Chinese Backstreet Boys refer to a Chinese duo who gained fame for their lip sync videos to songs by the Backstreet Boys and other pop stars. They are also referred to as “Back Dormitory Boys”, “Dormitory Boys”, and “Two Chinese Boys”. Their videos, captured on a low quality Web cam in their college dorm room, have been viewed by Internet users within China and around the world. Many of their videos can be seen on YouTube. The two, Wei Wei and Huang Yi Xin, were sculpture majors at the Guangzhou Arts Institute.

The Back Dorm Boys phenomenon has resulted in an Internet meme and spawned a variety of parodies and imitations, including attempts by non-speakers to lip-sync to the Chinese lyrics in their videos. They made their first video just for fun, to show to their friends. They had seen a funny 10-second lip sync video, and wanted to try creating something similar for an entire song. They completed their first video in March 2005, after much trial and error. They uploaded the finished video to the local network at their college. The other students liked it very much so that they helped to spread the videos out.

The Back Dorm Boys filmed a lip sync video, “The Perfect Day” and also released their first original single, “O Yi O Yi A”. This single was accompanied by both a professional music video and a lip sync version showing the Back Dorm Boys giving their own song their usual treatment. Read More…

• Comments (3468)