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times fengjun filed a police report on the yu yuhan controversy, and the lawyer posted a rights protection statement, saying that the revelation was a rumor and slander

on the evening of august 26, the third generation of tf finally reached the moment of the debut battle. twelve trainees, who had trained for an average of seven years, entered and left. zuo hang, zhu zhixin, yu yuhan, zhang ji, zhang zeyu, and su xinhao formed the six-member group "top landing boys", while zhang junhao, mu zhicheng, chen tianrun, tong yukun, deng jiaxin, huang shuo, and zhang zimo unfortunately did not debut.

the huge curtain fell, and the young man in front of the stage, wearing a golden cloak, accepted the cheers of the crowd amidst the sky full of colorful streamers; behind the scenes, the undebuted trainee in a white shirt collapsed on the ground, without even a sound of pain.

the script of the development system seems to have been written with "be" from the very beginning.

that night, the debut group swore on stage: "i promise to live up to my original dream, the company's careful training, the fans' expectations and support, firmly develop the team, and never quit the group midway. the honor of the group is more important than personal honor. teammates are not only partners but also family. i will firmly promise to fans and teammates, abide by the idol code, and not fall in love or have private contact."

the next day, yu yuhan, one of the members of the debut group, was exposed for his indecent chat records, which included but were not limited to making dirty jokes about korean female idols, playing with the senior brothers group,mouthteammates, etc. on the evening of the 28th, times fengjun released an official statement announcing that yu yuhan had left the group and the group would operate as a five-member group.

the entry #yu yuhan quits the group# topped the trending search list, with over 400 million views. this two-month debut battle started with great fanfare but ended in disarray.

2024 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of times fengjun. the three members of the first-generation group tfboys are veteran top stars in the domestic entertainment industry; the second-generation group times youth league is at the peak of popularity, and its members are beginning to emerge in various fields; the third generation has officially started, and the fourth generation is ready to go... however, when we turn our attention to this most successful idol training company in the country, we see not only prosperity, but also crises.

love and hate in the cultivation system

the concept of "development system" can be traced back to japan's johnny & associates. every year, the agency selects a large number of new trainees aged 8 to 15 to participate in the company's singing and dancing training courses. they grow up under the company and attention of fans, and eventually debut as mature idol artists.

the biggest feature of this star-making model is, first, the emotional bond formed between fans and idols during the "cultivation" process. fans are not just bystanders, but also participants and consumers. second, when trainees are first exposed, they often adopt the "old leading the new" model, and after a long period of time, they will form die-hard "family fans."

the most successful domestic entertainment development model operator is times fengjun.its first-generation group tfboys and second-generation group times youth league both have a huge number of fans.

at the end of august 2018, the third generation of trainees under times fengjun were officially announced, and then they started their trial training career through the "tf boys evolution" series. in june this year, times fengjun officially announced the launch of the "landing plan" for the third generation of tf. twelve trainees will compete for the debut spots in the debut battle, which also means that the six-year assessment is about to come to an end.

with the successful experience of tfboys, "eighteenth floor"(the nickname of times fengjun company, named after the company's location on the 18th floor of chongqing yangtze river international building)what is lacking is never traffic and popularity, but recognition outside the fan circle and the ability to break the circle.

originally, the debut battle of the third generation was expected to be the first step towards the public, but judging from the results, whether it was the stage presentation in front of the camera or the various gossips outside the camera, times fengjun failed to seize this opportunity, and instead provided a lot of topics for netizens who were watching the joke.

the first is the issue of trainee management.

before the debut battle began, third-generation trainee zhang junhao was exposed to be in a relationship, and some of the conversations in the screenshots were very different from the innocent boy character that the training system had worked hard to create.the third generation’s negative news was remembered by everyone before it even appeared on the stage.

the company later issued a statement saying that zhang junhao "had inappropriate verbal interactions with a classmate of the opposite sex," but that the two "were not in a romantic relationship." zhang junhao also issued a handwritten apology letter, stating that he would stop all performing activities after his debut battle.

but it is clear that neither the company's statement nor his own apology letter has been able to quell the anger of fans. in the first episode of "landing day", whenever zhang junhao appeared in the camera, the barrage would be flooded with comments.

yu yuhan set the record for the shortest debut in the domestic entertainment industry, debuting in the early morning, collapsing at noon, and leaving the group the next day. the company's statement mentioned that "the artist is facing huge mental and psychological pressure" and "has repeatedly asked the company to withdraw from the landing boys group."

the debut battle started with a collapse and ended with a collapse. although the person in charge, li fei, emphasized that "the vast majority of trainees can stand the test", based on the facts, the credibility of this statement is likely to be discounted.

this lack of control in management not only includes the "doude" of the training system, but also the mental health of the artists. among the third-generation trainees, deng jiaxin was photographed seeing a psychologist alone, and mu zhicheng lost control of his emotions on stage many times on the night of the group formation.

from tf family's earliest "boys' academy study room" to the later "typhoon boy transformation battle" that changed the rules and made the debut of seven members, the most touching part of the training system has always been the group portrait of the boys, while the third generation is recognized by everyone from the person in charge to the family fans as having "too strong a sense of competition."

in the first episode of "landing day", the twelve trainees were divided into a debut group, a positioning group, and a counterattack group according to their comprehensive scores. not only were their corresponding accommodation and practice conditions different, but even their meals were divided according to their levels. the four trainees at the bottom could only eat boxed lunches.

in the empty cafeteria, three groups of people sat at three tables eating meals corresponding to their respective levels. no one spoke loudly, only people at the same table would talk quietly. you couldn't see the relaxed and frankness of teenagers in them, all the signals conveyed tension.

