Cai Xukun (born August 2, 1998), also known by the mononym Kun (stylized as KUN), is a Chinese singer-songwriter and actor. After participating in the first and second seasons of the Chinese reality show Super Idol, he joined boy group SWIN and its sub-unit SWIN-S in 2016. He rose to fame in 2018 with iQIYI's talent show Idol Producer, where he finished first and formed the temporary boy group Nine Percent, before pursuing a solo career. He was a cast member of the variety show Keep Running from 2020 to 2022.
Early life Kun was born on August 2, 1998, in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. He spent part of his childhood in Huaihua, Hunan with his grandparents, and grew up in Shenzhen, Guangdong. During his time in elementary school, he was chosen to be the principal's assistant and student union's president, and participated in various essay writing competitions. Kun was also selected as a candidate for TFBoys, but decided to focus on his schooling as his parents thought that he was too young to join the entertainment industry. After graduating from elementary school, he moved to Shenzhen to complete middle school at Shenzhen Nanshan Foreign Language School (formerly Shenzhen Nanshan Second Experimental High School).
Career
2012–2014: Start of career In April 2012, Kun participated in Hunan TV's variety show Up Young! and ranked in the national top 200, which allowed him to enter the stage. In August of that year, Kun began his acting career, playing the role of Du Yu Feng's teenage version (portrayed by Lee Joon-hyuk) in Half a Fairytale. After that, he also played the role of Xixi in Hunan TV's television series Female Criminal-Police Officer Li Chunchun. In 2014, he played the teenage version of Huo Ke (portrayed by He Jiong) in Lock Me Up, Tie Him Down.
2015–2017: Super Idol (星动亚洲) In 2015, Kun returned from the U.S. to participate in the South Korean-based reality show Super Idol. The show was produced by Anhui TV, in partnership with the South Korean broadcast network MBC. During the two seasons of the show, Kun experienced constant pressure and fierce competition from other participants, receiving intensive idol training. After about two years on the show, Kun's performance skills saw an unprecedented improvement, earning him a spot in the Top 3. Upon the end of Season 2, Kun returned to China, where he debuted as a member of the Chinese boy group SWIN under Yihai Entertainment Company. As the group had already accumulated a sizable fan base, the debut was highly anticipated by both the members and their fans. However, the group's performance opportunities and public appearances were limited during its time with Yihai Entertainment, and observers reported a decline in the group's popularity. In the beginning of 2017, Kun filed a lawsuit against Yihai Entertainment Company to terminate his contract.
2018: Idol Producer (偶像练习生) and rise in popularity After a period of dormancy from the entertainment industry, Kun decided to join Season 1 of reality survival show Idol Producer as an independent trainee at the end of 2017.
Kun performed his self-written and self-composed song "I Wanna Get Love" in the first episode. Despite some controversy, Kun attracted a large fanbase. He quickly rose to fame and became a hot topic for discussion on the survival show. In addition to receiving considerably high votes after each evaluation performance in the show, Kun also earned rank no. 1 multiple times and maintained a high ranking throughout the entire program. He received a total of 47,640,887 votes in the final evaluation, earning him the center position in the final line-up. On April 6, 2018, Kun officially debuted as the leader and center of the temporary Chinese boy group Nine Percent.
Soon after the end of Idol Producer, I Won't Get Bullied by Girls, the web-drama starring Kun filmed in 2017, was released. Kun took on his first lead role as Ye Lin, the love interest of Ren Xiaoqin (portrayed by Lu Yangyang). The show is a teen comedy series that features a distinctive wardrobe and draws heavy influence from Japanese manga as a means to achieve comic relief. By 3 May, the series had accumulated over 700 million views.
From April to May 2018, Kun's first single, "I Wanna Get Love," topped the 'Mainland China C-pop Single Chart' as China's number 1 single for almost three weeks. At the end of May, Kun was voted as one of the most influential celebrities in China. For the three months between May and July, Kun had a full schedule, consisting of fan meeting tours across China with Nine Percent. On June 2, Kun and other members of Nine Percent had their first group appearance on the variety show Happy Camp.
In July, Kun set up his own personal studio. On August 2, 2018, his 20th birthday, Kun released the EP 1 for free. It contains three songs, "Pull Up", "You Can Be My Girlfriend", and "It's You". According to QQ Music, 'Pull Up' achieved multiple sales/streaming milestones shortly after release. "Pull Up" was co-written with UK songwriting team Mike Macdermid, David Brant (who is also the producer on the song), Rajiv Bukhory, Fidel Rosales and Ryan Curtis. He also edited the music video for "Pull Up". Kun later released another single, "Wait Wait Wait," on August 23, which quickly rose to the top of multiple music charts. His first stage performance of "Wait Wait Wait" aired during the first episode of Idol Hits on September 7.
