Xiao Shancha

小山茶 Xiǎo Shāncháシァオ・シャンチャ
Profile information
Gender	Female
Age	21
Measure.	Height: 157 cm Weight: 57 kg
Ethnicity	Chinese (ethnicity) American (nationality)
General information
Introduced	February 16, 2019
Type	JAE-04
Affiliation	Sayo Silver (voicer, manager) Migi (manager) Purpled (Default illustrator, concept artist) TerrainAkka (CVVCV Japanese illustrator)
Language	Japanese
Voicebank	Reclist: CV, CVVCV Range: Alto
Formats	Romaji encoded Kana aliased
Sources	Character page

Xiao Shancha (小山茶) is a voicebank for the UTAU program. She is the fourth character released by JAE VOCAL PROJECT.

History

Pre-production: 2014-2019

Prior to 2014, Xiao Shancha was an adopted OC known as "Chavil". Her previous version had few illustrations and an MMD model, neither of which are in use.

On May 6, 2016, it was revealed that three projects were being planned after Xiao Meihua's release. These were later revealed to be Ser0, JD, and "Ming Cha" (明茶). It was noted that Ming Cha would be able to sing in Mandarin and Japanese. The voice provider was confirmed to be related to Migi.

After Ser0's release, focus shifted to developing the third character in the JAE UTAU PROJECT series. The team worked on four different characters simultaneously with one of them being Ming Cha. It was decided that she would become Xiao Meihua's younger sister and the surname, "Xiao" (小), was given to the pair. "Xiao Mingcha" was ultimately scrapped as a name because it didn't make sense. To match Meihua's floral theme, she was officially named "Xiao Shancha". A new design was worked upon after her name was chosen.

Toward the end of 2018, it was decided that Shancha's Japanese vocal would release first due to development issues with the Mandarin vocal. At first, she was planned to release in December but was later pushed to February 16, 2019 and was expected to be JAE-03.

In January 2019, Canary was developed and he released on February 2, pushing back Shancha's status. She was released as intended on February 16 as JAE-04. Shancha's voice provider was confirmed to be Sayo Silver, Migi's younger sister.

Shancha was expected to receive DeepVocal voicebanks along with UTAU. Her first DeepVocal voicebank was released on December 21, 2019.

2020

On April 5, 2020, it was reconfirmed that Shancha's Mandarin voicebanks are still in development. In the announcement, it was revealed that she and Yu Junjie were initially going to have CV+VV voicebanks like Meihua, but were scrapped due to the possibility of the banks not working in DeepVocal. Rather, it was decided that both were to use Risku's CVVChinese reclist in order to be usable in both UTAU and DeepVocal. Recording for these vocalists have not yet started at the time.

In July 2020, Migi mentioned that English, Korean, and Cantonese Chinese voicebanks were in consideration for Shancha. They also noted that Meihua had too much attention around that time period and wanted to shift his workload focus to Shancha instead. In their words, they felt that because Shancha never got to release with her Mandarin voicebank and only with Japanese, "we owe her more... and to make up for her losses", "she is owed so much". Recordings for Shancha were completed on August 9, but no details of language nor synthesizer were given.

2021

On February 16, 2021, a demo for Shancha's Mandarin voicebank was revealed for her second anniversary. It was confirmed that it was using Risku's CVVC reclist and that the voicebank would be available for both UTAU and DeepVocal. These voicebanks were developed by Ryan-kun. Shancha's default UTAU design would be used for this voicebank as it was always intended to be made for it. This means that she was in a similar situation to Meihua where she would be receiving a different design for Japanese if she were to receive an update. The DeepVocal design was confirmed to be matching with Meihua, although nothing was elaborated as Meihua's Chinese DeepVocal art was not yet revealed at the time. Depending on if any fixes were needed for the voicebank and the completion of other projects, Shancha CVVChinese was expected to release in 2021 or later.

2022

Shancha's first official demo for her Japanese CVVCV DeepVocal voicebank was announced on March 21, 2022 and was set to release on the 24th. This was planned to have a total of two DeepVocal demos and two or three UTAU demos. The release date was unknown but was planned for either 2022 or 2023. It was noted that this version was mainly made to have her more usable in DeepVocal due to the limitations of CV, which for UTAU, was noted was 3 years old at the time of the announcement and was due for an update. The voicebank was confirmed to be monopitch. New designs for Shancha Japanese UTAU and Mandarin Chinese DeepVocal were expected, but the illustrators were not to be revealed until later.

