Hip-hop style and beats lure Chinese to the dance floor

Unity Music& Arts Festival at Shanghai Expo Park features about a dozen renowned hip-hop singers from home and abroad.[Photo/Xinhua]

In the eyes of her parents and peers, Zhang Chunyu has a typical good girl image: quiet, a professional pianist, and a huge fan of classical music. But she has developed a crush on something different. These days, Zhang, 19, is sporting a different look by wearing Missy Elliot-style clothes and hats and is trying to look like a rap singer. In addition, live house and hip-hop music festivals have become the favorite party venues for her and her friends.

"I love all these hip-hop style clothes and music," Zhang says. "They are so different!"

The fervor for hip-hop, which features break dancing, graffiti and rapping, is burning across the country, thanks to a talent show, The Rap of China, that premiered this summer on online video website iQiyi.

Within just four hours of its debut, the show had been streamed more than 100 million times. The following episodes were viewed about 200 million times each.

Through the show's success, previously little known rappers like Gai, PG ONE and After Journey are now trending on microblog Sina Weibo.

The show has been good for business of online stores, as teenagers buy similar clothes, shoes or hats to those worn by their idols on the show.

"We will not stop with the show. We plan to organize concert tours and make people rich through hip-hop. It's a big market," says Chen Wei, senior vice president of iQiyi and general producer of The Rap of China.

The company has created its own brand "R!CH" (Rising! Chinese Hip-Hop) with clothes, accessories, digital products, food and alcohol.