ROCK STAR FINDS HER OWN BEAT

Zhao Meng is known for her punk rock image entailing a de rigueur leather jacket, short high-waisted skirt, boots, and powerfully wielding a bass guitar in front of a packed audience.

As the bassist of Chinese rock band New Pants, she has demonstrated how to stand out when being in a position that's often overshadowed by the frontman.

When Zhao appears in the popular reality TV show, Sisters Riding the Winds and Breaking the Waves, produced and broadcast by Mango TV, a livestreaming platform, she attracts a large fan base by displaying different sides of herself with a constantly evolving fashion style, a powerful stage presence and a private persona that she rarely shows in public.

Featuring 30 female celebrities as contestants, all above 30 years of age, the reality show premiered in 2020 and immediately became a hot topic nationwide, as the entertainment industry in China traditionally favors women in their early 20s or even younger. In its third season, the show was launched on May 20 and makes headlines weekly.

"I used to play on the stage with my bandmates, who are all men. This time, I am all by myself, performing with female artists," says Zhao, who considered the reality show as one of the biggest challenges of her career so far. "My goal is to explore myself and experience a life totally unlike the one I have with rock bands."

She prepared for a long time before she came to the reality show. She learned to dance, for example, which she had never done before. She also further practiced her bass techniques, some that she had never trained for previously. "The process of preparing myself for the reality show helped me to relieve my nervousness," says Zhao, who spent a month－h(huán)ours every day－learning to dance either as soloist or as a group dancer.

The rock music scene tends to be a boys' club, from genre to genre and from era to era. It is always eye-catching and alluring when a band has a female bassist because it rarely happens.

Besides her role as the bassist of New Pants, Zhao is also the leading vocalist and songwriter of rock band Twinkle Star. During the first episode of the reality show, she performed, Release Yourself, which she wrote and sang with Twinkle Star.

Her performance wrapped up by delivering virtuoso play as a bassist, was greeted with screams of admiration from the other competitors and ecstatic approval from fans. "When she steps on stage, girl power is right there. She is so cool, cooler than many men," commented a fan under Zhao's social media, Sina Weibo platform, which has about 750,000 followers. Some of the fans call Zhao "Meng jie" or sister Meng. "No one can say no to Meng jie. She is so powerful and sparkles onstage," said another fan.

In the reality show, since all the contestants live and train together, their casual lifestyles are captured by the cameras. In one shooting scene, Zhao walked downstairs with two chairs in her hands. Suddenly, she lost her balance and fell.

"All of the people on the scene, including the other contestants and staff members behind the camera, rushed to me immediately, caring about my situation. I was very embarrassed and ashamed," recalls Zhao.

"My public image as a cool rocker no longer exists," she jokes.

Her fans also are inspired by her fashion style and posted videos on social media about copying Zhao's looks.

"I always do my own makeup and dress up myself with clothes I shopped for by myself. I love going to vintage stores and searching for interesting, rarely seen clothes and accessories," Zhao says. "Those are very important to me when I present myself on stage."

When she receives dance training with other contestants in rehearsals, Zhao works very hard since some of the contestants are professional dancers, such as actress Wu Jinyan, a former ballerina, and Tang Shiyi, who is known for her solid dancing skills as a traditional Chinese dancer. Though she couldn't perform as well as professional dancers, Zhao's efforts are appreciated by her fans.

"Meng jie is always hard," Zhang Shuai, the guitarist of Twinkle Star, joked on his Sina Weibo platform about Zhao's dancing moves, which looked awkward compared to others.

"Zhao Meng's public and private personas are very different," said Hong Kong singer-actress Charlene Choi, also one of the contestants in the reality show. "She is very cute and amiable in private, which is in contrast to her rock image, cool without talking very much."

Peng Lei, singer-songwriter of rock band New Pants, is quick to show appreciation to her. "When we learned about her participation in the reality show, we were very surprised and supportive because she has the courage to try something new that is outside her comfort zone." Peng also mentioned that when the band joined the online reality show, The Big Band, in 2019, which was one of the most-watched online reality shows of that year, Zhao impressed audiences with her unique sense of style, both musical and fashion. "She was a little bit shy in The Big Band but she fully displays herself in Sisters Riding the Winds and Breaking the Waves," Peng said. As Zhao recalls, she fell in love with rock music and started to play bass as a middle school student. One of her favorite groups was Japanese rock band L'Arc-en-Ciel and her favorite bassist was Tetsuya Ogawa.

"I listened to my Walkman all day long and even when my best friend walked with me to the school," says Zhao.

Zhao's mother bought her a bass guitar in 2003, one year after Zhao studied at an art school in her hometown, Yantai, Shandong province.

Before obtaining her very first instrument, Zhao had already founded her first band, an all-female rock band, in the school.

"I remember that we did our first rehearsal in a musical instrument store. Since we didn't have our own musical instruments, the store owner was very nice and lent us all the instruments we needed," recalls Zhao, who wrote down her memory on her Sina Weibo, marking her 20th anniversary of playing music with rock bands.

As a student, Zhao also formed a rock band with some male classmates and one of the shows they performed was a concert held at the concert hall of the art school in Yantai.

"It was the first time that a rock band gave a concert in the school. The hall was fully packed," says Zhao. "It's been 20 years and I am still in love with rock music. A 20-year-long unchanged love may not be possible even for a man."

Later, Zhao came to Beijing to study at Beijing Midi School of Music, the first and oldest contemporary music school in the capital. "I am born for rock music and I want to perform onstage as long as I can," she said in the reality show.