On October 12, Kun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" live for the first time at the "'BAZAAR Stars' Charity Night" and donated 600,000 RMB for Bazaar's charity project. Over the next two days, Kun partnered with MiGu Music and successfully held his first set of small-scale fan meetings in Chengdu and Shanghai. On the last day of October, Kun delivered his first stage performance of "Pull Up" at the "Ellemen Movie Hero Gala" in Beijing. On November 7, Nine Percent released their first original song, "Rule Breaker", one of the tracks in their album To the Nines. Kun co-wrote the lyrics of "Rule Breaker" and "Good Things". Rule Breaker was written by some of the same writers as "Pull Up", namely Mike Macdermid, Rajiv Bukhory, David Brant, and in addition, US-based producer Kevin Chozen took the helm on production.
At the Twelfth Annual Migu Music Awards, held on December 8, Kun's "Wait Wait Wait" was ranked one of the Top Ten Pop Songs of the Year. This marked the first major award Kun received for his musical work. On December 28, TC Candler & The Independent Critics released their highly awaited List of The 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2018, taking into account the large pool of public opinion and suggestions, where Kun has been ranked as having the 27th Most Handsome Face in 2018. On December 30, Kun performed "You Can Be My Girlfriend" and "Wait Wait Wait" at Zhejiang Television's New Year's Eve Concert. On the very next day, he unveiled his first stage performance of "It's You" at the "Dragon TV New Year's Eve Gala" in Shanghai.
2019: Ambassador of China and Jamaica, new songs and solo tour On January 10, 2019, Kun was awarded the title of "China and Jamaica's Goodwill Ambassador" by the Jamaican Embassy in Shanghai, China. With this honorable title, Kun called on mutual cultural exchanges between China and Jamaica. He said that he hopes to become a positive role-model for the younger generation. Less than a week later, the theme song of the movie The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang, "The Lunar Song" (), was released. This song marks a noteworthy collaboration between Kun and Jackie Chan.
On January 18, the first episode of Cai Xukun's Unfinished, a documentary series initiated by Sina Weibo, was released. This short video series spans across various themes close to his heart and is expected to run for 12 episodes. The next day, Kun released an artistic music video for "Wait Wait Wait", directed by Dave Meyers. The award-winning director and his international team created a highly cinematic and storytelling music video using a series of symbolic elements, to allude to the message behind the song.
On February 5, the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2019, Kun performed an exclusive stage set at Beijing TV's Spring Festival Gala, delivering a song he co-wrote with other musicians. "That Spring" () marked the first time he performed a song that was written entirely in Chinese. He later revealed his intention to dedicate the song as an exclusive performance for Beijing TV, and hence he will not be releasing a studio version of it. On the 18th of that month, Kun released his first Chinese single, "No Accident" (). The song was a collaboration between two musicians, with composition by Yoga Lin and lyrics written by Kun. A week later, on February 26, an animated music video for "No Exception" was released. The music video, created by a group of artists from a South Korean-based publishing and film-making studio, VCRWORKS, employs abstract elements and snippets from Kun's life to recount his story. Attempting to relate his own story with a personal narrative while being aligned to the overall theme of the song, Kun chose a controlled and melodic singing style when delivering this melancholic ballad. "No Exception" once again rose to the number one position on multiple music charts in China, setting an impressive record on music streaming platforms for 2019.
On March 1, Kun announced the dates for his first solo tour, "KUN ONE North America/U.K. Tour 2019", which included Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and London, from April 4 to April 12, 2019. The tickets for the Los Angeles and New York shows were sold out online within the first few minutes they went on sale. On March 15, Kun released his first DJ mix, "Bigger" on Spotify, and it was one of the tracks performed at his solo tour in April. The release date for "Bigger" was slated for March 22 in China.
On April 19, Kun released a song titled "Hard to Get". Prior to the song's release, Kun updated his social media accounts with three photos in succession, captioned 'H', 'T' and 'G'. The song was first performed during his first solo tour. The music video was released on May 3 through Kun's new YouTube Channel.
On May 16, Kun attended the opening ceremony of the Asian Film and TV Week. On May 24 and 25, Kun finished the last two shows of his KUN ONE tour in Toronto and Vancouver.
Kun was invited to be a guest judge for the 11th episode of the World's Got Talent, filmed in Hunan, China. He also delivered a special performance with a mix of "It's You" and "Hard to Get". The episode was broadcast on June 28 and immediately became a Hot Topic on Weibo. For the first time in its history, the program was the Most Discussed Variety Show of the day.
On July 26, Kun released the single Young. Its music video was filmed in multiple locations around the world, including Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing and LA. Kun actively took part in the creation process, including production, developing ideas for the music video, editing, helping out with the choreography and designing the cover of the EP. The EP reported 63 million digital sales/streams in 2019, which the report described as a leading figure for that year. In just 1 minute and 21 seconds, the EP achieved 9 of QQ Music's awards and caused the creation of two more certifications. Altogether the EP earned more than 20 million yuan.