Calculasian grew out of an earlier, 16-member singing group at Berkeley, a brainchild of Li's in 2011. Having attended chorus performances and learning piano and flute since childhood, Li was eager to promote Chinese pop songs abroad.

The six members of Calculasian formed the splinter band as a way to celebrate their friendship as they bid farewell to some of the original group members, who graduated in 2013.

"We never expected it to be so much fun and to gain so many fans," says Li, who is also a member of UC Men's Octet, an eight-member male a cappella group at the university.

In November 2013, they released their first performance online, titled Evolution of Chinese Music, a collection of several Chinese pop hits. Then the group performed a mix of Chinese and English pop songs, including Michael Jackson's Love Never Felt So Good and The Brightest Star in the Sky from Beijing-based indie band Escape Plan. That video with about a dozen songs was viewed more than 700,000 times online.

According to Chen Chen, an architecture major in the group who graduated in 2013, the name Calculasian came from the combination of calculus and Asian.