How Japanese Idol Culture Fueled China's Amateur Girl Group Boom

From Around 40 Groups to More Than 250

China's underground idol scene grew from around 40 groups in 2023 to more than 250 by March 2025, as young performers brought Japanese songs, elaborate costumes and intimate fan events to small stages. The estimated increase means the number of groups became more than six times as large in roughly two years, with growth accelerating after pandemic restrictions ended.

At a small Shanghai club on a recent weekend, dozens of fans waved glow sticks and danced together while Chinese amateur girl groups performed. The singers wore frilly dresses and outfits inspired by Japanese Lolita fashion. Their songs were in Japanese, and their choreography and stage presentation drew heavily on Japan's idol culture.

These performances represent a growing corner of youth entertainment outside major entertainment companies and television talent shows. Many groups manage themselves, appear in small venues and build support through direct contact with audiences rather than widespread media exposure.

The attraction extends beyond the songs. Fans learn dances, attend paid meetings and follow performers whose appeal rests on personality, effort and a sense of closeness. For the singers, the stage offers creative freedom and a community, even when it brings little financial security.

Japanese pop culture supplies much of the scene's shared language, from stage names to costumes and audience rituals. Chinese performers adapt those elements to their own ambitions, creating a local version of an entertainment model that depends on fans taking an active part.

What Happens Beyond the Stage?

Chinese underground idols typically perform in clubs or at fan conventions. Their audiences are much closer to them than spectators at a large concert, and the interaction often continues after the music stops.

Fans queue for paid sessions known as perks meetings, where they can talk with performers, take photographs and collect autographs. A signed photograph and a conversation lasting two minutes typically cost about 100 yuan, or US$14. The fee gives a fan a brief, individual encounter while providing income for the performer.

Japan has a comparable practice called cheki, in which fans pay for instant photographs with idols. In both settings, the photograph becomes a souvenir of a personal interaction, rather than simply an image of a singer onstage.

These meetings help explain the business model. Underground performers earn money through fan events, merchandise and direct engagement instead of depending mainly on mass media exposure. An academic analysis describes Chinese underground idols as mirroring their Japanese counterparts in this economic structure as well as in their appearance.

The arrangement makes personal recognition part of what fans pay for. Supporters return to see familiar performers, while idols have opportunities to develop relationships with the people attending their shows. The events combine music, collecting and social contact in one small venue.

A Japanese Model With Chinese Adaptations

Japan's modern idol culture began in the 1970s, with young performers, often teenage girls, trained to become entertainers working across several fields. The phenomenon spread to South Korea, where K-pop idols became global stars, and eventually to China, where mainstream and underground scenes developed.

Japanese idols remain the main model for many Chinese amateur groups. Performers adopt Japanese stage names, construct personas inspired by anime and wear school uniforms, colorful accessories or elaborate Lolita dresses. Their presentation draws on the visual worlds of Japanese fashion and animation.

Japanese lyrics are another part of that connection. Some Chinese idols sing in Japanese even when they are not fluent in the language. The choice links their performances to the culture that inspired them and to an audience already familiar with its music and imagery.

The imitation serves as both homage and strategy. Japanese pop culture has an international audience, and its recognizable styles give new groups a way to communicate their identity quickly. Chinese performers also blend these influences with local creativity rather than reproducing every detail of the Japanese industry.

China's underground scene is less regulated and more rooted in small, independent operations than Japan's highly structured idol industry, which imposes strict expectations on behavior and public image. That looser organization creates room for experimentation, although performers also take on more of the practical work themselves.

How Anime, Comics and Games Built an Audience

China's enthusiasm for anime, comics and games helped create an audience for Japanese idol culture. These interests are often grouped under the abbreviation ACG. Fans who already recognize Japanese characters, fashion and music can find familiar elements in an underground idol performance.

By 2015, China's ACG community was estimated at more than 200 million people. Most were digital natives under 24, meaning they had grown up with digital technology as a normal part of everyday life. That audience was much broader than the small club scene that later expanded.

Bilibili became a major meeting place for these interests. Inspired by Japan's Niconico, the platform brought together young people interested in animation, comics and games. Such online communities gave Japanese cultural styles a place to circulate and helped fans discover performers who shared their tastes.

Brands including KFC and Nike adopted anime characters and Japanese aesthetics in marketing aimed at younger consumers. Government organizations also experimented with anime and idol imagery to communicate with digital natives.

The appeal of underground idols fits this wider environment: cuteness, accessibility and opportunities for participation are already familiar features of the surrounding culture. A fan can move from watching animation or sharing music online to attending a local performance built around related styles and interests.

Fans Help Make the Performance

Fans known as wotaku, a term borrowed from Japanese subculture, do more than watch. They learn coordinated support dances called wotagei and use them to encourage their favorite performers. Glow sticks and shared movements turn the audience into a visible part of the show.

These rituals give supporters a role in the event and a way to recognize one another. The emotional attraction comes partly from belonging to a community in which people share knowledge, enthusiasm and repeated encounters with the same performers.

Research on Chinese idol nurturing reality shows offers a related view of why audiences become invested. On those programs, viewers vote to create new groups. Their motivations include social interaction, suspense and emotional attachment to contestants' personalities and abilities.

Younger viewers, particularly those under 20, are especially engaged in these activities. They form online communities and support performers through voting, streaming and merchandise purchases. While television competitions and small club performances have different structures, both make audience participation central to the experience.

Bilibili and Weibo allow fans to organize, promote events and coordinate campaigns to raise their idols' visibility. Within China's fan economy, supporters can act as promoters, fundraisers and unofficial managers as well as customers.

