Rock star finds her own beat

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.