Yang Yang is a Chinese actor. He made his acting debut in the Chinese television dramaThe Dream of Red Mansions. Since then, he has received recognition for his roles in television dramas The Lost Tomb, The Whirlwind Girl, Love O2O, Martial Universe, The King's Avatar and films The Left Ear, I Belonged to You, Once Upon a Time. He was ranked fifth on the 2017 ForbesChina Celebrity 100 list, and 27th in 2019.
In December 2007, he was chosen to play the lead role Jia Baoyu by director Li Shaohong in The Dream of Red Mansions. One of the most expensiveChinese TV series produced at RMB118 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 Communist Party of China. He continued to build up his filmography, featuring in war dramas The War Doesn't Believe in Tears and :zh:武间道|Ultimate Conquest, and romance series :zh:花开半夏|Flowers of Pinellia Ternata. On April 29, 2014, Yang ended his contract of 7 years with his company Rosat Entertainment.
2015–2016: Rising popularity and breakthrough
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. He then participated in travel-reality show Divas Hit the Road, 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, 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. He also released his first single, "Tender Love". At the end of the year, Yang won several awards including the Most Popular TV Actor of the Year at iQiyi All-Star Carnival Night 2016; and the Most Anticipated Actor and Most Influential Actor awards at the China TV Drama Awards. In 2016, Yang appeared in CCTV New Year's Galafor 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. 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 for mainland-produced romance films. He was named as one of the Top 10 Chinese celebrities with most commercial value by CBN Weekly.
2017–present: Continued success
In 2017, Yang starred alongside Liu Yifei in romantic fantasy filmOnce Upon a Time. In 2018, Yang starred in the fantasy action drama Martial Universe. 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 2019, Yang played the leading role Ye Xiu in the eSports drama The King's Avatar. In 2020, Yang starred in disaster film Vanguard alongside Jackie Chan. The same year he is set to star in the military drama Glory of the Special Forces directed by Xu Jizhou.
