Yang Yang

Yang Yang (, born September 9, 1991) is a Chinese actor. He is known as one of the "Big Four" or "Four Major Traffic Stars" alongside Li Yifeng, Lu Han and Kris Wu, due to their immense popularity and influence in mainland China. He made his acting debut in the Chinese television drama The Dream of Red Mansions. Since then, he has received recognition for his roles in television dramas The Lost Tomb (2015), The Whirlwind Girl (2015), Love O2O (2016), Martial Universe (2018), The King's Avatar (2019), You Are My Glory (2021), Glory of Special Forces (2022), Who Rules The World (2022), Fireworks of My Heart (2023), The Immortal Ascension (2025) and films The Left Ear (2015), I Belonged to You (2016), Once Upon a Time (2017), Vanguard (2020).

He was ranked 5th on the 2017 Forbes China Celebrity 100 list, 27th in 2019 and 44th in 2020. He was China's first Olympic flame torch bearer for the Rio Olympic Games in Greece, on April 22, 2016. He also became the first artist to be featured on the China Post postage stamp in January 2016.

Early life Yang Yang was born in Shanghai and studied dance since he was a child. In 2003, Yang Yang applied for the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art and Shanghai Dance Academy at the same time. At the young age of 12, he decided to enrollee in the Department of Dance in People's Liberation Army Academy of Art in Beijing China. He also studied at the Central Academy of Drama for a period of time. Yang was a soldier with excellent character and study during his school years. In the second year of admission, he won the first place in his major and participated in international and domestic dance competitions on behalf of the school many times. At that time, his dream was to be a professional dancer. In 2007, Yang performed the solo dance "Dandelion" at the graduation ceremony of Nanjing Military Region.

Career 2007–2014: Beginning Before the Spring Festival in 2007, the crew of Li Shaohong's version of Dream of Red Mansions selected 15 candidate actors from the People's Liberation Army Academy of Art, and initially confirmed that 6 actors, including Yang Yang, participated in the collective training. At this time, he was preparing for the graduation report ceremony of the Nanjing Military Region and participating in the international dance competition, so he could not participate in the group training. Subsequently, under the coordination of many parties, he received separate training from the crew. After two months of professional training, at 16, he was selected by director Li Shaohong to become the actor of the adult Jia Baoyu in Dream of Red Mansions, thus entering the film and television industry. This series was one of the most expensive Chinese TV series produced at RMB118 million (US$17.55 million), the 50-episode drama premiered on July 6, 2010.

In 2011, Yang featured in The Founding of a Party, a patriotic tribute detailing the process of establishing the Chinese Communist Party. He continued to build up his filmography, featuring in war dramas The War Doesn't Believe in Tears (2012) and Ultimate Conquest (2013), and romance series Flowers Pinellia (2013). On April 29, 2014, Yang ended his contract of 7 years with his company Rosat Entertainment.

2015–2016: Rising popularity, breakthrough and continued success In 2015, Yang started to gain recognition for his performance in The Left Ear, a coming-of-age film which is also the directorial debut of Alec Su. The film was a box-office hit, and Yang received positive for his performance as Xu Yi. The box office crossed over 484.42 million yuan. He then participated in travel-reality show Divas Hit the Road Season 2 which was a huge topic online when it aired and helped Yang top the "2015 Chinese Reality Show Star Ranking". He next starred in action-adventure web-drama The Lost Tomb based on the novel of the same name. The Lost Tomb was the most watched web drama of the year with 2.8 billion views, and Yang gained acclaim from novel fans and audience for his portrayal of Zhang Qiling. Yang then played the male lead in youth sports drama The Whirlwind Girl, which gained one of the highest viewership ratings of the year, with over 5 billion views. He also released his first single, "Tender Love". At the end of the year, Yang won several awards including the Most Popular Actor of the Year at iQiyi All-Star Carnival; and the Most Talked About Actor and Most Influential Actor awards at the China TV Drama Awards.

In 2016, Yang appeared in CCTV New Year's Gala for the first time, where his song item "Father and Son" alongside Tong Tiexin was voted the most popular program. He starred in youth romance drama Love O2O, based on Gu Man's novel of the same name. The drama was an international hit, and is the most viewed modern drama in China, the series gained over 28.64 billion views. Following the airing of Love O2O, Yang experienced a huge surge in popularity and successfully broke into the mainstream. To thank his fans, Yang released the song "Love is Crazy", a jazz/rock single. He next starred in romance film I Belonged to You, which was a huge success and broke the box-office sales record of 813 million yuan for mainland-produced romance films. He was named as one of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities with most commercial value by CBN Weekly. thumb In 2017, Yang starred alongside Liu Yifei in fantasy romance film Once Upon a Time. Box office crossed 535 million yuan. Forbes China listed Yang under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields. In 2018, Yang starred in the fantasy action drama Martial Universe and achieved over 8 billion views. In 2019, Yang played the leading role Ye Xiu in the eSports drama The King's Avatar. The series The King’s Avatar was reported as the most profitable series by Tencent in 2019 and surpassed 4.32 billion views. In 2020, Yang starred in action film Vanguard alongside Jackie Chan, box office crossed 294.26 million yuan. In 2021, Yang was cast in You Are My Glory as Yu Tu, an aerospace engineer. As a much-anticipated drama due to popularity of its original work (novel of the same name), this show has successfully gathered a total of 5.14 billion views. This show also won the Tencent Business Breakthrough award in 2021.

