There is a passage in "The Little Prince": "Because you water your rose with your heart and spend time on it, it becomes unique in the universe." This is the charm of idol cultivation. At the beginning of this month, mainland teen idol group TFBOYS held its sixth anniversary concert in Shenzhen. The crowds were not enough to describe the grand occasion. This idol group, known as the originator of China's "nurturing system", has become a question for them to think about as all its members enter college. How to transform from child idols to adults. \Xiao Hui

The so-called "cultivation" is to allow fans to accompany, witness, and participate in the idol's growth from scratch, to project their own vision on the idol, spend money on them, rank on the charts, and help them realize their wishes, thereby realizing the fans' own sense of accomplishment. In 2009, when the mainland idol market was just emerging, the boss of a real estate company in Beijing targeted the fan economy in Japan and South Korea and wanted to build China's Johnny & Associates (also translated as: Johnny & Associates), and established a cultural and art development company called Times Fengjun. As one of the most important star-making factories in Japan, Johnny & Associates trains young people aged ten to fourteen in the performing arts and then packages them for debut. From SMAP, which has Kimura Takuya, to KAT-TUN, which later became popular in East Asia.

Picture: Japanese group KAT-TUN is one of the representative groups created by Johnny & Associates

It was a semi-finished product when it debuted

Shi Fengjun, who rode the 3G era of the Internet, began to recruit boys around ten years old after its establishment, and posted their photos and videos on Weibo, Tieba, forums, etc. Finally, based on popularity and other indicators, the youth idol group TFBOYS was launched in 2013. At that time, the three members of the group, Wang Junkai, were fourteen years old, and Wang Yuan and Yi Yang Qianxi were thirteen years old. "Development-type" idols have the characteristics of "semi-finished products" when they debut, so there will be room for improvement later. This is the case with TFBOYS. Whether it is singing or dancing, in the eyes of the general public, their "professional abilities" were initially unsatisfactory and not enough to meet the standards of being a star on the stage. Therefore, at the beginning of their debut, the group received huge doubts and criticism from all walks of life. But the three well-behaved and cute-looking boys still attracted the attention of many fans.

Huang Rui, the former manager of TFBOYS, once said at a public event on how to successfully create a "nurturing" idol group: "First of all, they must be young enough, so that fans can experience the sense of accomplishment of growing up with them while witnessing the transformation of idols." In addition to releasing albums, appearing in variety shows, and holding concerts, the company will expose the offline lives of the three people on social platforms and launch "TF Youth Go" and "Boys College Study Room" , "TFBOYS Idol Notes", "TF Little Black Room" and other video programs, and made a ten-year agreement with fans: "Even if we can't succeed in ten years, we are ten years closer to our dream." This not only attracted a large number of fans in a short period of time, making the three people quickly become popular, but also relied on this fresh development model, high-intensity interaction frequency and strong sense of participation to form a strong and lasting emotional bond between fans and TFBOYS, making it popular today.

More than half of the ten-year appointment has passed. At the beginning of this month, TFBOYS held its sixth anniversary concert in Shenzhen, and it was a crowd-pleaser. The stadium was packed with seats, and a large number of fans gathered outside the stadium to support the event. Even the residential houses nearby that could see the stadium were rented out. Nowadays, the proportion of fans of the group is getting smaller and smaller, and the individual fans of the three people are increasing. The fan camp has formed a mentality similar to that of parents comparing whose children are better, comparing traffic, grades, resources, acting skills, and singing skills. In the 2019 Forbes Chinese Celebrity Rankings, which was just announced and brought together celebrities from across the Taiwan Strait and three places, Yi Yang Qianxi ranked eighth, Wang Junkai 12th, and Wang Yuan 25th. The traffic brought them unimaginable fame and fortune. In the process of cultivating amateurs into idols, fans invest a lot of money and time in ranking, purchasing products and supporting them. TFBOYS, who grew up under this star-making system, have been appearing in the public eye in the form of consumer goods for a long time. What is on the shelves is their childhood, innocence and life.

Picture: TFBOYS 6th Anniversary Concert is sold out

Every effort is made to meet the "personality design"

Traffic stars or idols like TFBOYS actually appear as a market product in front of fans, that is, buyers. Idols of various types are lined up in front of them. Fans choose the one they like to cultivate, while idols need to try their best to make their behavior closer to their "personality". This process seems to be about fans chasing stars, but in fact it is the fans who are the main actors and have the initiative, while idols are passive commodities and objects that are catered to.

