the band in 2001 for the second album, Strawberry Statement, which was another big success.

On the 2004 album I Am Your Romeo, they tried out hip-hop, while Xi Shua Shua from the fifth album, Blooming Dynasty, sold more than 200,000 copies in a month.

But fame has its flip side. They were accused of plagiarism, were caught up in a brawl incident at a restaurant in Beijing in 2007, and Zhang was suspected of abusing drugs.

Even so, the band's following two albums, Flower Age Pageant and Shiny Happy, were as popular as before. To everyone's surprise the band announced it was splitting up in 2009.

"Plagiarism was too heavy (an accusation) for me. I didn't want it to cast a pall over my talent so I have kept writing to prove myself during the past few years," he says.

Meanwhile, Guo has gone into business, Wang runs an entertainment company, and Shi has formed his own band.

Though fans want a reunion, Zhang says that's not in the cards at the moment because they all have different goals.

(China Daily 07/30/2011 page11)