Luhan is literally the Justin Bieber of the Asian market. Luhan whose star sign is Aries was born on the 20th of April, 1990 in the Haidian District, Beijing, China. He first came into the spotlight when SM Entertainment CEO, Lee Soo-man, revealed plans to debut a new boy band that would be divided into two sub-groups, EXO-K and EXO-M, promoting the same music simultaneously in South Korea and China by performing songs in both Korean and Mandarin.

Luhan was scouted by an SM Entertainment representative in Seoul and passed his audition, and EXO-M debuted with the single Mama on the 8th of April, 2012, followed by the EP Mama on the 9th of April. EXO was awarded Best New Asian Group at the 2012 Mnet Asian Music Awards and the Newcomer Award at the Golden Disc Awards. Currently, Luhan’s endorsement ranges from local products such as Oppo mobile phones and Baidu interactive maps to international ones like Puma and Cartier SA, of which he is their first Asian endorser.

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7 Things You Didn’t Know About Luhan

1. He was the first Asian artist to have their song produced by famous producer Djemba Djemba

Luhan first announced his solo album in July 2015, where he collaborated with famous producer Djemba Djemba. This was also Djemba’s first time producing an album for an Asian artist. The same month, he collaborated with David Tao in a bidding song for the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing.

2. His Debut Album was a hit

Luhan’s first studio album, Reloaded, was released on the 14th of December, 2015. The album topped the Tower Records chart in Japan and became the only album from mainland China to enter the Top 5 of Taiwan’s G-Music year-end chart.

3. He is Called the Asian Bieber

Luhan has been dubbed by foreign media as the Chinese counterpart of the popular pop star Justin Bieber, due to his massive popularity and dedicated fandom in China. His other nicknames include Xiaon Lu, Lulu, Cute Little Prince, and Marilyn Monroe, though he doesn’t like the last one.

4. Luhan holds a World Record

Luhan currently holds the Guinness World Record for the “Most Comments on a Weibo Post,” which was established in August 2014 and subsequently surpassed by Luhan himself in September 2015.

5. Luhan Has Appeared on Forbes

Luhan first appeared on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list in 2015, ranking 37th. He rose up 35 spots to rank 2nd in 2017, becoming the highest-ranked male celebrity in China.

6. He Has Appeared on Several Magazine Covers

From 2015 to 2016, Luhan appeared on the cover of more than 20 magazines. He became the first Chinese celebrity to grace the covers of Elle China, GQ Style, Forbes China, Harper’s Bazaar, and Cosmopolitan. He broke the record for having more than 200,000 people buy out a 20,000 limited edition run of a magazine cover in one second.

7. His Favorite Things

Luhan’s interests are varied branching into animation, art, video games, computers, water sports, nature sports, basketball, baseball, football, music, concerts/clubs, television, animals, travel, singing, and Rubix Cube. Luhan’s favorite dish is stir-fried eggs with cucumber especially when it is made by him. He is allergic to seafood.

Why He Left EXO with Tao and Chris

When news first broke that Luhan was set to leave EXO, fans were dismayed. Kris and Luhan were suffering from insomnia and were frequently vomiting and being sent to the hospital. For Tao, it was injury after injury with no rest and no proper treatment. Kris left because he never actually wanted to be in EXO and wanted to be an actor. SM offered him a chance to be in the boy group and jump-start his acting career but he realized it was easier to just leave and enter the Chinese entertainment market. Tao left because he wanted to be an action movie/drama actor. His father said that SM didn’t let him rest when he got injured.

On the 10th of October, 2014, Luhan filed a lawsuit against SM Entertainment to nullify his contract and effectively left EXO. Issues that forced such a move included profit distribution, low income, poor treatment of Chinese idols, and forced schedules. Luhan had been absent from the boyband’s Bangkok concert, as well as the SMTOWN concert in Tokyo, but earlier reports suggested that this was due to health reasons.

Luhan made a statement during the trial, claiming that SM treated EXO-K, which was filled with Korean members, differently from how they treated the EXO-M members who were Chinese members. From the beginning, EXO-K received support from SM and actively did promotions, but EXO-M had no promotions, received no financial backing, and endured a difficult time.