Picture: Cultivating idols appears as a market product. The picture shows the Japanese group AKB48

This kind of product has a design but no personality, and has life but no reality. From the ages of thirteen to eighteen, TFBOYS are three people who grew up under the lens of the all-pervasive camera. As a phenomenal idol group, in addition to the life video shooting arranged by the company, they also have to face "illegitimate meals" that sneak into their private lives and try to pry into everything about them. According to the three people’s previous complaints, fans once attached trackers to their cars and peeped at them changing clothes. Even when they were in school, they were surrounded by lenses and cameras everywhere. The three children have grown up and become adults just as fans expected. They are obedient, sensible, and have high emotional intelligence. Some are good at music, and some are talented in acting. They are taught to be polite and smiling for the camera becomes a reflex. Da Zhangwei, the former lead singer of the Huaer band who also debuted as a minor, is known for his rebelliousness. He has jokingly called Yi Yang Qianxi his "moral model" more than once on the show because "a teenager can be so polite on and off the stage." Of course it is good to be polite, but it is also worrying if a child does not know how to be rebellious.

Picture: TFBOYS is an idol group known as the originator of China's education system

Since last year, the traffic has shown that the building is about to collapse, and the three TFBOYS have entered adulthood one after another. Wang Junkai was the first to be admitted to the Beijing Film Academy the year before last, and Yi Yang Qianxi was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama with first place last year. Wang Yuan, who was the last to attend school, was successfully admitted to the Berklee College of Music in the United States this year. While the fans were as happy as if they had entered college and had a sense of accomplishment, the three TFBOYS teenagers had to face the failure of the traffic effect, the acceleration of the fan market's transference and separation, and the uneasiness and confusion caused by their own age and mental maturity. The three dolls, who were once almost at the mercy of others, have begun to show their true personalities, gradually forming their own consciousness and looking for the meaning of their own existence.

Just like every parent cannot predict what their children will be like when they grow up, the three TFBOYS began to gradually get rid of their own "personality". Wang Junkai, who once focused on the cool and handsome "personality", has gradually become the most well-behaved and obedient among the three. In the recently popular variety show "Chinese Restaurant 2", the audience was surprised to find that this twenty-year-old young man is very sophisticated in dealing with people, and his emotional intelligence is so high that other program guests are ashamed. But Wang Yuan, who has been acting cute and cute since childhood, seems to be the most rebellious and anxious to grow up.

Rebellion and maturity are inevitable

Picture: Wang Yuan insisted on participating in "I Am a Creator"

In March of this year, Wang Yuan insisted on participating in the variety show "I Am a Creator" despite the objections of his team. In the competition with senior musicians such as Hot Dog, he sang his own original works in a youthful way. Fans suddenly realized that they had begun to grow up and began to try to escape control and restraint. The following May, Wang Yuan aroused heated public opinion after he was photographed smoking while having a dinner with friends. His behavior not only violated the Beijing Smoking Control Regulations, but also caused the public to pay attention to issues such as the collapse of the "personality" of idols. Later, Wang Yuan posted an apology on Weibo, but put on a child's bulletproof coat again, saying that he would learn from this and "become a better adult."

Compared with other traffic stars, the advantage of cultivating idols is that fans allow them to make appropriate mistakes, but will not agree with them making mistakes all the time. No matter how fanatical fans are at the moment, no matter how real and believable the mimetic intimacy between fans and idols seems, in essence, fans are just buyers. The nurturing genre is about youth. I have only heard of nurturing teenagers, but not the nurturing uncles. TFBOYS, who are standing at the intersection of adults, have to think about how to transform their children's "personas" into adults within the acceptable range of their fans.

Picture: Yee Yang Qianxi was invited by Ta Kung Pao to send a message to the youth of Hong Kong earlier this year

Yi Yang Qianxi, who seems to be developing the best among the group, is partly due to his rapid maturity and growth. Not only did he quickly lose his childishness in appearance, Yi Yang Qianxi, who was once the most strictly controlled by the outside world, was taken by his parents to attend various interest classes at the age of two, and began to participate in various TV programs at the age of five. He once seemed very enthusiastic about performance in the group, but now he has become more and more silent and reserved. This silence contains huge inner tension. Whether it is the just-finished hit "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" or the upcoming "Young You", many film critics unanimously hailed the rise of a new movie star. He began to be different from the traffic stars without acting skills, and began to no longer rely on "personality" and the innocence of children to attract fans.

The countdown to the ten-year agreement has begun, but as screenwriter Bo Bonnie told Yi Yang Qianxi when interviewing him earlier this year, "A gentleman is not as prudent as he is sensible, and a sincere person is not as good as a wild person." TFBOYS, who have been children's idols for so long, should start to learn to release their rebelliousness and aggression, "don't sacrifice life energy and integrity", and move towards a larger pattern.