Zhang Liyin and Chinese entertainment company NewStyle Media Group surprised fans on September 16, 2021 by announcing their new partnership as Liyin’s new management agency.
After just a year, it seems Liyin had departed Beijing S.W. Culture Media and joined NewStyle Media Group as a new artist. When Liyin first joined BSW, there were rumours that she had started her own “studio” management company, but with this news, it seems like those efforts have ended.
Social media announcements
NewStyle Media Group, better known as the abbreviated NSMG, has so far been more active on social media than Beijing S.W. Culture Media. NSMG’s announcement of Liyin joining their talent family was shared on Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. On Instagram, they dedicated not one but three different social posts for Liyin. Their Twitter announcement is shown below:
If it seems a bit weird that her new company used the old Korean romanization of her name for their PR announcement, we have already reached out to ask them to use the correct form, “Zhang Liyin”. See our tweet here!
NSMG’s Weibo announcement used Liyin’s song titles for “Moving On” and “I Will” as puns in their post caption:
Regardless of “sunny days or rainy days”, make a “star wish” today: a brand new departure, looking forward to the future. NewStyle Media Group, welcomes you.
NSMG on Weibo
To which, Zhang Liyin reshared and replied:
There will always be some ups and downs in life, and I am grateful for all the past experiences. Now I start again and turn a new page. I hope I can compose more music on this new page to share with you.
Zhang Liyin on Weibo
Aside from Weibo, all of NSMG’s social media channels use English, which makes it very easy for us international fans to get immediate updates. You can follow the company via the links below:
- Twitter: NewStyleMediaG
- Instagram: NewStyleMediaGroup
Liyin signing with NSMG will make this company the third company she has been with since leaving SM Entertainment. Most of us probably don’t follow Chinese media too closely beyond a handful of artists, so for Liyin, we did some digging as to who NewStyle Media Group is and what their reputation is like in China so far.
An entertainment enterprise to bridge the East and West
At a glance, NSMG seems similar in style to SM Entertainment, where they both have strong modern branding, strong social media presences and they engage with their fans often. But of course, they are different in their own ways.
NSMG’s success is built off of the immensely popular television drama called The Untamed that aired on Tencent back in 2019. NSMG was one of the main production companies backing this television show, and it has since developed other lines of business related to that particular venture. Their boy band, T.U.B.S (short for The Untamed Boys), is one example.
They’ve also extended their portfolio to artist management and music production too. Other artists include YuBin (于斌), Zheng Fanxing (郑繁星), Gao Han (高寒), Chen Zhuoxuan (陈卓璇), and Lara Liang (梁心颐). Interestingly, NSMG is also the Chinese management agency for Jessica Jung, the former member of SM Entertainment’s Girls Generation.
The company has five offices around the world: Los Angeles, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong and Seoul. Their headquarters are in Beijing, while their international head office is in Los Angeles. It seems they have the ambition to expand internationally too. Their SVP has been photographed with the likes of Steve Aoki, Daniel Powter, and Tyga. Whether or not these connections will actually bear fruit to anything is a different story.
Beyond development in the usual TV, film, and music channels, NSMG also develops fan merchandise for artists and TV shows. Hopefully, this means we’ll soon see cute merchandise of Zhang Liyin!
All in all, it looks like NewStyle Media Group is a company with significant backing and strong financials to manage multiple artists at once.
Immediate results
The main issue with Zhang Liyin’s career in China so far is that she has nearly completely disappeared from public media. Sure, she has released a number of new songs since leaving South Korea behind – including the duet with Henry Huo and a soundtrack song for a Tencent movie Sword and Fire – but she hasn’t appeared on TV and she hasn’t been at any other public events.
With NSMG, we saw immediate results. Just a few days after the social media announcements, Liyin appeared on the red carpet for the 5th Annual Jia Village Short Film Week. According to local media, she was at the event to perform “The Left Shore of Happiness”. NSMG must have an immense amount of influence to be able to bring Liyin to her first red carpet event in over six years!
Liyin’s fans and her team at NSMG shared some content behind her appearance at Jia Village Short Film Week, and we were able to reshare it on Chocolyn’s Twitter. Photos of her at the event are also in our photo gallery.
