Yuezheng Longya

Yuezheng Longya (Simplified Chinese: 乐正龙牙; Traditional Chinese: 樂正龍牙) is an upcoming Chinese VOCALOID4 to be developed by Shanghai HENIAN Co. Ltd.

Longya was a runner up entry to the first "VOCALOID™ CHINA" contest in 2012, held for choosing the design of the first Chinese VOCALOID and was a Vsinger supporting character for three years. In July 2015, he was confirmed to receive a VOCALOID voicebank.

He will be voiced by the Chinese singer, voice actor and actor, Jie Zhang (张杰; Zhāng Jié).

2012
A contest titled "VOCALOID CHINA" was held to determine the design of the first Chinese VOCALOID, which ended on January 3rd, 2012. On January 17th, the winner was revealed to be Yayin Gongyu, the original version of Luo Tianyi, in Shanghai. She was the top ranked design of 5 winning entries for the contest, with one of them being Yayin who is now known as Yuezheng Longya. Their finalized designs were revealed on March 22nd. Since then, Longya was only used as a promotional character concept.

2013
Due to controversial issues occurring in 2013, Longya and the other members of VOCALOID CHINA were unable to become VOCALOIDs for the time being.

2014
In March 2014, Shanghai HENIAN repurchased the character rights for all of the VOCALOID CHINA cast members and relaunched the project as VOCANESE.

2015
On May 28th, 2015, a VOCALOID named Stardust was revealed. On the same day, Shanghai HENIAN addressed the Chinese fans’ outcry about the lack of male VOCALOIDs and responded that the next VOCALOID would be a male. Whether it was a pre-existing Vsinger character (Zhiyu Moke or Yuezheng Longya) or someone new was unknown. They heavily implied it may be Longya as they posted that “Longya insisted that his sister would go first since he loves her so much”, however, it was not fully confirmed.

On May 29th, during a Q/A session about Stardust, Shanghai HENIAN confirmed that all Vsinger characters are their main priority despite receiving commission works from small groups and other companies.

On July 23rd, in a response to a producer's question, Longya was confirmed to receive a voicebank. He was officially announced on July 30th but under different circumstances. Vsinger noted that he was in their production plans but stated that despite the desire to make a voicebank for him, their investors were questioning whether or not he would sell well, especially since he lacked fans and fanart. In order to make him a voicebank, Vsinger asked for at least 100,000 shares on his announcement post in order to measure is popularity.

On August 8th, the Weibo post reached the goal and Shanghai HENIAN planned to meet their investors with this information. On August 14th, Longya's production was approved and Shanghai HENIAN asked fans to recommend potential voice providers for him. It was noted that they would not be holding a voice provider contest like Yuezheng Ling and Zhanyin Lorra. Instead, they would take the recommendations into consideration, filter through them and make the final decision.

On September 18th, it was announced that Shanghai HENIAN completed their test recording stage, where they gathered a handful of voice providers, record their voices and listen to each sample voicebank to decide who was most suitable. This was similar to the contest that Ling and Lorra had, however, fans were not involved in deciding Longya's voice provider. It was emphasized that these tests were not part of the final voicebank and that more work would be needed to complete him. His voice provider was attending the CXC Nanjing International ACG Festival on October 2nd. The other potential voice providers involved would not be revealed. On September 29th, Vsinger replied to a fan that Longya would not have a Mo Li Hua demo.

On October 2nd, Jie Zhang was announced to be Longya's voice provider. He performed three songs live at the event and spoke about his reaction to being recommended by fans. In response to a fan, Vsinger confirmed that Longya is expected to release in July 2016 if he progresses well.

On November 16th, Vsinger confirmed that Longya's recordings already started during the month. Behind-the-scenes recording will be revealed at a later time. In addition, they announced that Jie Zhang will voice act as Longya for fanartist pora's 2dlive animation. This was to give the fans an idea of how his voice would fit Longya's character.


 * pora's 2dlive animation feat. Jie Zhang (as Yuezheng Longya).

