SEVEN primary school children who formed China’s youngest-ever boy band were forced to go separate ways four days after their debut show. The disbanding came one day after the band’s agency rebranded the group as a children’s art troupe, instead of a boy band, under accusations of child exploitation. “There is some serious misunderstanding here,” Sun Lei, CEO of Asia Starry Sky Group, the agency behind the performers, told China Media Group on Wednesday. “We made the decision to disband the group in an effort to protect the boys from online verbal abuse.” Sun said his company is cooperating with the authorities in a series of investigations. Asia Starry Sky Group announced Tuesday that the group, who are aged between 7 and 11 years old, would change its name from Tianfu Boy Band to Panda Children’s Art Troupe after it came under fire for using young boys in the entertainment industry. The group has kept its English name of Panda Boys, however. The group made its debut Friday last week with their first performance in western China’s Chengdu City, also known as Tianfu, but received widespread criticism from the public and State media because of the boy’s ages. “We won’t cultivate the fandom culture. Neither will any capital operation be involved. We are just a group of children who love singing and dancing, doing something meaningful together,” Asia Starry Sky Group stated in a statement Tuesday amid mounting criticism. It followed on from another statement Saturday, which said the company did not intend to profit from the boys’ performances and that it requires the members to prioritize study over band training. The statement also claimed the song performed used positive and encouraging lyrics, and elements of traditional Sichuan opera, and said the boys aim to become idols who “have ideals, love to study, and are culturally, physically, and mentally healthy.” However few people believed the company’s claims the venture was not commercial in nature. “We don’t need entertainment companies to cultivate models for children. It’s the job of school and family,” one Weibo user wrote. “Aged 8? Let the children focus on schoolwork,” another said. Several official media outlets have also expressed concerns about the band, urging tougher regulation of the entertainment industry. “As a large number of minor idols were brought to the market, they left their normal environment for living and studying and entered the entertainment industry at an overly young age, which would be bad for their physical and psychological development,” read a commentary on bi-weekly journal China Comment. “At the same time, this is passing the wrong value of ‘getting famous when young’ to society and misleading children, who are still not good at distinguishing what’s right for them,” it said. China’s entertainment industry has witnessed tremendous growth and young boy bands such as TFBoys have proved to be especially popular. But the increasingly young age of idols and their fans, as well as an increasingly obsessive fan culture have prompted widespread concern. The Cyberspace Administration launched a national campaign in June to rein in distorted fan culture including high consumption of products to raise an idol’s popularity, and verbal attacks between online communities in support of different idols. Earlier this month, the National Radio and Television Administration also vowed to strictly control the broadcast of idol survival shows to fight what it called “twisted values” such as the worship of fame and money. (SD-Agencies) | 