PRD VIP is a monthly snippet where we introduce a person of Guangdong heritage who has made an impact on the world stage.
Of all popular topics overheard in China, the ‘post-90 generation’ – or jiuling hou – is one of the most prominent. Ask any Chinese girl born after 1990 who she has a soft spot for, and chances are she’ll tell you Wu Yifan (吴亦凡), or Kris Wu, as he’s known on stage.
This Chinese-Canadian singer, actor and model has earned his reputation through assiduous devotion to his career and, as fate would have it, plenty of supportive media hype. Wu was the first 90s kid to appear on the cover of China’s People magazine, Renwu.
Born in Guangzhou in 1990, Wu moved to Vancouver with his mother at the age of 10 and later attended Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. Growing up in a single-parent household, Wu Yifan learned independence from a young age, waiting tables and working part-time in KTV parlors after school.
Wu, who can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Korean, first entered the limelight in 2012, when he joined popular Korean boy band EXO as a rapper. Two years later, he quit the group, choosing to pursue other opportunities instead (and, as it turned out, there were plenty).
That same year, Wu made his first appearance on the big screen, playing a humble cellist and heartthrob in the Chinese film Somewhere Only We Know. He also sung a title track in the Chinese series Tiny Times and scored a place on the cover of Esquire magazine.
Wu is what Chinese nowadays call a xiao xianrou (literally meaning ‘little fresh meat,’ or a young, handsome man). Now present in almost every entertainment and fashion domain, expect to see Wu in fashion shows, reality TV, the Met Ball, Adidas commercials, Vogue China, video games and more. He’s also set to star in Luc Besson’s 2017 science fiction action film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
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