Mark Tuan


Mark Tuan, known mononymously as Mark, is an American rapper, singer and model based in South Korea. He is a member of the South Korean boy group Got7 under JYP Entertainment.

Biography

Born as Mark Yien Tuan in Los Angeles, California, he spent a number of years in Paraguay and Brazil before eventually returning to California, where he grew up. He is of Taiwanese descent, and has two older sisters and one younger brother. He took violin and piano lessons in elementary school, and moved to guitar in junior high school.
He attended Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California. In 2010, while with his friends at school, he caught the attention of a JYP Entertainment scout, who invited him to the auditions. Tuan had no desire to pursue a musical career but was encouraged by his friends and family told him it was a good opportunity and thus, he gave it a try. He subsequently passed the audition and dropped out of school, which he attended until grade 10. He moved to South Korea in August 2010, where he learned acrobatics for one year, and martial arts for two years. Learning to sing, rap and dance, and performing on a stage as a trainee, inspired him to pursue the idol life and to become a singer.

Career

2012–2013: Pre-debut

In 2012, Tuan made a cameo in the first episode of Dream High 2 as a backup dancer alongside co-members and main actors, JB and Jinyoung.
He appeared in the fourth episode of Mnet's 2013 reality-survival program WIN: Who is Next, which presented iKon and Winner members of YG. It also featured fellow Got7 member's Jackson, BamBam and Yugyeom.

2014–present: Debut with Got7 and solo career

On January 16, 2014, Mark debuted as a part of K-pop boy group Got7, with the EP Got It?. Since his debut, Tuan has expressed his goals in working harder to become a singer-songwriter and making his own music. Tuan officially began writing rap and lyrics for many Got7 songs since the Just Right EP, with the track "Back To Me". He contributed heavily to ', participating in the rap and lyric making in five out of thirteen songs, including "My Home" and "Let Me". The album went on to sell 200,000 album copies in South Korea, and debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's World Albums Chart with 2,000 copies sold in the US. With Got7's third studio album ', Mark released his first Korean solo song "OMW" featuring fellow member Jackson. September 13, 2018 marked the release date of "OMW" as Tuan's first solo music video which later became the first music video from a JYPE idol to achieve one million views on Naver.
As Got7 have become well known internationally, they have benefitted from the vast language skills within the group, including Mark's English since they are able to forego having translators for interviews in the US.
Tuan has shown a keen interest in the fashion industry with launching his career as a model on magazines across South Korea, China and Thailand. Since early 2017, he has appeared on Dazed Korea, Ceci Korea, Grazia, Oh! Boy, Arena Homme+, 1st Look, Chicteen, Sudsapda, Stream, Yoho, Firebible, Jstyle, Beijing Youth Weekly, Nylon, Ele, Allure, Cosmo, The Star, Shinyouth, K-Media, Vogue Korea, GQ Thailand, Sweetdonut, Ginger, Starbox Young, Size, Vogue Thailand, Unnamedideal, Juz! Entertainment, Madame Figaro Mode, etc. Tuan became the cover of the 200th issue of the Korean charitable magazine The Big Issue, which provides support for the homeless, in March 2019. He has also released two limited edition apparel collections with Represent in 2018 and 2019 under XCIII referring to his birth year, helping in the creation and designing of each piece. The second collection, XCIII Evolution, sold 40,446 items, and all the profits proceeded to charity. After attending Milan Fashion Week 2019 for Ermenegildo Zegna with GQ Thailand and his collaboration with Represent, Tuan has expressed the desire to create his own brand.
Tuan's increasing presence in the Chinese market began in 2018 with attending photoshoots, events and interviews. In January 2019, the variety show Change Your Life marked Tuan's first television appearance in mainland China. On April 11, 2019, Tuan attended the Weibo Starlight Awards in Hong Kong and won the Hot Star Award.
In the spring of 2019, he joined Jus2 in their 'Focus' Premiere Showcase in Asia, acting as the MC for Macau, Taipei and Singapore stops.
Tuan held his first ever set of fan meetings in China, titled "On Your Mark", visiting Nanjing, Chengdu and Shanghai from 2019 to 2020. On July 20, 2019, he held the first of his solo fan meetings in Nanjing, China which sold out all 3000 seats. It was reported that the tickets for the event sold out within the first minute. The event also saw the signing of his first photobook, Mark宜夏, which had been earlier released on June 30. He then went on to a September 14 fan meeting in Chengdu, China the same year followed by a final stop in Shanghai, China on January 11, 2020. On the day of the last fan meeting, he released his first Chinese single, "Outta My Head", officially debuting as a solo artist. His second single, titled "从未对你说过" in Chinese and translated to "Never Told You", was released as a charity single on White Day, later made available on Spotify and Apple Music via Dark Horse Entertainment. "从未对你说过" was released in collaboration with the China Children's Charity Relief Foundation, and their partnership also saw the sale of a sweater in collaboration with ETET to help children in Heqing County in Yunnan Province.
Promoting in four countries, he has had many endorsement deals across China and Vivo in Thailand alongside group member BamBam. This includes becoming the Brand Ambassador in China for Davines in April 2019 and Mentholatum on May 27, 2020 for Mentholatum Acnes, having previously endorsed Mentholatum's Lip Tiara in December 2019.
From June 15, 2020, Tuan appeared on Season 10 of Huya Super Idol League as "Gamer Mark".

Personal life

Growing up in the US and coming from a Taiwanese family, Tuan can speak both English and Mandarin, as well as Korean, Japanese and very basic Spanish.
In December 2018, Tuan suffered from a leg injury while practicing martial arts tricking for the JYP Nation stage and could not perform at the event or at later schedules including the fifth anniversary fan meeting for Got7, therefore he stayed seated for most of the concert.
Tuan continues to provide support and donations through his work, such as charity donations through his clothing line collaboration and his second single, "从未对你说过". In February 2020, he donated towards the purchase of ventilators for the COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, China. On May 31, 2020, Tuan donated $7,000 to the George Floyd Memorial Fund and the Black Lives Matter movement in light of events in the US.

Discography

Singles

Writing credits

All song credits, under Mark, are adapted from the Korea Music Copyright Association's database, unless otherwise noted. Therefore, the list only refers to the relevant Korean or Japanese songs.

Filmography

Dramas

Variety shows

Music videos

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryResultRef
2019Weibo Starlight AwardsHot Star Award