Zhang Liyin signs with Jane Zhang’s management agency

It’s official! Zhang Liyin updated her Weibo biography page today to announce her new management company.

After a few days of fan speculation, Liyin updated her Weibo about page to officially show that she is now a part of the Beijing-based talent management company, Show City Times (少城时代). Their most well-known artist is singer-songwriter Jane Zhang. It was announced earlier this year that Liyin’s contract with her former agency, SM Entertainment, ended in April.

Prior to Liyin’s Weibo update, Chinese fans have been speculating about her social media activity in the past few months. Fans noticed that Liyin had suddenly started following Jane Zhang; Liyin reposted Jane’s promotion post about her latest film soundtrack song; and most strangely, Jane had returned the favour and followed Liyin back on Weibo.

We won’t dive too deeply into who Jane Zhang is because comparing her to more well-known female singers wouldn’t do her justice. (“Chinese BoA” anyone?) Instead, we highly recommend viewing a couple of her most popular YouTube videos. The two videos below have accumulated over 27 million views on YouTube – quite a feat for a Chinese soloist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBenttZUT7A

More recently, Jane has started to establish herself in the United States. “Dust My Shoulders Off”, for example, is a collaboration with Timbaland. The latest news is that she is working on debuting a full English album for the Western market. Show City Times has done well in the past several years, so we are hoping that they will do the same for Liyin.

Aside from Jane Zhang, Show City Times also manages a slew of other artists, including Pan Chen, Liang Bo, Reno Wang, and Elvis Wang. To get a better idea of how Liyin may be managed in the future, we advise taking a closer look at Pan Chen’s career trajectory. Pan Chen is of a similar age to Liyin – 29-years to Liyin’s 28 – and since signing with Show City Times in 2010, her discography (and filmography) has been fairly active. Looking at how Show City Times has developed Pan Chen’s career in recent years, we are hoping that Liyin’s new company will keep our girl busy. It’s been a long time waiting!

For further information on Liyin’s new company, you can follow Show City Times on their existing social media channels: Facebook, YouTube, and Weibo.

Are you a fan of Jane Zhang? We would love to hear your thoughts on this new announcement. Leave a comment below!