5 Chinese stars who first found fame in K-pop
Kris Wu, Lu Han, Huang Zitao, Zhang Yixing and Han Geng all signed with a Korean talent agency and joined boy bands before success as solo entertainers
K-pop has, without doubt, a huge influence on millennials.
Many young people around the world are attracted to K-pop’s catchy rhythms, great dance steps and visuals.
Let’s check out five Chinese celebrities on the rise, who received training in the entertainment industry in South Korea – Kris Wu, Lu Han, Huang Zitao, Zhang Yixing and Han Geng.
1. Kris Wu
The Chinese Canadian artist Kris Wu rose to fame after getting his start in the industry as part of the popular, 12-member Korean-Chinese boy band EXO.
Wu was selected after auditioning for the South Korean talent agency and music production company, SM Entertainment, in Vancouver, Canada, at the age of 18.
He was a member of EXO’s subgroup, EXO-M, but left the boy band in 2014 to pursue a solo career.
Since then Wu has stayed busy and grown increasingly popular with Chinese and international millennials – thanks to modelling work, including making his runway debut with Burberry in 2016, signing up with Universal Music Group and acting in Hollywood films, including the action-thriller xXx: Return of Xander, alongside Vin Diesel, and director Luc Besson’s sci-fi fantasy Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.