SNH48 (short for SHANGHAI48) is a Chinese idol group and was formerly the third international sister group of AKB48, a Japanese idol group. The group has their own theater in Shanghai, China. On June, 2016 it was announced that SNH48 and its sister groups became fully independent from AKB48 and therefore are no longer affiliated with them. Following AKB48's creator Yasushi Akimoto's concept of "idols you can meet", the group features 100+ female members around the age of 20 and younger, who perform regularly in the group's own theater and interact with fans predominantly through handshake events. The group is owned by the Chinese companies NineStyle and Star48. Their sister groups have their individual theaters as well, located in the city they were created, and hold handshake events. SNH48 are split into 5 teams to balance the members out (SII, NII, HII, X, and XII). BEJ, GNZ, SHY, and CKG also follow the same management style.

What is a group shuffle?

• In comparison to AKB48, SNH48 will only have one group shuffle in early February. It's rare for the Chinese sister group to have one, but during this event, members are often forced to switch to different teams within SNH, unfortunately having to leave their group bonds behind and form new ones. It's emotional for the girls, but a tactic management chooses to do for promotional reasons. Some girls are also appointed as new captains (leaders) of their team whether they've been shuffled into a new one, or remain in their old.