2023

The first demo for Shancha's Japanese CVVCV UTAU voicebank was revealed on February 16, 2023 for her 4th anniversary. Unlike the DeepVocal version, the UTAU voicebank was developed by an anonymous user. JAE VOCAL PROJECT noted that it may take a long time before Shancha's new Japanese voicebanks can finally be released. The CVVCV Japanese voicebanks for UTAU and DeepVocal were released on October 7, with a new illustration representing Shancha's Japanese UTAU voicebank by TerrainAkka.

Concept

While her biography was written by her creators, it is not strictly canon. Shancha may be depicted in any way as long as her character and software terms of use are not broken.

Shancha is a girl who often keeps to herself around strangers. Whenever she speaks, she tends to say what's on her mind and is described to be very blunt. She is also stubborn, often refusing help because she wants to be more independent. Although strangers find her to be serious or difficult to approach, she is very gentle towards people she likes. She enjoys teasing and caring for her friends and family. While she is a good listener, there are times where she spaces out to the point that people think she's listening anyways. While she won't always share her problems in person, she tends to make videos of herself ranting on social media, often adding quips and jokes to make them more humorous.

Shancha does not tolerate people who try to create problems for her, her sister, or her friends. She is not afraid to retaliate verbally or physically if needed to, however, she may scare other people away from her because of this.

Shancha has two familiars. The first is an arctic wolf named Luna. She is a quiet but loyal companion who is cautious of others around her. The second is a Chinese dwarf hamster named Snowball. He is an adorable companion who is seemingly angry most of the time.

Likes:

• Dolls and stuffed animals - Because they're cute.
• Famous idols - Ranges from movie actors, singers, and Internet stars. Has her own favorites.
• Face masks - They make her seem mysterious and cool.
• Cameras - She enjoys photography and selfies.
• Animals
• Cell phones - Preferably her own.
• Naps - She could nap anywhere at any time.
• Shanghai dumplings - The juicier, the better.

Dislikes:

• Fake and annoying people
• Troublesome and annoying issues
• Interrupted naps - Never interrupt them. That would be the biggest mistake anyone would make.

Etymology

Her surname, "Xiao" (小; Xiǎo) means "small" or "little". Her given name is formed by two characters: "shan" (山; shān), meaning "mountain", and "cha" (茶; chá), meaning "tea". In the literal sense, her given name would mean "mountain tea", but it derived from the word "shāncháhuā" (山茶花), meaning "camellia flower". Altogether, her name means or references "small camellia flower".

Her name is rendered in kana as "シァオ・シャンチャ".

Appearance

Xiao Shancha is a young woman with deep purple hair that almost looks black or dark brown. Her hair is worn in two buns at the top while the rest are worn in two pony tails. Like her older sister, Xiao Meihua, Shancha's hair is noticeably curly or wavy. She has sea green eyes and wears dark lipstick. Her dress is a mixture of modern and traditional styles. The collar and top of the dress is based on a cheongsam while the rest is fitted in an hourglass shape. Two striped suspenders are draped over her chest area and meet to join into one single piece on her back. Her midsection is covered in a sash-like piece. The bottom of the dress has three layers. The light green top piece is split into two, revealing the middle light blue section. The middle section tops the end of the dress. This end piece has a rounded edge. She wears brown stockings, with the left leg covered in green stripes, and knee-high purple boots covered in studs. She wears long purple gloves that attach to her middle fingers. The other side of the gloves has a short green piece.

Relations

• Xiao Meihua - older sister. Shancha likes to tease her, especially when Meihua is dense in certain situations, but is very loving and protective of her.
• Ser0 - friend. Ser0 is someone Shancha respects and likes, especially for mischievous behaviors.
• Canary - friend. Shancha thinks he's strange, but is willing to help him learn about Earth-related things, though does trick him from time to time.
• JD - friend. Shancha respects JD enough, but thinks there is something devious about him. She has yet to uncover what she suspects is his "true nature".
• kEna - friend. kEna is viewed as a complete klutz and Shancha takes pleasure in teasing him at every chance she gets.
• Yu Junjie - friend. Shancha views Junjie as her older brother figure, but finds it tiresome when he fusses over her too often. She dislikes it when he tries to get her to stop investigating JD's "evil intentions".
• Xiao Naidong - male derivative.

