All About: Yang Yang

Name: Yang Yang

Birthday: September 9, 1991

Occupation: Actor

He is currently one of China's most beloved actors but just a few years back, he was a pretty ordinary actor that achieved minimal fame. I have loved him ever since the early 2010s and was always hoping that he would make it. Finally, in 2017, I am happy to say he has. After two hit dramas, he has shot his way to the top. Let us get to know this gorgeous actor for more than just his hit dramas.

Yang Yang graduated from the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art. In 2010, he starred in his first drama,The Dream in the Red Mansions, as Jia Bao Yu. This is one of the most expensive Chinese television series produced at RMB118 million (US$17.55 million).  The book this drama is based on is one of the four great classical novels. Sadly, he only achieved mediocre success through this drama. 

He continues to star in a few productions but none of them gained much popularity or critical acclaim. I did enjoy one of his dramas, Hua Kai Ban Xia or Flowers of Pinellia Ternata. Here, he plays Lu Yuan, a rich pianist who falls for the female lead. I really enjoyed that drama and though he was not the main lead, he was so adorable. I started following him since.

It was not until The Four did he gained more recognition. The Four stars an all flower boy cast with Zhang Han, William Chan, and Ma Zi Jun. Yang Yang plays Wu Qing and many fell for his cute, handsome looks but I feel that he was overshadowed by Zhang Han and William Chan. Nonetheless, this drama introduced him to the audience more.

He also stars in The Tomb which is the most watched 2015 web drama with over 2.8 billion views. The helped increase his popularity and he won Most Popular Actor of the Year at the 2016 iQiyi All-Star Carnival.

Finally, his breakthrough drama aired in 2015. He stars as the male lead in Whirlwind Girl as Ruo Bai. Whirlwind Girl is another all flower boy studded cast and talks about a girl trying to prove herself in the Taekwondo world. This drama is a commercial success. It maintained the number one spot in its time slot during its broadcast, becoming one of the highest rated Chinese dramas of 2015. This drama introduced Yang Yang to the audience even more and helped him become one of China's most popular actors.

2015 is definitely Yang Yang's year. He starred in a hit movie, The Left Ear. The Left Ear is about a girl who is partially deaf in her left ear and she falls for Yang Yang's character, Xu Yi, the popular guy at school but instead, he falls for a bar singer named Ba La La. The bar singer loves Xu Yi's stepbrother, who vows to destroy Xu Yi because his mother left to marry Xu Yi's father. This moderate-budget film became a major box office success, grossing around $78 million. He also joined the popular show, season two of Divas Hit the Road, where two young male celebrities take a group of female celebrities on an overseas trip with a limited budget.

In 2016, he starred in the mega-hit drama Love O2O. The drama is a commercial success in China and is one of the most watched Chinese modern drama, with over 30 billion views online. He plays Xiao Nai, a computer prodigy who is handsome, rich, and a talented gamer. He falls for Bei Wei Wei (Zheng Shuang) because of her great gaming skills. He approaches her online and they soon develop a romance online and offline. This drama is well loved for its handsome cast members and unique concept of dating through an online game, in which the characters play their game characters by cosplaying. The drama is pretty unique. For example, both leads are incredible independent people who match very well with each other. Xiao Nai is super romantic and it almost becomes cheesy. There are evil characters but none that are too bad. This is just a really unique and light drama that I recommend to any beginners to Mainland Chinese drama. I introduced this to a friend who once hated Chinese dramas and she ended up loving the drama and Yang Yang.

Also in 2016, he starred in the romance film, I Belonged to You. It was a huge success and broke box office sales record for mainland-produced romance films.

I am so proud of him because he honestly came a long way. I hope he continues to do teen romance dramas because that's where he belongs; however, I do hope to see him experiment with other roles and genres. Also, please support him by watching him on variety shows like Happy Camp! I wish the best of luck to this handsome, adorable actor.