Chinese Football
Chinese Football formed — as an April Fool's joke that stuck — in Wuhan in 2011, taking its name from the American math-rock band American Football. Over more than a decade, the four members have written about youth, setback and persistence across a self-titled album, a self-titled EP, and the three-part "Game Trilogy."
All six of the band's recordings have been released through the Wuhan label Wild Records, and every cover since 2017 has come from the same illustrator, Space — a visual thread running across the catalog. The "Game Trilogy" spans five years — 2017's "Here Comes a New Challenger!," 2019's "Continue?" and 2022's "Win&Lose" — using the framing of starting, continuing, and winning-or-losing a game to carry the same themes of youth and setback across three records; the metaphor itself traces back further, to the "Game Start (Intro)" and "Game End (Outro)" tracks already bookending the 2015 debut album.
Xu Bo
Vocalist and guitarist. Xu Bo formed Chinese Football with Wang Bo in 2011 after the two met on an online bulletin board; the band's name is a nod to American Football. He has described his lyrics as centred on his own confusion, contradiction and frustration navigating everyday life.
Across the trilogy's two EPs, "Here Comes a New Challenger!" and "Continue?," he wrote nearly all of the lyrics and handled layout design for both releases, and co-recorded "Continue?" with Zhou Xiangyu. He also wrote the liner note for the trilogy's closing album, "Win&Lose," reflecting on years of effort that never quite arrived at recognition, while still picturing a more powerful ending.
Wang Bo
Guitarist. Wang Bo co-founded the band with Xu Bo in 2011, after both had just left their previous bands.
Beyond guitar, he wrote the lyrics for "Monster," the closing track on "Continue?" — the one song on that EP not written by Xu Bo.
Li Lixin
Bass and backing vocals. Li Lixin joined in 2012, completing an early version of the band's lineup.
Beyond bass, the credits for both "Here Comes a New Challenger!" and "Continue?" list him on backing vocals (chorus).
Zheng Zili
Drummer. Zheng Zili joined in 2016, the most recent addition to the current lineup.
On "Here Comes a New Challenger!" in 2017, the band's own description introduced her as a new female drummer; beyond drums, she's also credited as one of the four producers on "Win&Lose."