Voice Configuration

Voice	Reclist ; Range	Description ; Download
Japanese 1.0	CV; Alto	"A monopitch soft and breathy vocal. Developed by Purpled. Reclist by GrayOblivion.; Dropbox Baidu Drive (Password: lkl8)"
Japanese 2.0	CVVCV; Alto	"A monopitch soft and breathy vocal. Reclist by Zurui. Developer is anonymous. Released on October 7, 2023.; Dropbox Baidu Drive (Password: s411)"
Mandarin 1.0	CVVC; Alto	"A monopitch soft and breathy vocal. Described to have a natural-tone of voice. Developed by Ryan-kun. Reclist by Risku.; TBA"

Voice details

• Input - Romaji encoded and Kana aliased
• System - Microsoft Windows
• Optimum -
• Details - Shancha is an alto with a soft and breathy type of voice. A suitable complementary vocal to her sister, Xiao Meihua.

Voice samples

Playlists

• Playlist - bilibili
• Playlist - SoundCloud
• Playlist - YouTube

Crossfades

• CV Japanese 1.0 crossfade - YouTube
• CVVCV Japanese 1.0 crossfade - YouTube
• CVVChinese 1.0 demos:
  • "千里邀月" cover by Mina Moonrise - YouTube
  • "Ripples" cover by Feng Quan featuring Xiao Meihua - YouTube

Additional information

Character Terms Of Use

1. Do not claim Xiao Shancha or official artwork as your own.
2. NSFW content is allowed. This does not apply to MMD models and other works from people who are not from the JAE VOCAL PROJECT group. Please follow the rules of the creators! If their works are not allowed to be used for NSFW content, then do not use them for NSFW content!
3. For commercial use of her character, permission is not required as long it falls under doujinshi (self-published) works. Contacting JAE VOCAL PROJECT is optional and encouraged as the members would like to see and support the work.
4. Derivatives must be made with permission.
5. Shippings and pairings are allowed, but do not force as canon. Do not portray Shancha and Xiao Meihua as a romantic couple as they are canonically sisters. This also applies to any derivatives based on their characters. Do not ship Shancha with characters under the age of 18.
6. Do not use Shancha's character for hate speech.
7. Political use is not allowed.
8. Unofficial roleplay accounts and ask blogs are forbidden for Shancha.
9. Any relations with NFTs is prohibited.
10. Creating the character of Xiao Shancha through AI artwork generation applications and software is prohibited.
11. Using artwork of Xiao Shancha to train AI artwork generation applications and software is prohibited, especially without the explicit consent of both JAE VOCAL PROJECT and the original artist.

Voicebank Terms Of Use

1. Do not claim Shancha's voicebanks as your own.
2. NSFW content is allowed, but do not use the voicebank in songs portraying her in a relationship with those under the age of 18 or with Meihua.
3. For commercial use of her voicebanks, permission is not required as long it falls under doujinshi (self-published) works. Contacting JAE VOCAL PROJECT is optional and encouraged as the members would like to see and support the work.
4. Derivatives must be made with permission.
5. Oto.ini editing is allowed.
6. Do not edit Shancha's samples.
7. Do not use Shancha's voicebanks for hate speech.
8. Political use is not allowed.
9. Voicebank redistribution is forbidden.
10. Any relations with NFTs is prohibited.
11. Using Xiao Shancha's voicebanks to train and create, use, and distribute AI voices and voice changers is prohibited without explicit consent of JAE VOCAL PROJECT, Shi Wei Migi, and Sayo Silver.

Marketing

Official merchandise can be found on the JAE VOCAL PROJECT Storenvy and Redbubble. Storenvy was later replaced with Ko-Fi due to technical difficulties.

Shancha has an official Mii provided by Migi on the JAE VOCAL PROJECT website. This could be downloaded for the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo WiiU systems. A Nintendo Switch version was later distributed in May 2021.

Shancha received an official twitter account on August 27, 2019. It was used for interaction with fans and roleplaying. The Twitter account officially closed on December 1, 2021.

A LipSync model by Catlione was made available. In February 2021, an MMD model by OSformula was released.

