Wowkie Zhang

In Fourth Grade, Zhang Wei and his fellow singers in the Children’ Cultural Palace attended the Children's Choir competition in Russia and won the Second Prize. In the Fifth Grade, Zhang Wei passed the audition and became a member of Central China TV station (CCTV) Yinhe Teenage Art Troupe, a birthplace of many superstars in contemporary Chinese pop world, including Faye Wong(link), Cai Guoqing, WANG Xuechun, Liu Chunyan.

One of Da Zhang Wei's musical memories is the radio cassettes bought with his parents’ hard-earned money. His early music contained elements of rock and punk. At the age of 15, Da Zhang Wei performed in support act for the concert of popular band The Catcher in the Rye in the Busy Bee Bar in Beijing. He was immediately signed by manager Hong Feng and formed the first teenage rock band in China. His songs were mainly about pains in adolescence life.

In July 2019, an internet variety show Summer of Band (樂隊的夏天) revive people's memory of the rocker side of Da Zhang Wei when he appeared on the show and performed with the rock bands. Once again, he made rock music a popular genre among Chinese audience.

When he first rose to fame at the age of 15, Da Zhang Wei was famous for his good-boy-next door image amongst his contemporaries. Polite, cute, sweet, Da Zhang Wei was their seniors’ favourite. Famous singer songwriter Han Hong even wanted to be his godmother, a gesture of love in Chinese culture.

Despite his fierce looks, Da Zhang Wei’s music was not fierce, but rather very entertaining. His songs were mainly about happy themes with energetic beats and catch lyrics. Da Zhang Wei was determined to reestablish himself as an entertainer rather than a rocker.

Attending the Chinese version of Your Face Sound Familiar was a milestone in this solo career as his talent was discovered. The show invited celebrities to impersonate famous people in China pop, western world or in history. Da Zhang Wei’s impression was so good he was a regular to the show.

He is increasingly popular with his humour and eloquence that he became known to younger audience as a host and TV personality. In 2016, Da Zhang Wei became a co-host for China's top talk show Day Day Up.

For example, in 2016, he created a theme song for the advertisement of AliPay's new function. Da Zhang Wei combines Beijing Opera with EDM which makes the song traditional yet incredibly fashionable. His 2018 hit song I Am a Popping Candy combines EDM with traditional Yunan ethnic style and Shangdong clapper talk, an ancient storytelling music performance dating back thousands of years ago.

In 2016, he performed in Heroes of Remix (Link) as a guest performer where he demonstrated his extraordinary talent in remixing different elements and producing catchy and fun party music. For example, he remixed Beijing Opera, Beijing folk song the Beijing Chick and a 1980s rock classic—the Long March. The final result is a fun and ground-breaking New Beijing Chick (《北京小妞》). In the same show, he also remixed the theme song of 80s cartoon Hulu Brothers(《葫芦娃》), bringing back many people's childhood memories and giving this classic song new life.

Da Zhang Wei's surprising eloquence spurred a career diversification. In 2016, he became a permanent a co-host in China's top talk show Day Day Up, an 11-year-old talk show viewed by millions each week.

Since 2015, Da Zhang Wei's latest music interest shifted to electronic dance music (EDM). Like his other endeavours, he is not content with following others so he created a unique EDM style with his distinct style: incorporateing Chinese ethnic music and EDM.

In 2014, he released "Beier Shuang", meaning Super Euphoric. He performed the song in China Central TV's Spring Festival Gala, a show viewed by hundreds of millions of Chinese audiences at home and abroad since 1988. The song became an instant national sensation. It is the most popular song for square dance ladies for its exciting beats and straightforward lyrics. Even the internet sensation Psy used "Beier Shuang" when he performed with Chinese girl band SNH48 in China. The music video of this song has been viewed over 2 million times on YouTube, even though Chinese internet users do not have access to YouTube.

In this show he brought forward the concept of CDM—China Dance Music. He gave a short speech, appealing for all musicians to create music with their own ethnic style, rather than forgetting their own cultural identity by following the international trend. In 2018 Da Zhang Wei appeared as a judge in Rave Now. One of the co-stars on the show is Norwegian DJ Alan Walker, ranked 36th on DJ Mag's Top 100 DJs list of 2018. In the show, Da Zhang Wei scouted the winning performer—JIANG Liang. He also scouted a team of EDM musicians who were mainly performing in underground pubs and bars in China.

After Da Zhang Wei discovered rock was too rebellious for Chinese audience, he changed to a happier, lighter genre – dance music. He wrote catchy lyrics, including many fun Beijing dialect slangs. Their songs are commercially acclaimed and made him and his band a household name.

The Flowers was disbanded in 2009 because band members had different personal goal. Da Zhang Wei embarked on his solo career. Since 2009, he released 5 albums and over 13 singles, achieving a record sales of over 5 million copies.

Xi Shua Shua was included on the band's fourth studio album, Hua Ji Wang Chao, or Blooming Dynasty, released in July 2005. The album won numerous awards around China and sold some 200,000 copies in the forty days after its release and was considered a great success in the country's pop music scene.

In 2004, they won the Most Popular Band in the 4th Global Mandarin Pop Chart and the Chinese Music Pioneer Chart. The same year, the band was signed with EMI. In June, they released You Are My Romeo.

From 2004 to 2005, the band experimented with various musical styles including hip hop and techno. In 2005, the band released "Xi Shua Shua"(嘻唰唰). This is a milestone in Zhang Wei's career as the song make him a household name. Xi Shua Shua became an instant hit in the mainland China and it is still a must-have in parties, square dancing (广场舞) and karaoke up till today. The song made Zhang Wei a permanent place in Mandarin Pop history. This popular song is even used in parties in other countries, such as Malaysia.

In 2002, they won the Media Award in the 2nd Chinese Pop Music

In December 2001, they released their second album the Strawberry Statement.

In the 2000s, Da Zhang Wei believed China's social reality is not suitable for rock music. So he terminated the contract with New Bees Music and signed with EMI in 2004. His focus was more on commercial success and public popularity. The album You are my Romeo was an album with completely different style from the previous ones. The band ‘s image was not the angry teenage boy next door, but rather a mixture of punk, and Japanese street style – with unusual hair styles, striking hair colour, flamboyant costumes, similar to Japanese Visual Kei, or Western glam rock Japanese street fashion.

In the late 2000s, China’s entertainment industry experience a drastic change where talk shows, talent shows, variety shows gained increasing popularity. At the same time, Da Zhang Wei became a solo artist. To maintain his profile, he attended many TV shows of differing categories.

In January 1999, the Flowers were signed to a small Beijing-based Chinese independent label, New Bees Music and released their first album, On the Other Side of Happiness. The album turned out to be a success with many hit songs like Stillness, Disillusion and the School's Out.

In February 1998, when Zhang Wei and his friends performed in a pub, they got to know artist agent Hong Feng. That is when the band the Flowers (Link) was established. In June, he was chosen as the Six Most Talented Teenagers of China. As Zhang Wei is a rather common name in the Chinese language, he was then better known by his stage name Da Zhang Wei (the big Zhang Wei, 大张伟).

Zhang Wei was born into a working-class family in Beijing in 1983. Despite family financial struggle, his parents worked two jobs to support his musical talent.