Wang Yibo
Wang Yibo is a Chinese actor, dancer, singer, rapper, host and a professional motorcycle racer. He is a member of South Korean-Chinese boyband UNIQ. Wang received recognition for his role as Lan Wangji in the drama The Untamed.
Early life and education
Wang Yibo was born on 5 August 1997 in Luoyang, Henan, China. He started dancing when he was young and in 2011, during his second year in secondary school, Wang participated in IBD dance competition. Emerging as top sixteen in the hip-hop category, he then became a trainee of Yuehua Entertainment. Prior to his debut, Wang trained in South Korea and studied in Hanlim Multi Art School.Career
2014–2017: Debut with Uniq and acting debut
Wang debuted in 2014 as a member of the South Korean-Chinese boy band group Uniq with the song "Falling in Love". He served as the lead dancer and rapper of the group.Wang made his acting debut in the film MBA Partners. He then played the role of Red Boy in A Chinese Odyssey Part Three, and starred in the romance comedy drama Love Actually. Since 2016, he is a host on the variety program Day Day Up.
In March 2017, Wang was cast in his first lead role in the youth xianxia drama Private Shushan Gakuen. In April, he won the Best New Idol Award at the Top Chinese Music Awards. In August, Wang and Guan Xiaotong collaborated to sing Once Again, the theme song of the movie with same name. In November, Wang released the theme song Just Dance for the 4th Xuan Wu Dance Festival. The same year, he made a guest appearance in the youth campus drama When We Were Young, and was cast in the science fiction drama Super Talent.
2018–present: Rising popularity
In celebration of the 2018 lunar new year, Wang performed his solo dance number at the Hunan Spring Festival of the Hunan Television. He also performed, along with other Hunan Television hosts, an adaptation of UNIQ's song "Happy New Year".In March 2018, Wang was confirmed as a dance mentor in the reality survival show Produce 101. He gained increased recognition for his dance skills on the show. In one of the episodes of the show, Wang revealed that during his childhood he had a disease called myocarditis and had to give up dancing and undergo serious medication to recover. Eventually, he was cured and had to start learning how to dance from scratch. Wang further shared that after his recovery, he went to dance lessons for six hours everyday.
In 2019, Wang starred in the esports romance drama Gank Your Heart, playing a misunderstood professional gamer. He also sung the drama's theme song, "The Coolest Adventure".
The same year, he starred in the xianxia drama The Untamed, based on the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi, as one of the two male leads alongside Xiao Zhan. He and Xiao also released a duet tiled "Unrestrained" for the drama; and also released the song "Won't Forget", the theme song of his character in the series. Wang gained increased recognition and popularity with his portrayal of Lan Wangji. The series was also popular overseas, leading to increased global recognition for Wang.
Wang entered the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list for the first time, ranking 71st; Forbes China also listed Wang under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields.
On 30 December 2019, Wang released his single "No Sense". Within 20 minutes of its release, 6 million digital copies were sold with the sales exceeding 18 million yuan. After 10 hours, 10 million digital copies were sold and the sales exceeded 30 million yuan. It has become the fastest selling digital single of NetEase Music to reach the sales of 10 million yuan. "No Sense" is the first attempt of Wang in songwriting. He wrote it intermittently as he was also busy shooting the drama series Legend of Fei. Wang shared that the song was about his own feelings and experiences. He wanted to portray through his song that he wished others can also overcome difficulties and keep a good mindset. During the Hunan Television New Year's Eve Concert 2020, Wang performed "No Sense" live on stage for the first time.
In May 2020, Wang was confirmed as one of the captains of the dance competition show Street Dance of China.
Wang is set to star in the wuxia drama Legend of Fei alongside Zhao Liying. He is also set to play as a policeman in the crime detective drama Being a Hero alongside Chen Xiao directed by Fu Dongyu.
Personal life
In 2019, Wang competed as a professional racer as part of the Yamaha China Racing Team.In August 2019, Wang received numerous unsolicited phone calls from callers who purchased his personal telephone number online. Wang was patient and graceful as he answered some of these calls and personally appealed to the callers to respect his privacy and stop calling. He took to his Weibo account to urge fans to support and love him rationally, to stop calling him and not to waste their money to purchase his number as the calls have adversely affected his lifestyle. He informed that he would change his number even though it was troublesome for him to update his loved ones and transaction arrangements linked to his phone number. He posted screen grab of receiving 194 calls from unknown numbers. Wang's management agency, Yue Hua Entertainment threatened to take action informing that it has kept a record of these numbers and that it may turn them over to the authorities if necessary.
Social activities
In November 2019, Wang received his firefighter number and certificate, subsequently officially became a member of Hunan Star Volunteer Brigade. He specially filmed a video calling on the public to pay attention to fire safety. On the same month, he officially served as the Firefighting Public Welfare Ambassador of Louyang City. He previously participated in firefighting training on one of the episodes of Day Day Up.On 8 December 2019, with his great influence among young people, Wang was honored as the Kuwo Music's 2019 Role Model Reading Charity Artist. He was one of the celebrity readers of "Model Reading", the first youth reading and sharing program jointly created by Kuwo Music and China Youth Daily. It aims to evoke interest and enthusiasm of the youth to start reading literary works.
Towards the end of January 2020, Wang and more than 200 celebrities donated a total of 278 million yuan to Han Hong Charity Foundation in order to help the city of Wuhan, an area vastly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Wang made another donation to Wuhan together with the other hosts of Day Day Up. They collectively donated 1 million yuan, masks, protective clothing and other necessary supplies.
Wang sung a number of original songs as a tribute to front liners of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to convey love and hope during those challenging times. Under the guidance of the Communist Youth League Central Propaganda Department, Wang and other actors collaborated to sing "With you by your side", a song that is part of the music album "Love is not Separated" jointly created by China Youth Daily, China Youth Online, and Ku Wo Music. On March 2020, Wang and Xinhua News Agency launched the tribute song "Because we are together" to inspire people to work together against the pandemic.
As part of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee promotional event for the 2022 Winter Olympics, in a video on 6 March 2020, Wang introduced the Olympics winter game of snowboarding. This has exceeded 118 million readings on the Weibo platform.
To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day in April 2020, Wang starred as a bionic blue-haired man in a science fiction short film about environmental protection. This film was part of his cover story on GQ Style Summer/Spring 2020 issue with the concept of promoting environmental awareness and protecting our common home.
Wang was also one of the celebrities, who promoted the 50th anniversary of Dong Fang Hong I, the first space satellite of the People's Republic of China. In his "Make a Wish on China’s Star" promotional Weibo post, he shared his dream to visit Mugello Circuit in Italy, watch his idol Valentino Rossi race there and to complete a lap on a motorcycle himself.
On 1 June 2020, Wang was announced as the Chinese ambassador of "NO CHILD ALONE - I want to have a family" campaign that was jointly launched by China SOS Children's Village Association and Easy to Raise Fundraising. He advocated for the general public to pay attention to orphans' welfare and participate in helping to make a positive impact in the children's lives.