Back Dorm Boys

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The Back Dorm Boys.

Back Dorm Boys (Traditional Chinese: 後舍男生; Simplified Chinese: 后舍男生) refer to a Chinese male duo who gained fame for their lip sync videos to songs by the Backstreet Boys and other pop stars. They are also referred to as "Back Dormitory Boys", "Chinese Backstreet Boys", "Dormitory Boys", and "Two Chinese Boys". Their videos, captured on a low quality Web cam in their college dorm room, have been viewed by Internet users within China and around the world. Many of their videos can be seen on YouTube. The two, Wei Wei (Traditional Chinese: 韋煒; Simplified Chinese: 韦炜) and Huang Yi Xin (Traditional Chinese: 黃藝馨; Simplified Chinese: 黄艺馨), were sculpture majors at the Guangzhou Arts Institute (Traditional Chinese: 廣州美術學院; Simplified Chinese: 广州美术学院). They graduated from that university in June of 2006.

As many fans do not know the real names of the Back Dorm Boys, Wei Wei is often called simply "the big one" and Huang Yi Xin "the small one". In most videos, Wei Wei is seated on the viewer's right and Huang Yi Xin on the left. Huang Yi Xin has a cast on his left arm in some early videos.

A third "dorm boy", Xiao Jing, is in the background of most of the videos. He is often playing the Counter-Strike computer game while Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin are performing. His back is usually turned to the camera and his face is only rarely seen. He does, however, occasionally play a role in the videos. In the video for the Trio song "Da Da Da", Xiao Jing gets up from his chair to hold a cardboard football in the air for Huang Yi Xin to kick.

The Back Dorm Boys phenomenon from has resulted in an Internet meme and spawned a variety of parodies and imitations. The Back Dorm Boys received mainstream media attention in the United States through The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

The Back Dorm Boys have been signed as spokespeople for Motorola cellphones in China and Sina.com, one of the largest Chinese Internet portals. The Back Dorm Boys maintain a Chinese-language blog through Sina.com. There is also an English-language "Dormitory Boys" blog on Blogger.com, but some readers suspect this is a hoax written by someone other than Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin.

Their act was acknowledged in the pilot episode of the US series "Heroes" where 2 Asian males sporting red basketball jerseys were singing the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" in a pub. (The "dorm boys" were wearing Houston Rocket jerseys in the original video)

[edit] Vlogs

Video #	Song(s)	Original artist(s)	Clothing	Notes
#1	"As Long As You Love Me"	Backstreet Boys	red Adidas track shirts	later performed live in October 2005
#2	"I Want It That Way"	Backstreet Boys	Houston Rockets shirts. Yao Ming is on this team.
#3	"Get Down (You Are The One For Me)"	Backstreet Boys	red t-shirts
#4 (1st song)	"Larger Than Life''	Backstreet Boys	white tennis shirts
#4 (2nd song)	"渡情"	新白娘子传奇	white tennis shirts
#4 (3rd song)	"唯一" ("The Only One")	Wang Lee Hom	white tennis shirts
#5	"Radio in My Head"	Pu Shu	Wei Wei wears a white shirt, Huang Yi Xin a yellow shirt	Released Nov 13, 2005. Accompanying blooper video later released
#6 (1st song)	"童話" ("Tong Hua/Fairytale")	Malaysian artist Guang Liang, aka Michael Wong		Released Nov 20, 2005
#6 (2nd song)	"波斯貓" ("Persian Cat")	S.H.E.		Released Nov 20, 2005
#6 (3rd song)	"Superstar"	S.H.E.		Released Nov 20, 2005. Features fast motion effect.
#7	"分开旅行" ("Travel Separately")	René Liu & Huang Lixing	Huang Yi Xin in white shirt, Wei Wei in black tank top
#8	"不得不愛Bu De Bu Ai" ("Can't Help To Love")	Pan Wei Bo, aka Wilber	Wei Wei in white Adidas track shirt, Huang Yi Xin with blue scarf
#9	"说唱脸谱" ("Peking Opera")		traditional Chinese opera costumes	Released May 26, 2006
#10	Da Da Da	Trio	parody FIFA uniforms	Released June 30, 2006; 2006 FIFA World Cup tribute
#11	Don't Lie	The Black Eyed Peas	Huang Yi Xin in red shirt, Wei Wei in white shirt. Both with paperclip "bling-bling"	Released June 20, 2006
#12	A Public Affair	Jessica Simpson	Huang Yi Xin wears a red and white shirt, Wei Wei a black tank top	Released July 20, 2006

[edit] Trivia

A recent music video of the show Mr. Meaty main characters shows them singing along to I Want It That Way hoping "to be famous" stated by Josh before the song. As they sing the song in a parody-like way just like the first two Back Dorm boys, at the far back their boss is seen doing something with his back turned up front similarly to the third Back Dorm boy in the background in the usual videos. The whole video in general is a parody or a possible homage to the Back Dorm Boys.