40 Fun Facts About Lay Zhang (Zhang Yixing)

Which 2017 Stanley Tong action comedy paired Lay Zhang with Jackie Chan on a hunt for lost treasure?

Kung Fu Yoga cast him as Xiaoguang, one of a team chasing India's lost Magadha treasure from a frozen lake to Dubai.

Which Cars 3 racer, Lightning McQueen's arrogant rookie rival, did Lay Zhang voice in the Chinese dub?

Jackson Storm, voiced by Armie Hammer in English, went to Lay Zhang for the 2017 Chinese release of the Pixar sequel.

Which Chinese zodiac animal, Lay Zhang's birth sign, names the lead single of his 2017 debut album?

Sheep is the sign he has used throughout his solo career, and fans and media in China nicknamed him "little sheep".

Lay Zhang's stage name was inspired by Huaze Lei, a character in which 2001 Taiwanese television drama?

Meteor Garden, adapted from the Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers, launched its four male stars as the boy band F4.

Which South Korean agency managed Lay Zhang until a ten-year contract ended in 2022?

SM Entertainment's founder Lee Soo-man publicly congratulated him when he launched his own company in 2020, built around a similar trainee system.

Which American singer joined Lay Zhang and NCT 127 on the 2019 Michael Jackson tribute "Let's Shut Up & Dance"?

Jason Derulo fronted the single, which was first announced on August 29, 2018, the day Michael Jackson would have turned 60.

Which US music ceremony invited Lay Zhang as promotional ambassador in 2019, its only Chinese celebrity guest?

Grammy Awards organisers put him on the red carpet and in the audience for the live 61st ceremony on February 10, 2019.

Lay Zhang's 2022 song "Time to Shine" with Nick Young marked the 75th anniversary of which sports league?

The NBA tribute reached the Finals themselves, where its video played on the big screen at Chase Center before Game 2.

In which Chinese city was Lay Zhang born in October 1991 under the name Zhang Jiashuai?

Changsha is the capital of Hunan, whose Communist Youth League made its home-grown star a publicity ambassador in July 2016.

As an ambassador for which Italian fashion house did Lay Zhang attend his first Met Gala in 2019?

Valentino dressed him in a custom suit called "Time Traveller", designed by the house's creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli.

Lay Zhang debuted in Exo-M beside Xiumin, Chen, Luhan, Tao and which leader of the Chinese sub-unit?

Kris led Exo-M until May 2014, when he sued to end his contract. Luhan and Tao followed, leaving Lay Zhang as the group's only Chinese member.

With which debut single did Exo, with Lay Zhang in its Chinese sub-unit, officially launch on April 8, 2012?

Mama followed two prologue singles, What Is Love and History, and pre-debut showcases in Seoul and Beijing.

Which 2016 debut EP by Lay Zhang, six Mandarin tracks he helped write, topped South Korea's Gaon Album Chart?

Lose Control drew more than 200,000 pre-orders, and Lay Zhang translated its lyrics into English, Korean and Japanese himself.

Which Dragon TV variety show, often likened to Korea's Infinite Challenge, featured Lay Zhang from 2015?

Go Fighting! kept him through its sixth season in 2020, by which time he and Wang Xun were the only original cast members left.

Which 2016 drama, a prequel to The Lost Tomb, starred Lay Zhang and drew over 12 billion online views?

The Mystic Nine made his character popular enough to earn a spin-off web film, Flowers Bloom in February, built around him alone.

Which 2018 iQiyi boy-group survival show had Lay Zhang as its presenter and lead mentor?

Idol Producer picked its 100 trainees from 1,908 hopefuls at 87 agencies, and viewers voted nine of them into the new boy group Nine Percent.

In which 2023 crime thriller does Lay Zhang play a programmer trafficked overseas into an online-fraud factory?

No More Bets earned over $500 million, and Cambodia banned it for fear the story would scare off tourists and investors.

Lay Zhang's December 2019 single was written as a tribute to which relative, who had died earlier that year?

His grandmother also gives the song its title, and it closed the year in which he staged his first international concert tour.

Which DJ remixed a Lay Zhang single in 2018 and joined him as a mentor on the EDM talent show Rave Now?

Alan Walker first shared a stage with him at a US festival that summer, and their reworked single came out on August 30.

Which American fashion label made Lay Zhang its first Chinese global spokesperson for underwear and jeans?