this scene made the "reflection" mentioned by li fei in the previous interview seem like empty talk.

secondly, the conflict between the fan group and the company was also vividly reflected in this debut battle.

for a long time, the 18th floor has been the hardest hit area for illegitimate children. this is due to both historical issues and the fact that the cultivation system is highly dependent on the fan economy. after the experience of the first and second generations, the problem has not been properly solved in the operation of the third generation, but has become worse.

in 2018, domestic talent shows were in full swing, and times fengjun suffered a serious loss of fans. therefore, the third generation of trainees who appeared at this juncturethe voting model used in talent shows was introduced from the very beginning. the ranking of trainees was determined by the real money of fans, and then different reward mechanisms were used to attract fans to continue spending money.

it can be said that"striving for c" is the key word throughout the six-year assessment period of the three generations, and when there were only six days left before the debut battle, the company announced the cancellation of the ranking. this decision naturally caused great dissatisfaction among fans.

after several rounds of tug-of-war, the trending search was #李飞累了#, which asked the data group to provide a feasible solution. but the problem is that the long-term competitive atmosphere among the three generations has greatly contributed to the increase in the number of fans who are only fans of the group. the demands of each group are inconsistent and even contradictory. how can they come up with a solution that satisfies everyone?

the final result is thatwaras soon as the group was formed, the fan club released a joint statement. under the post that li fei forwarded about his debut on weibo, different fan groups were defending their rights.

it is still unknown whether the third-generation group can debut successfully, but it is foreseeable that there will be more and more controversies like this in the future.

the dilemma of artists who are being developed: once they become top stars, what next?

in 2023, the news that "liu zhihong got married" topped the trending searches. in the real-time square, the screen was filled with the memories and blessings of the first generation of fans of the domestic entertainment industry for "bai yueguang".

who is liu zhihong?

a member of tf family, the former fourth member of tfboys, known as "erwen" and "young master of south city" by fans.

in july 2016, liu zhihong announced his retirement from the entertainment industry through a weibo post. wang junkai, wang yuan, and yi yangqianxi posted their congratulations in the comments section. however, the fans' enthusiasm did not fade with his retirement. at the tfboys concert more than half a month later, some fans held up their hands to cheer for him.width; seven years after he retired from the entertainment industry, some people still insist on checking in on his super topic.

"one day of cultivation, a lifetime of cultivation", the special cultivation model has established an emotional connection and fan stickiness between fans and idols that is far beyond the imagination of the outside world. even retired amateurs like liu zhihong can gain a huge wave of traffic again after many years, and in the subsequent controversy, he was dubbed as a "collapsed house" for violating fans' expectations.

with the largest number of family fans and the highest fan loyalty in the domestic entertainment industry, it is not difficult for idol groups under tf to become top-tier, but what happens after becoming top-tier?

as the "ancestor" of times fengjun, even though the three members of tfboys have already established their own studios and tried to "avoid suspicion" in various activities, their reunion at the 10th anniversary concert still caused a sensation in the fan circle and was one of the phenomenal events in the domestic entertainment industry last year.

fans are the biggest boost to the development system, but they are also the biggest obstacle to the transformation of development system artists after they reach the top.

times youth league member yan haoxiang once bluntly stated in an interview within the company that the current dilemma is that there are no works.some songs are so bad that their own fans are complaining about them, but they are still ranking high. i think this is a very scary thing. "

fans’ strict control of comments isolates idols from negative comments from the outside world, but it also erects an insurmountable barrier between idols and the public.

from a longer-term perspective, "the end of domestic entertainment is acting", and the artists who are trained are no exception.

take times fengjun as an example. wang junkai from the first generation group starred in zhang yimou's film "the great wall" in 2016, and liu yaowen from the second generation group also had his first screen experience in this year's spring festival movie "article 20".

cultivation artists have lived under the spotlight and the gaze of fans since they were very young, and are trained according to a certain "idol template".they were brought up in a culture that is extremely lacking in rich life experiences, and thus have "innate deficiencies" in performance.

the information cocoon created by fans makes it difficult for them to receive real feedback from the audience like ordinary actors, and to truly focus on improving their professional abilities.

even yi yang qianxi, who has the most achievements in the film industry today, cannot say that he has completely transformed successfully, let alone others.

in addition, traffic has become a "double-edged sword" for the promotion of film and television dramas today. the "black and red" physique of traffic artists has an extremely limited effect on the conversion of box office/playback volume, but the adverse impact on the reputation of the work is visible to the naked eye.

the most notable point is that almost all works in which traffic stars participate will cause the audience's perspective to shift, shifting public opinion's attention from the work itself to the judgment of the traffic actors' acting skills, and this judgment is often not positive, and it will inevitably turn into a "fan-black war" in the end.

after the successive cold winters of the film and television industry and the collapse of the traffic myth, "popularity" may no longer be a plus point for artists to leverage resources.

conclusion

the starting point of the times fengjun training system was huang rui’s proposal on “establishing an artist management company in china similar to the japanese johnny & associates”.

on october 2, 2023, johnny & associates held a press conference due to the scandal of its late founder kitagawa, announcing that the name of the agency would be changed to "smile-up." the names of major official websites and subsidiary companies were updated, and a comprehensive "de-johnny" approach was initiated.

at the same time, more and more johnny's representative artists announced their withdrawal.

when the big tree is about to fall, all the birds and beasts scatter.

looking back now, this is more like a signal light for the domestic entertainment development system——

the road that follows the footsteps of our predecessors has come to an end, and we have to rely on ourselves to find where the future will lead us.