You can love or hate Kris Wu, but you can’t ignore him. With over 27 million Weibo followers and another 5.6 million Instagram fans, the 27-year-old actor-singer-songwriter is one of the most influential superstars in China. His ambition is to achieve worldwide fame.

Wu met me for our interview in London’s Hotel Café Royal during Fashion Week. Dressed in Burberry’s new interpretation of its classic checked trench coat hours before it hit the runway, his hair braided and tied into a topknot, and his eyes hidden behind retro, tinted round glasses, Wu truly lives up to his name as the pop king who has been influencing the millennial generations in China and beyond.

“I don’t want to follow in anyone’s footsteps,” Wu says. “I want to follow my own path and do something unique.”

Many Asian celebrities have made their global breakthroughs with kung fu/action films, but Wu is definitely not confined to this category. He already has an impressive portfolio of box-office hits, chart-topping EPs and ambassador deals with luxury brands the likes of Burberry and Bulgari. Wu is keen to be known as an all-round Asian star with a specific edge in hip-hop music.

“I want people to look at me in the future and feel that there’s this Asian hip-hop artist who’s fresh and hot,” Wu says. Despite Wu’s strong following in China, he is set to woo global fans with his music and influence.

Last month, Wu’s EP, Deserve, has made him the first Chinese artist to top the chart on US iTunes. Wu’s unexpected yet smooth transition from teen pop idol to Chinese hip-hop advocate owes its success to The Rap of China – a reality show produced by and aired on Chinese streaming site iQiyi, which he headlined. The show has gathered 2.7 billion views online and has been dubbed a cultural phenomenon. The 12-episode show, which took a whopping 250 million yuan (HK$295 million) to produce, has elevated hip hop from underground to mainstream centre-stage.

Alongside other celebrity judges, such as A-Yue Zhang, MC Hotdog and Wilber Pan, Wu’s hip-hop status was at first challenged. However, it didn’t stop fans from following his every move, from his distinctive fashion wardrobe to his hairstyle. Even his catchphrase “Can you freestyle” made headlines and internet memes.

“Although a lot of people doubted the show and me as the producer [at the beginning] – whether it’s going to be legit because hip hop is all about keeping it real,” he says. “But I’ve always had faith and I knew that it was going to work and it did. We managed to capture the audiences by showing something they’ve never seen before in China.”

Now with The Rap of China ’s impressive track record, Wu aims to take the Chinese hip-hop culture even further. iQiyi announced last month [November] that the show will return next year with an unprecedented, record-breaking production budget. The show will also recruit talents in North America. “I’ve been focusing on [promoting Chinese hip hop] and that’s been my main goal,” Wu says. “Obviously the show was successful and got everyone talking about it, but it still takes time to develop and get more people to actually understand the culture behind.”

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Wu believes the hip-hop contestants’ genuine and sometimes rebellious attitude resonates with the Chinese millennial generation that yearns for self-expression and uniqueness.

The same concept can probably explain Wu’s growing stardom in recent years.

Like many of today’s affluent Chinese millennials, Wu received an education overseas and returned to China to develop his career. Born in Guangdong, Wu moved to Canada with his family at the age of 10.

It was in Vancouver that the then 18-year-old Wu auditioned for S.M. Entertainment’s talent scouting programme. The South Korean star-making and management group is known for its talent scouting and nurturing of successful K-pop groups the likes of EXO, BoA and Girls’ Generation.

During the training, Wu adopted not only K-pop idols’ looks and styles, but also brushed up his singing, dancing and acting skills. He also picked up a language along the way. Now fluent in English and Korean on top of his mother tongue, Cantonese and Mandarin, Wu was groomed to become an “all-round” star in the making.

Unlike many of his Chinese celebrity counterparts who made their career first in the domestic market, Wu made his showbiz debut as a member of K-pop group EXO, which became one of the most popular K-pop groups in South Korea and overseas – their first album XOXO (2013) sold over one million copies.

— Read the original article on South China Morning Post’s STYLE.