Rainie Yang

Early life

Yang was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, but her father was from the Shunde District of Foshan, China, so she spoke Cantonese at home. By the time she was 13, she had to start working because her father's business failed, which later led to her parents being divorced. She was an alumnus of Hwa Kang Arts School in Performance Arts.

Career

Yang began her career in 2000, as a member of Taiwanese girl-group 4 in Love, where she was given the stage name Rainie. The group's popularity in the music industry was mediocre and they achieved limited success. After the group disbanded in 2002, Yang continued to pursue a career in the entertainment industry as a TV host, hosting shows such as the variety show Guess Guess Guess. After playing supporting roles in several Taiwanese dramas, including the highly popular pan-Asia hit Taiwanese idol drama series Meteor Garden, she landed the main role as Qi Yue, in the CTV drama Devil Beside You opposite Mike He in 2005. Devil Beside You was well received, allowing Yang's career to take off. The same year, she released her debut album, My Intuition, featuring her hit song "曖昧" (Intuition) as the theme song of Devil Beside You and 理想情人" (Ideal Lover).

In 2006, she released her follow-up album, Meeting Love, which also sold very well at around 1.4 million. On 8 January 2007, Yang recorded her last "Guess Guess Guess" show due to her busy schedule and focus upon her music/acting career. Hoping to portray herself as a "serious" actress, Yang co-starred in the lesbian-themed film Spider Lilies alongside Isabella Leong. However, after co-starring in Spider Lilies, Yang returned to her previous cute image by becoming the main actress in the drama Why Why Love, co-starring with Mike He and Kingone Wang, which aired during the summer of 2007. She subsequently released her third album, My Other Self on 7 September 2007. It features the theme song from Why Why Love, "缺氧" (Lacking Oxygen) and the insert song "完美比例" (Perfect Example).

On 23 April 2008, while filming the Taiwanese drama Miss No Good in San Chih, Taiwan; Yang fell heavily from the stairs, and was sent to Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei. The stairs were located between the third floor, where the dressing room was located, and the first floor, where the film set was located. The crew originally thought the falling object was a light frame, but upon hearing a groan, they realized it was her. After an X-ray examination, doctors diagnosed Yang's injury as a spinal contusion. After leaving the hospital, producer Angie Chai took Yang to a Chinese massage therapist. Miss No Good, starring Yang and Wilber Pan, was aired during the fall/winter of 2008 and met with much success. During this period of time, she also released her 4th album, Not Yet a Woman, which features the insert song "太煩惱" (Too Much Trouble) and the theme song "帶我走" (Take Me Away) that were featured Miss No Good.

In 2009, Yang starred in ToGetHer with Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit and George Hu. Next she filmed The Child's Eye in Thailand, a horror flick directed by the Pang Brothers with Elanne Kong, and also Taiwanese drama Hi My Sweetheart with Show Luo, which first aired on CTS and GTV on 1 November 2009. After promoting Hi My Sweetheart, Yang released her fifth album, Rainie & Love...?, on New Years Day, 2010. Due to the success of Devil Beside You and Miss No Good overseas, Yang entered J-pop in 2010 by releasing a Japanese version of her hit "曖昧" (Intuition) as her first Japanese single.

Yang released her first collection album, Whimsical World Collection on 23 April 2010. It consists of 3 CDs and a DVD with 3 new tracks, 35 previously released tracks and 15 music videos from her five studio albums. Followed by her first concert, held on 24 April 2010 at Taipei Arena, with Jerry Yan as her special guest

On 22 October 2010, she was awarded Best Actress at the 45th Golden Bell Awards, for her role as Chen Bao Zhu (陳寶茱) in Hi My Sweetheart.

In 2011, Yang released her 6th album Longing For, which features "我們都傻" (We are all silly) that was an insert song of Love You.

In 2012, Yang starred in the romantic short film, HeartBeat Love, alongside Show Luo. On 17 August, she released her 7th studio album Wishing For Happiness. Her second concert tour, titled Love Voyage, began on December 14.

On 23 August 2013, Yang released her 8th studio album Angel Wings.

In 2014, Yang parted ways with Sony Music Taiwan, and signed to EMI Music Taiwan, a revived label that is now a subsidiary of Universal Music Taiwan. Her ninth studio album A Tale of Two Rainies was released on 12 December 2014. In the same year, she starred in the Chinese Drama Love at Second Sight which first aired on 10 August 2014.

On 30 September 2016, her tenth studio album Traces of Time In Love was released. It was nominated for three awards at the 28th Golden Melody Awards, including Song of the Year, Best Lyricist and Best Single Producer, for the title track "Traces of Time in Love", making her join the prestigious list of having been nominated for the Golden Bell Awards (TV Drama and Variety Shows), Golden Horse Awards (Film and original soundtrack) and Golden Melody Awards (Pop Music). In the same year, Yang starred in Life Plan A and B as Zheng Ruwei. The series first aired on 7 October 2016 on TTV.

Personal life

Yang was in a relationship with classmate Alien Huang while they were in high school. Since December 2014, she has been dating Chinese singer-songwriter Li Ronghao. Li wrote the song "Xing Fu Guo Zi" ("幸福果子" ) for Yang in 2007.

Variety show

Music video