China's Hottest New Boy Band is Actually 5 Androgynous Girls

As the demand for wholesome Chinese pop bands grows, a new batch of 'handsome youth' have come on the scene: Acrush, a five-member 'boy band' who are so charming that female fans fantasize about marrying them. Except this boy band has one surprise: they're not actually male.

Quartz Media reports that the band is made up of five women mostly in their early twenties, who have short hairstyles and dress like "a bunch of boyish heartthrobs."

The band won't release their first video until the end of April, but they already have nearly 900,000 fans on their Twitter-equivalent, Weibo. The band is all part of a move by China's social network giant Tencent, who is touring a series of music events called "Husband Exhibition" at Chinese universities. "Husband" is how Chinese females refer to male pop stars so charming they fantasize about marrying them.

Few appear to have problems with the fact that this boy band is comprised of girls. In fact, the band's guiding concept is that they are "a group advocating freedom, not bounded by frames." The concept of masculine-appearing females has become popular in China since the success of pop idol Li Yuchun, the 2005 winner of the talent contest "Super Girl," who favored a unisex look.

Her success prompted Chinese talent agents to push other girls into forming an androgynous band, said Acrush's agent Zhou Xiaobai, who began a search for unisex stars last March. In September, Xiaobai announced Lu Keran, An Junxi, Peng Xichen, Min Junqian and Lin Fan emerged as the five members of Acrush. The youngest is 18-year-old Lin from southwestern Sichuan province.

And fans have gone wild, saying they like Acrush (the 'A' is for Adonis, the standard of male beauty) more than other boy bands, because the five members can understand them better.

"I ask them to reply every WeChat and Weibo message," says Zhou. "They need to show gratitude [to fans]."

Lu, the 21-year-old captain of Acrush, notes that the band members never reply to their fans love letters, adding that the company doesn't allow her to discuss her or the band members' sexual orientations.

Zhou that instead of using "boy" or "girl" when introducing the group, they have carefully chosen a gender-free phrase, meishaonian, or "handsome youths." But still, female fans on Weibo have taken to calling them "husbands," a meme usually reserved for male celebrities like Justin Bieber.

About 15 percent of Acrush's Weibo followers are "anti-fans" who criticize the band's boyish looks, but Lu said the band doesn't care about these trolls, "as long as they are happy."

Lu has been dealing with some discrimination based on her appearance since she was 10, cutting her hair short when she began to learn fencing. She said that as a child, she was often called "little boy," and scrutinized as she entered the women's restroom.

As part of a brand called "Fantasy Football Confederation," Acrush members are required to learn how to play soccer, as Zhejiang Huati Culture Communication Co. Ltd head Wang Tianhai said it shows they are "sunny, healthy, and full of positive energy."