Held back by worry about a social backlash, the music industry had stayed away from marketing drying machine Suppliers "handsome girl" acts until 2016.Marketed by sports brand Fantasy Football Confederation (FFC), the five women - aged 18 to 24 - held their first news conference in Beijing on Friday as their first single "Action" was released.The letter A in the bands name is a reference to the god Adonis - the archetype of youthful male beauty in Greek mythology."We want the girls to break the mould," the bands agent, Zhou Xiaobai, told Reuters."It was rather a coincidence.Last year, Zhejiang Huati Culture Communication, an entertainment startup backed by Tencent Holdings, was looking to create a girl band when the idea of an androgynous act came about.Acrush is one of several bands under the FFC brand, which aims to be a pioneer in sports entertainment by mixing sports with music and dance.

Soccer is backed President Xi Jinping, and the sport is expected to boom into a 5 trillion yuan ($725 billion) business by 2025.In 2005, a boyish-looking Li Yuchun briefly won fans with her style.Its not the first time Chinese music agents have had the idea of forming a gender-neutral act."I will not be afraid, because I will just be me, a handsome girl.All FFC bands - including Acrush - must learn how to play soccer. We happened to see many handsome girls during the auditions, and people thought they looked quite all right.Chinas all-girl "boy band", FFC-Acrush, had more than 749,000 followers on social networking site Weibo even before any of their music was released.

Sporting short bobs, loose T-shirts and barely there makeup, Acrushs androgynous look is bucking centuries-old norms in a society where girls strive to look feminine and act demurely. She also sparked debate about how women should dress in a conservative society."It is a new adventure for us and also for the Chinese pop music market," said Min Junqian, a member of Acrush. They have also shared stage with the likes of Steven Wilson, 65daysofstatic, Tides from Nebula, Blackstratblues, and Karsh Kale; I am waiting for you last summer. The eleven-track album sees the use of instruments like the violin, viola, cello, sitar and the tabla, into collaboration with like-minded artists on some tracks. Just like the unique approach they have for their music, how they collaborate too is also unique.