Lu Han

Lu Han was born on April 20, 1990 in Haidian, Beijing. He graduated from Beijing Shida Middle School and attended Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School before leaving for South Korea to attend Yonsei University as an exchange student. He majored in Applied Music at the Seoul Institute of the Arts.

In 2008, Lu Han unsuccessfully auditioned for JYP Entertainment at their global audition in China. In 2010, while studying in Seoul, he was scouted while in Myeong-dong by an SM Entertainment representative who recommended he audition for the company; after which he became a trainee under the agency.

Luhan made his film debut in the 2015 film 20 Once Again, the Chinese remake of the Korean hit movie Miss Granny.[31] It topped box office charts and broke records to become the highest-grossing Korean-Chinese co-produced film.[32] For his performance, he won the "Newcomer of the Year" award at the Beijing International Film Festival, as well as the "Most Popular Actor" award at the Beijing College Student Film Festival.[33][34] The same year, he joined the cast of Hurry Up, Brother, a spin-off from the original South Korean variety program Running Man.[35] Luhan then starred opposite Yang Mi in the crime thriller The Witness, a remake of the 2011 Korean movie Blind.[36]

In 2016, he starred in the fantasy-action-adventure film Time Raiders, based on the online novel series Tomb Raiders. The film premiered on August 5 and topped box office charts, becoming the biggest summer hit of 2016.[37] He then featured in The Great Wall, a historical epic directed by Zhang Yimou.[38]

In 2017, Luhan starred in his first television drama Fighter of the Destiny, a fantasy wuxia series based on the novel of the same name.[39] In June, he was cast in the youth sports drama Sweet Combat alongside Guan Xiaotong.[40] In September, it was announced that Luhan was cast in the upcoming science fiction film Shanghai Fortress alongside Shu Qi. The film is adapted from the 2006 novel Once Upon a Time in Shanghai and was released in 2019.[41]

Luhan has been dubbed by foreign media as the Chinese counterpart of popular pop star Justin Bieber, due to his massive popularity and dedicated fandom in China. The term "Luhan effect" was used to describe his massive influence among fans.[42] He currently holds the Guinness World Record holder for the "Most Comments on a Weibo Post", which was established in August 2014 and subsequently surpassed by Luhan himself in September 2015.[43][44] In 2016, he set a second Guinness World Record for the "Largest gathering of people wearing antlers" at the 2016 LuHan Reloaded China Tour, in Beijing, China.[45] He is also noted for his achievements in both music and film, holding records on Chinese digital music platforms; and ranking at the top of the Star Box-office Chart on nuomi.com, one of the country's largest online ticket-buying platforms.

Yan Siwei, a broker who works in the entertainment industry, opined that Luhan stands for a new fandom model; in this model, the artist uses social media data instead of works to galvanize fans, and the fans are well-organized to protect the artist and maintain the fandom.[46] GQ did an investigation on the fandom and call it "a systemic, detailed social labor division and powerful execution empire."[47] After Luhan outsold Jay Chou by several million albums, some raised concerns about whether Mandopop has "died" or become over-commercialized.[48][49] In 2019, the failure of Shanghai Fortress made some question if Luhan and this model would flop soon. A guest in a talk program opined that these kind of artists are "meteors" instead of "stars."[50]

Luhan first appeared on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 in 2015, ranking 37th.[51] He rose up 35 spots to rank 2nd in 2017, becoming the highest ranked male celebrity in China.[3] In 2016, Luhan was featured on Business of Fashion's "BOF 100" rankings, becoming the only Chinese celebrity to make it onto the rankings, and was given the title of "Most Anticipated Chinese Star".[52][53] He is also the first celebrity born after 1990 to be named the "Artist of the Year" by China Newsweek.[54]

Luhan is one of the most in-demand brand ambassadors in China, particularly among the younger generation. His endorsement ranges from local products such as Oppo mobile phones and Baidu interactive maps to international ones like Puma and Cartier SA, of which he is their first Asian endorser.[55]

On December 1, 2015, Luhan was announced to be the official China ambassador of Star Wars.[56] He released a single titled "The Inner Force", which is the official Chinese promotional theme song for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[57]

From 2015 to 2016, Luhan appeared on the cover of more than 20 magazines. He became the first Chinese celebrity to grace the covers of Elle China, GQ Style, Forbes China, Harper's Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. He broke the record for having more than 200,000 people buy out a 20,000 limited edition run of a magazine cover in one second.[53]

On October 8, 2017, it was announced that Luhan is in a relationship with Chinese actress Guan Xiaotong.[58][59]

In August 2019, during the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, Luhan shared photos of the Chinese flag accompanied by the hashtags "the Chinese national flag has 1.4 billion flag bearers" and "I am a flag bearer" on his official Weibo account.[60]

• Reloaded (2015)
• XXVII+ (2017)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lu Han.

• Lu Han on Sina Weibo