They began performing in local bars and clubs around Beijing, playing pop punk reminiscent of Green Day and Blink-182.

The group was nominated by the organizers of the Pepsi Music Chart Awards in China for Best Arrangement, Best Lyrics, Best Composer, and Best Rock 'n' Roll Band.

[3] The Flowers were commissioned to write and perform a Mandarin version of the theme song of the Disney film High School Musical 2,, which the group agreed to do.

[5] Following Xingyu's departure, the band held a talent competition in Beijing, with fifty contestants competing to become the new member of the Flowers and participate in its upcoming tenth-anniversary concert tour.

For instance, "Xi Shua Shua" shares similarities with the Japanese pop duo Puffy AmiYumi's "K2G"; "Emperor's Favorite" resembles Caparezza's "Fuori dal Tunnel";[8] and "Hua Die Fei" purportedly sampled O-Zone's "Dragostea din tei.

"[9] Zhang Wei and representatives of EMI acknowledged the similarities, stating that while the songs were not intentionally plagiarized, they did contain some flaws.

Zhang Wei claimed that the band members listened to up to 100 songs per day, resulting in so many tunes stored in their heads that they "had no time to identify, revise, and remove" those that were not originally theirs.

According to reports, the situation escalated when Zhang Wei struck another band member, later identified as Xingyu, and pushed a man who attempted to intervene.

While some speculated that the altercation might have been a publicity stunt, Zhang Yi stated that the band was too busy to engage in such tactics.

Shi Xingyu, nicknamed Xiao Yu (Chinese: 小宇; pinyin: Xiǎo Yǔ), was born on 11 January 1983.