Jackson Wang

Jackson Wang, one of today’s most well-known international pop performers, was born and raised in Hong Kong. The singer, rapper, dancer, and host, who is 27 years old, has more than 26 million Instagram followers and 30 million Weibo followers. Jackson may be most known to you as the lead rapper, dancer, and face of GOT7, but he had a long and exciting path before that.

Jackson came from a sporting family. His mother, Sophia Chow, is a world-class gymnast, and his father, Wang Ruiji, was a former member of the Chinese national fencing team who competed in the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympics. It’s not unexpected that the young Jackson would excel in sports. Jackson joined Hong Kong’s official junior fencing team at the age of 16 and participated in the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics. Jackson received fencing coaching from his father and other skilled instructors, quickly rising to the level of a highly regarded competitor.

When he was 16 years old, the South Korean talent agency JYP Entertainment noticed him and wanted to give him a chance to work in the music business. The young fencer, who already had a promising athletic future, impressively nailed the company’s international audition and bravely decided to pursue a music career.

Jackson’s parents initially resisted his idea of working in the entertainment sector. Jackson’s mother allegedly advised him first to become the finest fencer on the continent if he wanted to become a K-Pop idol.

Many teenagers would have given up then, but Jackson didn’t. After his audition, he continued to fence, and because of his extraordinary sporting talent, he took home two gold medals in the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011. He even received a scholarship offer to fence for the elite Stanford University in California.

Despite all that, Jackson continued to pursue his newfound passion for performing. At 17 years old, Jackson made the trip to South Korea in July 2011 to start his K-Pop training with his parent’s approval.

Because he had no background in singing or dancing, he was forced to train harder than other trainees in the company. After years of hard work, Jackson finally made his debut with his group, known as GOT7.

Jackson’s fame spread throughout Asia to the point where he was made an ambassador for Great China, a tourism envoy for Hong Kong, and even received a wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong. Now, Jackson even owns his fashion brand known as Team Wang Design. It’s not surprising that he placed in the top 50 on Forbes China’s Celebrity 100 list, given all his achievements.