Calvin Klein was one of more than 50 brands he has fronted, a list that runs from luxury watches to Burger King and Pizza Hut.

Which 2018 hit film, the directorial debut of actor Huang Bo, featured Lay Zhang as the character Xiao Xing?

The Island reunited him with Huang Bo, an original castmate from his long-running variety show, and his performance drew acclaim.

Which company did Lay Zhang found in October 2020, with a trainee programme modelled on his own K-pop training?

Chromosome Entertainment Group was announced on his birthday, October 7, and debuted its first artist, Le'v, in August 2023.

In his autobiography Standing Firm at 24, Lay Zhang says he mostly taught himself piano and which other instrument?

Guitar and piano lessons were only a starting point, and the same book admits he struggled with anxiety when performing on stage.

At which music festival did Lay Zhang make his first solo appearance in the United States in 2018?

Lollapalooza came the same year his next album entered the Billboard 200 at number 21, then the highest placing for a Mandopop artist.

Which American singer co-wrote "Give Me a Chance", the pre-release single from Lay Zhang's 2018 album Namanana?

Bazzi co-wrote and co-composed the track for a 22-song album that pairs each of its Chinese songs with an English version.

Madame Tussauds unveiled a third wax figure of Lay Zhang in 2019 in which city, after Shanghai and Beijing?

Hong Kong got the third figure, and he attended its unveiling there in person in February 2019.

Which Swiss watchmaker brought its ambassador Lay Zhang to the Watches and Wonders fair in Geneva in 2023?

Hublot also took him to its headquarters factory the next day, where he tried the work of a professional watchmaker.

Which DJ featured Lay Zhang and will.i.am on "Love You More", a track from the 2020 album Neon Future IV?

Steve Aoki had already performed with him in Shanghai in January 2019, at a Samsung event that also featured ASAP Ferg.

On which Youku show did Lay Zhang become a team captain in 2020, alongside Wang Yibo and Wallace Chung?

Street Dance of China kept him on for its fourth season, when Han Geng and Henry Lau joined him and Wang Yibo as captains.

On which Chinese TV talent contest did Lay Zhang finish third in 2005, seven years before his pop debut?

Star Academy was not even his first screen credit, since he had played a boy called Huan Huan in a 1998 TV drama at the age of six.

Which American rapper, who topped the Hot 100 with "Mood", made the 2022 joint album Dawn to Dusk with Lay Zhang?

24kGoldn, a San Francisco native, shared the album with him in February 2022, months before Lay Zhang brought a concert tour to that same city.

In a 2016 tomb-raiding drama, Lay Zhang's character Er Yuehong gives up the family trade for which profession?

An opera singer by passion, he is an expert tomb raider by family background, and his wife's mysterious illness drives much of the plot.

Which 2017 drama, a Chinese remake of a hit Japanese romance series, starred Lay Zhang as Yan Xiaolai?

Operation Love also put him to work off screen, since he composed and performed the song "Pray" for the series.

Which 2019 Lay Zhang EP sold well over a million digital copies on QQ Music within three minutes of release?

Honey has just four tracks, including English and Chinese versions of the title song, and its opening sales beat his own record set by Namanana.

What does Lay Zhang call his main genre, a blend of several languages and traditional Chinese instruments?

M-pop is his shorthand for mixed Mandarin pop, and his songs draw on instruments such as the hulusi, guzheng and gong.

Which vehicles did Lay Zhang donate at the BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night, ten in 2016 and fifteen in 2017?

Ambulances worth about 1.75 million yuan across the two years helped put him on China Philanthropist magazine's celebrity lists.

On which 2021 Exo special album did Lay Zhang return after sitting out the group's releases since 2018?

Don't Fight the Feeling was made without him meeting the other members at any point, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Which Ivy League university's business school hosted Lay Zhang for a 2022 seminar on Asian culture and music?

Harvard came three days before he headlined the first MetaMoon Music Festival at Barclays Center in New York.

In which Chinese city did Lay Zhang pass a 2008 global casting audition that took him to South Korea?

Wuhan hosted the audition while he was still a pupil at the High School Attached to Hunan Normal University.

Lay Zhang won Best Supporting Actor at the 2016 China Britain Film Festival for which romantic comedy, his film debut?

Ex-Files 2 also carried his own song "Alone", which topped the Baidu Music Chart and won two best soundtrack prizes.