In 2022, a drama based on military genre, Glory of the Special Forces (directed by Xu Jizhou) cast him as the lead role Yan Poyue. The series Glory of the Special Forces contributed to a market share of 34.11% and with the highest overall rating of 1.006% in recent years for any military series, the series exceeded 2.6 billion views. In the same year, Yang starred in the wuxia fantasy romance drama titled Who Rules the World as Feng Lanxi, based on the novel by Qing Lengyue. The only foreign show to rank 4th in Netflix Korea's Top 10 Most viewed series on July 24, 2022, achieved 4.44 billion views on Tencent.

Yang starred in the action romance drama Fireworks of My Heart adapted from the web novel Waiting for You in a City by Jiu Yue Xi. He played the lead role as Song Yan, Chief of the Shilitai Fire Station. The series was broadcast on July 5, 2023 on Mango TV and Hunan TV, the series surpassed 3.16 billion views. On September 15, 2024, he starred in the series Zhan Zhao Adventures. On July 27, 2025, the ancient costume drama The Immortal Ascension was broadcast on Youku. The series exceeded 10254 index and achieved 2 billion views.

Other activities On February 19, 2017, Yang had his wax figure displayed at Madam Tussauds Shanghai. His second wax figure was displayed at Madame Tussauds Beijing on July 19, 2017.

Endorsements

Filmography Film Year English title Chinese title RoleNotes 2011 The Founding of a Party 建党伟业 Yang Kaizhi Support Role 2012 Joyful Reunion 饮食男女2012 Shizhe (young) Support Role 2015 The Unbearable Lightness of Inspector Fan 暴走神探 Zhanshi Wu Support Role The Left Ear 左耳 Xu Yi Main Role 2012 The War Doesn't Believe in Tears 战争不相信眼泪 Du Changyou Main RoleTencent, iQIYI, Youku 2013 Legend of Goddess Luo 新洛神 Cao Zhi Main RoleTencent Video, Youku Ultimate Conquest 武间道 Bai Niansheng Main RoleTencent, iQIYI Tiny Times 小时代之折纸时代 Neil Support RoleYouku 2015 The Four 少年四大名捕 Wu Qing Main RoleMango TV The Lost Tomb 盗墓笔记 Zhang Qiling Main Role iQIYI, Mango TV 2018 The Chronicles of Town Called Jian 茧镇奇缘 Huang Moru Main Role MangoTV Martial Universe (seasons 1 & 2) 武动乾坤 Lin Dong Main Role Youku 2021 You Are My Glory 你是我的荣耀 Yu Tu Main Role Tencent Video, iQIYI 2022 Glory of Special Forces 特战荣耀 Yan Poyue Main Role Tencent Video, iQIYI, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Dragon TV 2023 Fireworks of My Heart 我的人间烟火 Song Yan Main Role MangoTV, Hunan TV2025 The Immortal Ascension 凡人修仙传 Han Li Main Role Youku, Netflix (Taiwan), Zhejiang Satellite TV, Shenzhen Satellite TV, Southeast Television 2026Zhan Zhao Adventures雨霖铃Zhan Zhao Main Role Youku, CCTV-8, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Disney + (Taiwan)Not Yielding The Kingdom 不让江山 Li Chi Main RoleTencent Video

Short film Year English title Chinese title 2016 Searching for the Legend of Nian 寻年传说 Be and Cherry Eating Show 百草味演吃会 Healing Island 治愈之岛 Jasmine Flowers 茉等花开 My VR Boyfriend 我的VR男友 I Am Your Yang Yang Phone 我是你的咩咩phone The Smile of Yi Q 衣q博士的微微一笑 2017 Travel Through an Alluring Smile 穿越笑倾城 2017 The Magical Journey of Liliput 小人国奇幻之旅 Love of Jasmine 茉莉之恋 Love Toward and Death and Reborn 爱向死而生 Protect and Never Let Go 守护不放 2018 Music For Jasmine True Love Confession 音为茉莉 真情告白 2019 Star Picked 摘星者 1970, I Am The Main Character 70年，我是主角

Variety shows Year English title Chinese title Role Network 2013 Star Soldier 防务精英之星兵报到 Cast member Beijing TV 2015 Divas Hit the Road (Season 2) 花儿与少年Hunan TV 2021Youth Periplous (Season 3) 青春环游记 Zhejiang TV

Music video appearances Year English title Chinese title Singer 2010 "Granting Me a Red Mansions Dream" 许我一个红楼梦 Lin Shen 2017 "For My 17-year-old Self" 给17岁的自己 Secret Fruit cast

Theatre Year English title Chinese title Role 2009 The Dream of Red Mansions 红楼梦Jia Baoyu

Discography

Singles

Accolades Awards and nominations

Forbes China Celebrity 100 YearRank 20175th 201927th 202044th