Concept
According to the short animation series promoting VOCALOID CHINA, Longya is Ling's older brother and the heir to the Yuezheng corporation. He has an agile mind and many people look up to him. Like his sister, he is straightforward, but he also possesses the ability to make important decisions correctly and has the strong aura of a leader. His weakness includes troublesome issues, and the only time he is not bothered by these is when they are related to his younger sister. He is very protective towards Ling and can become slightly hysterical when dealing with situations related to her.

Etymology
His original name was Yayin (牙音), however, this was dropped because it was written in a Japanese naming style rather than Chinese.

The surname Yuèzhèng (乐正) comes from the governor of music during the Zhou Dynasty. The existence of this surname was proven when two historical books (《元和姓纂》&《尚友录》) state that: the "Zhou Dynasty's 'Yuèzhèng' Position was used as a surname", therefore hinting that the name existed as early in Zhou Dynasty, which was more than 2,600 years.

After the Zhou took over the Chinese empire, the positions of the governing system were used as surnames. During this time, there was a head position called "Yuèzhèng", which was responsible for music and melodies at the palace. Any descendants of this governor will bear the same surname.

During the Zhou Dynasty, people took great measures with politeness and rituals. The Yuezhengs were heavily looked upon by the emperor and the standard of music can directly affect a country's impression to the outside world.

"Lóng" (龙) means “Dragon” in Chinese, while "Yá" (牙) means “teeth”, “tooth” or “fang”. Combined, his first name means “Dragon fang”.

Appearance
The design was originally drawn by ayaya, but was refined and redrawn by illustrator Ideolo.

Located on Longya’s gold belt, there is a charm with a Sanskrit character on it, which represents the "Wood" element, the "East" position, the color "green", and the "Spring" season. This character’s Chinese equivalent is "角" (Jiao), one of the 5 Traditional Chinese melody characters.

Relations

 * Yuezheng Ling: Younger sister
 * Luo Tianyi: Companion
 * Mo Qingxian: Companion
 * Zhiyu Moke: Companion

Marketing
Yuezheng Longya was a fan-designed VOCALOID that was entered in the first "VOCALOID CHINA" contest, like Luo Tianyi. He was created with VOCALOID fans in mind.

VOCALOID CHINA PROJECT released a five-part promotional animation series for the VOCALOID CHINA characters. On May 15th, 2012, at CFO3, the full first PV was made available, mainly featuring Tianyi with Ling making a brief cameo at the end. Longya’s official introduction takes place in the second episode.

In January 2015, VOCANESE promoted a 2015 calendar, celebrating the Year of the Ram. Longya appears in the inside contents.

In 2015, an official poster was created and sold by Manchy and was promoted by Vsinger.

When Longya was officially introduced as an upcoming VOCALOID on July 30th, 2015, Vsinger decided to conduct research as to how many fans of Longya existed and support him in becoming a VOCALOID. Fans needed to share the Weibo post containing his announcement by August 30th and it must have a total of 100,000 shares. This was to raise more awareness of his existence and announcement, as well as gaining more fans. The goal was reached on August 8th.

On August 14th, 2015, Vsinger asked fans to give them suggestions for his voice provider. The suggestions were run through a filter to decide who his provider would be. On October 2nd, the winner was revealed to be Jie Zhang.

In October 2015, key ring charms were created for the Vsinger cast. There were also folders featuring fanmade "Rock" designs for the cast.

Trivia

 * Longya has a dragon-like companion named “Bei Chen" (呗辰). He is 50,000 years old and has the ability to transform into Longya's drum sets.
 * Longya and Ling are the first brother and sister combination of the VOCALOID franchise and are the first Chinese siblings. However, they are third set of siblings in the franchise as whole, as the previous two pairs were Japanese VOCALOIDs.

Notable for...

 * First male VOCALOID to be based on a runner up design
 * First male supporting character to be made into a VOCALOID
 * First male Vsinger supporting character to be made into a VOCALOID
 * First male Chinese VOCALOID
 * First male VOCALOID from Shanghai HENIAN
 * First male Chinese VOCALOID4