Xu Weizhou

Early and personal life

Since childhood, Xu has pursued various artistic endeavors including dancing, singing, music composition, and playing the guitar. He learned Latin dance for over 10 years and won the gold award of Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). In high school, he formed a death metal rock band, "PROME" with some of his schoolmates and played lead guitarist. He and his band "PROME" also won the Midi high school band competition in Shanghai. Moreover, he, together with his band organized and arranged a winter vacation music festival in Shanghai and was featured on local newspaper. He graduated from the Affiliated Senior High School of the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Currently, he is attending the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in Beijing.

2015-2016: Career beginnings, Addicted and rising popularity

While still in college, Xu debuted on a short film called Crazy Gaming as one of the leads in October 2015. He also participated in various photoshoots that led him to be discovered and scouted as one of the main leads of a web series Addicted that was broadcast in January 2016. He is also the composer and singer of opening and closing theme song of the said web series. In early 2016, Addicted became popular but at the start of its fourth week of airing, all episodes of the drama were taken off air from major Chinese video streaming websites by the order of China's SAPPRFT, and were no longer accessible. A few days later, the remaining three episodes of the first season were uploaded via Huace Film and TV official channel on YouTube which made the lead actors popular locally and internationally. On April 2, the Chinese media leaked the unofficial ban of the four main leads of Addicted, including Xu Weizhou, Huang Jingyu, Lin Fengsong and Chen Wen from appearing on TV shows to prevent hype by the SAPPRFT directives. By the time this document was leaked, Xu and his co-star Huang Jingyu had already filmed episodes for two popular variety shows, Happy Camp and Run for Time currently airing on Hunan Television channel. The Happy Camp episode, which was scheduled to broadcast on April 16 was not aired and both the actors' appearance on the episode of Run for Time were severely cut. In addition, he was invited as one of the performing guests to a famous music show Avenue of Star: Super Stars Edition currently airing on CCTV15, but his performance was also cut. Afterwards, he has been focusing on his music career and on May 1, he released his first album entitled "Light" and started his Asian concert tours around June to August.

Apart from music, he also participated in various fashion magazine photoshoots; not only magazines published in China, but also in other countries such as South Korea, Thailand and Hong Kong. Later, he raised his profile and earned numerous awards as "Best New Artist". He was also named as one of Top 20 Most Popular Celebrities on Weibo by Sina Weibo Data Center and earned the title of "New Trend Idol" from Star Magazine. Moreover, his growing popularity has also resulted in first places on several polls such as "Yinyuetai Fan-Festival's Top 100 Poll", "WeChat Donation Function Supports for Most Favorite Charity" and "Alibaba Planet Wars". On top of that, he was invited as a guest to a sundry of web shows and livestreaming events like NetEase Interview (with Addicted cast) in February, YinYue Show (Episode 39), iQIYI Music and Bazaar Show with Jeff Chang in April, iFensi Live and Music Funfacts in May, Yo! Idol (NetEase) in September, JD.com 12-hour Live Show and Bazaar x Sharp Techno Room in November and in December, he appeared as a guest at QQ Live Music Show and Kugou Music Show to promote his newly released single "Fun" that was released on December 8 which he placed first on several charts together with its music video that was officially released on December 15. His growing popularity also earned him 37th place on 2016 Top 50 Most Internet & Business Celebrity Influencers in China by Data Win.

2017-present: Variety debut and miscellaneous activities

In late January, it was revealed that Xu will have his first official variety appearance on Intangible Her currently airing on Tencent Video.Later in March, it was determined that Xu will sing the Chinese version of "The Heroes", theme song of a Canadian film Snowtime! by Simple Plan. He also performed the song live together with the rock band on March 4 at Beijing.In addition, the Canadian Embassy and Children's Film Association granted him an ambassadorial award to China-Canada Cultural Exchange and Children's Film Promotion, respectively during the film's press conference.His Chinese version of the theme song has also topped on Billboard China V chart and Mandarin chart within the same week for the second time.

Fashion

Xu was invited as one of the guests to several fashion ceremonies in 2016 held in China, including Madame Figaro French Excellence Awards, 4th Anniversary of OK! Magazine Awards, Damiani's Dinner Party, Versace 7 Bags for 7 Cities Exhibition, iFeng Fashion Choice Awards, PEACEBIRD Woman 2017 S/S Fashion Show, L'Officiel Fashion Night, BVLGARI x Vogue GEM DREAM Exhibit, Vogue's 11st Anniversary, Sina Weibo Fan Carnival, Bazaar's Men of the Year, 13th Esquire Man at His Best Award Ceremony, Trendshealth Award Ceremony and ELLE Style Awards Ceremony. In July 2016, China Luxury, Beauty and Fashion Insights published the Top 100 Most Valuable Fashion Influencers and he ranked 4th on weibo celebrities category. In January 2017, Men's Uno China has unveiled “Men's Uno Young”, a brand new magazine for China's post-90s generation which he was the very first cover of Men's Uno Young representing the young attitude and spirit of post '90s youths. Its photographs were also published in Men's Uno Taiwan limited edition. Later, he was invited to Vogue's Condé Nast Century Exhibition. In addition, he was officially invited by Givenchy as a guest to its F/W 2017 Men's Paris Fashion Week in France. On top of that, his digital fashion video became a hot trending topic during that time. It also broke the historical record in the social posts and views with more than 500 million readings. On March 8, he was also invited by Moncler Gamme Rouge and Louis Vuitton to F/W 2017 Women's Paris Fashion Week.

Charities

In 2016, Xu was appointed as a national ambassador to some charities including "Against Domestic Violence", "Rio Run", "Animal Welfare Charities" by Cabbeen, "Lucky Cat Welfare Organizations", "Hope for home" project of China Charities Aid Foundation For Children, "Moon bear protecting" project of Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) , "1,000 rabbits look up at the moon" project of China Social Welfare Foundation, "Adopt pets instead of purchasing" project of Beijing Non-profit Adoption organizations, "Charity Stars : Love can touch" project of Bazaar Magazine and "Door of charity" project of China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF). He is also the founder of the foundation for "Light of love for the blind" and "10.20 km run to the light for the blind". In addition, he also joined the campaign of anti-violence against women project of Kering Foundation . In 2017, he continued his charitable efforts by participating in the "Wuxi Marathon" project of Men's Health Magazine and "amfAR". Moreover, he has also played an ambassador role in "Adopt A Green Plant for Green Earth" project of Campus Public Welfare Foundation.

Radio shows

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