Trivia

• General
• Development & Concepts
• Headcanons

• Shancha's release date, February 16, is treated as her birthday.
  • February 16 was intentionally chosen as her release date because this was the estimated due date of her voice provider, Sayo Silver. However, Sayo was born a week earlier on February 9.
• Shancha has no official sexual orientation and can be paired with anyone as long as they are not under 18 or Meihua.
• Shancha was given hair buns because this is Sayo's favorite hairstyle.
• Her habit of ranting on social media comes from Sayo often ranting about her problems on Snapchat with a big mouth and eyes filter on.
• One of Sayo's favorite animals is a wolf and one of her favorite names is "Luna". This was the basis of Sayo's familiar.
• Snowball was created after Shancha's release. In some illustrations of Shancha appearing mad, Sayo refers to her as an "angry hamster" and insisted that she should have a pet hamster with an angry face.
• Sayo's favorite flower is the camellia flower, thus influencing the UTAU's final name.
• Prior to her release, Shancha was sometimes mistaken to have leafy wings as the only available official art featured her with a camellia flower in the background. The placement of the leaves give the impression that she is a fairy-like creature when she is not in canon.
• Shancha's boots are based on a real life pair that's worth over $1,000.
• At the time of release, Shancha was the youngest of JAE VOCAL PROJECT in terms of canonical character age.
  • As of March 2022, Shancha's age was announced to be changed from 18 to 21.

Aside from the drastic overhaul of Shancha's appearance and concept, these are the most notable changes between her and Chavil:

• She and Xiao Meihua were not originally conceptualized as siblings. This is due to the fact that Chavil and Meihua's former version, Ume Kenoia, were unrelated characters. This was later changed.
• When Chavil's ownership was transferred to Migi, they didn't know much about the character. They were informed that she was based on "Yin and yang". The character had two designs: one depicting her in a black outfit and the other in white. Migi had difficulty incorporating this into Shancha's concept and scrapped it entirely.
• To have some form of reference to Chavil, the "Cha" part of the name was kept, although it has no relation to the final meaning. This lead to names such as "明茶" ("Mingcha" / "bright tea") and "山茶" ("Shancha" / "mountain tea"), which the latter was a short form of "山茶花" ("Shanchahua"; "camellia flower"). "Shancha" was chosen because it was based on a flower and matched her older sister better.

For Shancha's alternative designs, they were mostly based on the Korean MMORPG MapleStory. The outfits and color scheme reflect a particular town or area based on the game.

• Her default UTAU/Mandarin design was not based on any MapleStory map. However, if it were to be labelled, it seems more closer to Ellinia, a town inhabited by fairies and made up of habitable over-sized trees in Victoria Island.
• For DeepVocal, her design is based on El Nath, a village in Ossyria that is surrounded by mountains and ice.

When participating in OC memes on Deviantart and Twitter, Migi was asked to write facts about Shancha. The following are their headcanons:

• Her Halloween outfit is a fox spirit (Huli Jing).
• The face masks make her feel more mysterious.
• If she had a weapon, it would be a sort of sword.
• She is physically stronger than her older sister.
• She dislikes the idea of having short hair. She also dislikes having her hair touched.
• She likes metal music.
• She is Chinese American and is from New England.
• She is commonly interpreted as human or android although neither is canon.

Reputation

Work in progress

Gallery

• Boxart
• Alternatives
• Concepts
• Promotional
• Merchandise

Default by Purpled

Shancha Japanese by TerrainAkka

DeepVocal art by Oweruru

Default with flower background; illust. Purpled

Japanese without glasses; illust. TerrainAkka

Front reference by Purpled

Back reference by Purpled

CVVCV Japanese reference sheet by Purpled

Transparent

DeepVocal concept; illust. Purpled

Optional traditional design; illust. Fiorrie

Traditional design reference sheet; illust. Fiorrie

JAE VOCAL PROJECT welcomes JD; illust. oweruru

JAE VOCAL PROJECT welcomes kEna; illust. oweruru

JAE VOCAL PROJECT cast; illust. oweruru

LipSync model by Catlione

MMD model by OSformula

3rd Anniversary ft. Xiao Naidong; illust. Reishichi

4th Anniversary ft. Xiao Naidong; illust. _Aychux

5th Anniversary ft. Xiao Naidong & Luna; illust. M_Mame_E

Japanese DeepVocal acrylic keychain by faynatical

"Love Confession" acrylic keychain by nekocopicat

JAE VOCAL PROJECT 5th Anniversary acrylic standee by Mian

External links

• Official website
• Xiao Shancha's webpage
• @BroodingShancha - Official Twitter account (Defunct as of December 1, 2021)
• UTAU Wiki 2.0.
• VocaDB – UTAU entry
• DeepVocal Wiki