Who is Jackson Wang? Five things to know about the Chinese K-pop star

Jackson Wang is trending on Twitter again. And this time, all it took was a single photo.

The Chinese K-pop star is the latest cover model for Super Elle, a Chinese fashion and lifestyle magazine aimed at readers in their teens and 20s.

For those who may not be familiar with Wang, he's best known for being a member of the K-pop band Got7. However, he's also found success as a solo artist, becoming the highest charting Chinese artist on the Billboard 200 with his first solo album Mirrors, which he debuted in November 2019. Here are five things to know about him:

1. He comes from a family of athletes

His father was a member of China's national fencing team and won a gold medal at the Asian Games. He also competed in two Summer Olympics. His mother was a former world-class gymnast. Wang started training as a fencer at the age of 10 and was a member of the Hong Kong national fencing team. He was so good at the sport, he got offered a scholarship to Stanford University in the US and could have joined Hong Kong's national team for the 2012 London Olympics, but turned the opportunity down to become a K-pop star instead.

2. He was a K-pop trainee for two and a half years

It may seem like he was born to be a K-pop star now, but back in 2011, after he moved to Seoul, South Korea, to start training, it took hard work to kickstart his career. Wang made an appearance on the reality survival show Win: Who is Next, which pitted K-pop trainees against one another and eventually won a spot on Got7 with fellow trainees Mark, Yugyeom and BamBam.

3. He's quite the funnyman

Appearing on Korean and Chinese variety shows, Wang doesn't shy away from the camera. He's appeared on an endless list of television programmes, which has helped create a global fan base. He also appeared on a Late, Late Show segment called This is How We Do It with James Corden.

4. He can speak multiple languages

Wang is known for being able to speak five languages fluently: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, English and Korean. He was born and raised in Hong Kong, but his parents are from China so he likely learnt Mandarin and Shanghainese from them. He also attended the American International School, and Cantonese and English are widely spoken in Hong Kong. And, of course, he learnt Korean while training to become the star he is today.

5. He's incredibly popular in China

On the Sina Weibo social media platform alone, he has 24.2 million followers. Of course, he also spends time working on his Chinese brand. He's appeared on Chinese television and even held a birthday party at the Beijing Olympics Sports Centre in 2019 with all 5,000 tickets selling out in 98 seconds. He was appointed as an ambassador for Fendi China and launched a collaboration for a limited-edition line called the Fendi X Jackson Wang Capsule Collection.

The specs

Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo

Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm

Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km

Price: from Dh285,000

On sale: from January 2022

It's up to you to go green

Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.

“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”

When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.

He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.

“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.

One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.

The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.

Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.

But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”