ProfileHow Got7’s Jackson Wang went from Hong Kong fencing prodigy to global music icon

This is the 77th instalment in a biweekly series profiling major Hong Kong pop culture figures of recent decades. If your radar picked up even a blip of K-pop in the mid-2010s, you probably encountered Jackson Wang Ka-yee long before you realised he was a Hong Kong native. To overseas fans, he was first known as the magnetic, mischievous rapper of Got7, a boy band that debuted under JYP Entertainment in 2014 and quickly amassed a loyal international following. Among the seven members, Wang was unmistakable – a whirlwind of chaotic energy on Korean variety shows and a multilingual charmer who could crack jokes in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and English. He has since earned a reputation as a prominent K-pop idol who has helped pave the way for pop celebrity exports worldwide, regularly smashing chart records and founding his own fashion label, Team Wang Design. Trading sabre for stage Born in Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong in 1994, Wang was raised in a family of elite athletes – his father was an Olympian fencer, and his mother was a national-level gymnast. He grew up learning gymnastics and rugby before switching to fencing. He was so good he took part in a number of national and international competitions, including the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games. A path was paved to the 2012 London Olympics, alongside scholarship offers from prestigious institutions like the University of Hong Kong and Stanford University. A chance encounter with a talent scout from South Korean K-pop behemoth JYP Entertainment in 2010 fuelled a different fire, one that had been ignited years earlier when his mother handed him a DVD of a Michael Jackson concert, which he had watched on repeat for days, mesmerised. After he placed first in a worldwide audition to become a JYP trainee held in Hong Kong later in 2010, his parents offered a conditional blessing: if he won gold at the 2011 Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship, Wang could go to South Korea to pursue a music career. In a 2022 interview with Vogue Singapore, he said that even during fencing tournaments, he “always felt like I was performing”. The shift to singing, when it came, felt less like a pivot and more like an inevitability. He won his gold and moved to Seoul in July 2011. Acrobatics and a relentless hustle Before Wang’s K-pop debut in 2014, he appeared on Win: Who Is Next, a high-stakes reality survival programme pitting trainees from rival entertainment companies against each other. Though his team did not win, his undeniable on-screen chemistry with them led to his selection as a rapper for the new seven-member boy band, Got7. Just months later, the group burst onto the scene with their debut EP Got It? and its lead single “Girls Girls Girls”, a hip-hop track that showcased their signature blend of martial arts and slick choreography. They swiftly earned a reputation for their youthful energy and raw, acrobatic edge. Got7 took the stage in Seoul for their first solo concert in April 2016, where Wang performed two of his self-composed songs – early signals that his creative ambitions went far beyond his role in the group. His “social butterfly” personality also made him a hit on Korean and Chinese variety shows. He became a ubiquitous television presence, going on to host popular music programmes and front the hit cooking show Go Fridge for seven seasons – even writing and composing its theme song. Wang soon became one of the busiest idols in the industry, constantly travelling for different projects in South Korea, China and Japan. He later described to Forbes magazine in 2020 that a mission drove his grind: “My goal is to … let people know that Chinese kids are working on good music too.” Forging an independent empire In 2017, he took his future into his own hands. Still bound by the JYP contract that prohibited solo music releases in South Korea and Japan, along with issues arising from health concerns and conflicting schedules, he founded Team Wang for his Chinese projects and partnered with the American firm Snake or the Rabbit to distribute his music globally. With the debut of his solo singles “Generation 2” and “Papillon”, released a month apart, Wang began systematically smashing through glass ceilings as a soloist. His 2019 debut album Mirrors made him the highest-charting Chinese solo artist ever on the US Billboard 200 at the time, at No. 32 – a record he has since broken twice, first with Magic Man at No. 15 and again with its 2025 sequel, Magic Man 2, which peaked at No. 13. He was also the first Chinese singer to top the US iTunes chart with “Fendiman”, and later, the first to break into the US Top 40 radio chart with “100 Ways”. Besides hip hop, he has explored EDM and collaborated with a diverse roster of international artists, including Gucci Mane and JJ Lin. In 2020, he launched a luxury streetwear and lifestyle brand under his label, Team Wang Design, serving as its founder, creative director and designer in addition to being Cartier’s global ambassador. “I was an athlete,” he told the South China Morning Post in a 2024 interview. “I pursued music afterwards, and I am slowly tapping into fashion. They’re all different in skill sets, but come under the big umbrella of creating. I consider myself a new entrepreneur, and I feel like a sponge. I can absorb all types of inspiration from different fields.” At the beginning of 2021, the members of Got7 decided not to renew their contracts with JYP Entertainment, and Wang relocated to Beijing. Throughout the rest of the year, his individual projects swept major regional music awards, culminating in a top-10 spot on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list. Though they parted ways with their agency, Got7 reunited in May 2022 for a self-titled EP, making history as the first K-pop act to amicably acquire the full trademark rights to their group name without a legal battle. Desert milestones and a cultural voice A watershed moment in Wang’s career came in April 2022, when he took the stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California as the first Chinese solo act in its history, performing in the 88rising showcase. His silver-haired, fiercely charismatic set was a cultural statement. Wang returned for a full set of his own the next year and joined South Korean rapper Bibi on the stage in 2024, making him the first Chinese singer to perform three times at Coachella. Wang has been very open about his cultural background, and during a 2023 concert in London, he emotionally condemned press bias in a moment that went viral. “This is Jackson Wang from China … this is my home country … there’s so much f*****g media talking about b******t, that’s not like China. Media! F*****g media,” he said on-stage during a tirade against what he called anti-China “propaganda b******t”. Over the years, Wang has posted numerous public statements on his political stance, including a 2019 Weibo post declaring himself a “flag bearer” of China. Wang is currently on tour for his album Magic Man 2. Starting in Bangkok, Thailand, last October, he wrapped the North American stretch this spring, following a brief side performance at iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball Tour in Los Angeles and Chicago over the Christmas period.