From left: The members of UNION FOR OURTIMES Gu Haofeng, Liu Jiarui and Zhou Jiaxuan Photo: Lao Guo

China's newest boy band released a 1990s retro song on Saturday with the aim of breathing new life into boy band pop music in the Chinese mainland market.

After two years of training, UNION FOR OURTIMES, a boy band formed by three young singers -  Liu Jiarui, Zhou Jiaxuan, and Gu Haofeng - completed their debut performance of the new song "Qingchun Feixingqi" (Youth Aircraft) at a release conference in Beijing.

The song abandons today's conventional dance music, instead choosing to replicate the vintage music style from the 1990s, the band's agency, Meidai, said at the conference.

The song was produced by China's well-known musician Laomao, known as the "first dance music producer across the country" by many.

Laomao's popular hits range from "Shangbuqi" (Too Delicate to Bear a Blow) to "I'm Not Huang Rong," the phenomenal song sung by Rollin Wang in 2004.

As for the three members, Meidai said at the conference that with "the current wave of cracking down on tainted celebrity culture that has affected idols living off their fans instead of their works, many boy bands have disappeared from the Chinese music market."

The company said it seeks to return the popularity of boy groups to a time when TFBOYS and UNIQ were charming and ruled the Chinese mainland music market by producing more hit songs. Born in 2004, Gu Haofeng is the youngest of the three but has been working in the drama industry for 12 years. Gu has appeared in dozens of film and television works such as the famous costume drama Legend of Mi Yue.

Liu Jiarui is a student at the Beijing Film Academy who is skilled at dancing and interested in performing.

Zhou Jiaxuan studies at the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy, majoring in pop music. He used to be a child model and has accumulated rich experience in stage activities. 

In 2018, Meidai recruited trainees in order to form a boy band suited for the Chinese mainland's music market. 

After three years of training, the three were able to make their debut performance as UNION FOR OURTIMES.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the band also carried out some activities before their debut. 

In April, the three members participated in the program "Beijing Outstanding Youth Representatives" to tell the story of the founding of the CPC.

In May, they also participated in another program organized by the Beijing Communist Youth League to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC.