Back Dorm Boys
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Back Dorm Boys (Traditional Chinese: 後舍男生; Simplified Chinese: 后舍男生; pinyin: Hòushè Nánshēng) 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; pinyin: Gǔangzhōu Měishù Xuéyuàn). 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 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 this has been proved to be a hoax written by someone other than Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin (see External Links), who has threatened to sue the blogger that unmasked it.
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)
Contents |
[edit] Vlogs
| Video # | Episode[1] | Song(s) | Original artist(s) | Clothing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 1 | "As Long As You Love Me" | Backstreet Boys | red Adidas track shirts | later performed live in October 2005 |
| #2 | 2 | "I Want It That Way" | Backstreet Boys | Houston Rockets shirts. Yao Ming is on this team. | |
| #3 | 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 | This was their first appearance on a radio show. | |
| #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) | 4 | "童話" ("Tong Hua/Fairytale") | Malaysian artist Guang Liang, aka Michael Wong | Released Nov 20, 2005. | |
| #6 (2nd song) | 4 | "波斯貓" ("Persian Cat") | S.H.E | All three roommates are participating, wearing black t-shirts. The performance consists mostly of motionless bodies, moving only their mouths to lip-synch. | Released Nov 20, 2005 |
| #6 (3rd song) | 4 | "Super Star" | S.H.E | All three roommates are wearing black t-shirts, bobbing heads and rocking to the song. Huang Yi Xin is wearing a toque and sunglasses. | Released Nov 20, 2005. |
| #7 | "分开旅行" ("Travel Separately") | René Liu & Huang Lixing | Huang Yi Xin in white shirt, Wei Wei in black tank top | ||
| #8 | 5 | "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 | 6 | 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 | |
| #13 | "Super Star" | S.H.E | (Second version) Features fast motion effect. | Released August 1, 2006. Recorded for the Chinese TV show 鲁豫有约 (Lu yu you yue) | |
| #14 | Da Da Da | Trio | (Second version) Blue t-shirts | Released August 26, 2006. | |
| #15 | "本草綱目" ("The Herbalist's Manual") | Jay Chou | Wei Wei wears sunglasses, Huang Yi Xin wears a long piece of headgear. | Released January 12, 2007 | |
| #16 | 7 | "We Will Rock You" | Queen | Starts off with the boys behind a screen, acting with puppets. They then lip-synch in person. | Released January 13, 2007; first lip-synching recorded outdoors. |
| #17 | "千里之外" ("Faraway") | Jay Chou | parody of the Jay Chou MV for the same song. | Released January 15, 2007 | |
| #18 | 8 | "The Perfect Day" | Catcher in the Rye (麦田守望者) | Performed with a large television in the background. | Released March 22, 2007 |
[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.
- In the first episode of the NBC TV show Heroes, when Hiro and Ando are in the bar, there are two boys doing a parody of the Back Dorm Boys on the karaoke. The song is I Want It That Way, and the boys are dressed in the Houston Rockets jerseys. One has a head band and the other has a cast on one arm.
- The Back Dorm Boys made a cameo in the music video for Our World (我们的世界 Wo men de shi jie), a song by Chinese band Catcher in the Rye (麦田守望者 Mi tian shou wang zhe).
- Tong Hua (video #6 - 1st. song) -- Wei Wei emulates nose bleeding because the same happens to the ill girl on the original song videoclip, while Huang Yi Xin pretends to be blind in allusion to singaporean blind singer Kelvin Tan Wei Lian's interpretation of the same song at Project SuperStar mandarin singing competition.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Some videos have a designated episode number, whereas others do not.
[edit] External links
- BDB Back Dorm Boys I want it that way
- 后舍男生的BLOG The Back Dorm Boys Chinese blog
- Sina BDB site Official Chinese Back Dorm Boys site
- The Dormitory Boys Their alleged English blog
- Back Dorm Boys showcase Several downloadable wmv videos
- backdormitoryboys.com Fan shrine with videos (English)
- What Tian Has Learned Basic information and links for videos
- Dirt Digger Uncovers The Dormitory Boys blog as hoax
- The Back Dormitory Forum based on the Back Dorm Boys... (just starting)