That work blurs the boundary between consuming entertainment and helping produce it. Fans gain a sense of ownership and agency because their efforts can contribute to a performer's visibility. The same emotional investment can also fuel competition, including online battles between fan groups over rankings and the way performers are portrayed.

Commercial pressure can encourage excessive behavior, particularly among adolescents. Concerns about healthy participation therefore sit alongside the sense of friendship and shared purpose that draws many young people into fandom.

Hong Kong Shows How the Model Travels

Hong Kong's underground idol scene began around 2015. It remains smaller than those in Taiwan or Japan, but its devoted performers and fans illustrate how Japanese idol culture can take root in a different local setting.

Rika Woo moves between Cantonese opera and J-pop. She wears elaborate costumes for opera, then changes into outfits suited to idol performances. Her activities connect a traditional form of local theater with a much newer style of popular entertainment.

Woo and her group, Otome Syndream, debuted in Japan before gaining recognition at local music festivals in Hong Kong. Their experience shows that the movement across borders can run in several directions: performers may develop an audience abroad before attracting greater attention at home.

Hong Kong performers face financial pressures and competition from overseas events. Even with those difficulties, Woo's experience shows how an idol group can provide a bridge between generations and cultural traditions, rather than requiring a performer to choose just one artistic identity.

The development of the wider scene spans several periods:

• 1970s: Japan's modern idol culture began, with young performers trained as entertainers.
• By 2015: China's ACG community was estimated at more than 200 million people, most of them under 24.
• Around 2015: Hong Kong's underground idol scene began.
• 2023: China's underground idol scene numbered around 40 groups.
• March 2025: The estimated number in China exceeded 250.

Where Japan, Korea and China Differ

Japan's influence is strongest in the Chinese underground scene's costumes, audience rituals and paid photograph sessions. Its established idol industry also provides a model of carefully managed public behavior and image.

South Korea's idol industry follows a different emphasis. Large entertainment companies invest heavily in training, production and international marketing. K-pop groups are known for polished performances and carefully developed group identities, with direct fan contact concentrated more heavily in official events.

Chinese underground groups are generally more accessible and participatory. Small venues and personal meetings give fans a more immediate role, while performers outside large management companies have greater scope to experiment with their presentation.

Fashion and makeup also cross these boundaries. An observation from a Reddit user described Chinese idols as blending Japanese and Korean influences with local touches. The result is a mixture of styles rather than a single national template.

These differences help explain why the Chinese amateur scene can grow alongside mainstream entertainment. Its attraction lies in a particular kind of experience: a small performance, recognizable fan rituals and a chance to interact with someone whose progress supporters can follow closely.

Misunderstanding, Boundaries and the Cost of Performing

Underground idols face skepticism about their youth, appearance and relationships with fans. Critics question the potential for exploitation, while Hong Kong's scene has faced accusations that it is overly sexualized.

A member of a Hong Kong idol group explained that outsiders can mistake the appeal for a matter of appearance or sexuality. Participants describe performance, personality, authenticity and genuine interaction as the reasons they take part.

Hong Kong community norms forbid private meetings and physical contact. Those boundaries shape the kind of access fans receive: interaction takes place within organized events rather than unrestricted personal relationships. Idols and supporters describe these rules as part of maintaining appropriate behavior.

Money is another persistent difficulty. Elaborate costumes and stage productions are expensive, and most underground groups fund themselves or depend on fan support. A growing number of groups therefore brings more activity without removing the financial pressures on individual performers.

Without professional management, idols may have to handle promotion, scheduling and other logistics alongside singing and dancing. Many do this while studying or working in another career. The workload reaches well beyond the minutes an audience sees onstage.

Creative freedom and community nevertheless make the effort worthwhile for many participants. At an anniversary event, Rika Woo, the performer who works in both Cantonese opera and J-pop, encouraged her fans to keep pursuing their ambitions:

There's no age limit in chasing a dream and today is always the youngest day of our life.

Woo's mother described a generational change in which young people are choosing their own paths rather than being constrained by traditional expectations. Her response places the performances within a family conversation about what a worthwhile ambition can look like.

A Local Space Within a Global Culture

Chinese amateur idols offer young people a place to express themselves and find belonging. As traditional milestones such as marriage and homeownership become harder to reach, creative communities provide another setting in which to form relationships and pursue personal goals.

J-pop, K-pop and Mandopop all cross borders, but performers and audiences reshape them through local circumstances. Chinese underground groups borrow recognizable elements while making decisions about language, clothing, performance and fan contact within their own communities.

Brands' use of ACG imagery and government organizations' experiments with anime and idol styles show that this influence extends beyond clubs. Cultural interests once associated with a niche audience now help shape how institutions and businesses communicate with younger people.

The growth from around 40 groups to more than 250 captures the speed of expansion. The everyday reality remains personal and practical: performers need places to appear, money for costumes and time to rehearse, while fans help sustain the scene by attending, organizing and paying for direct encounters.

Key Points

• China's underground idol scene grew from around 40 groups in 2023 to more than 250 by March 2025.
• Japanese songs, fashion, stage names and fan rituals strongly influence Chinese amateur girl groups.
• A signed photograph and a conversation lasting two minutes typically cost about 100 yuan, or US$14.
• ACG communities and platforms including Bilibili and Weibo help fans discover, organize and promote performers.
• Hong Kong performer Rika Woo combines Cantonese opera with J-pop and performs with Otome Syndream.
• Financial pressure, demanding workloads, public skepticism and intense fan competition accompany the scene's growth.