1983–1998 Zhang was born on 31 August 1983, in
Beijing,
China. He completed his elementary school education in the
Chongwen District in Beijing before joining the Children's Cultural Palace to practice singing. At the age of 10, he won first place in the Chongwen District singing competition, as well as the Beijing Middle School and Elementary School Students Sing Competition. In the fourth grade, Zhang, along with other singers in the Children's Cultural Palace, attended the Children's Choir competition in Russia and came in second place. During the fifth grade, Zhang became a member of the
China Central Television (CCTV) Yinhe Teenage Art Troupe after passing its audition. The Yinhe Teenage Art Troupe has produced many superstars in the contemporary Chinese pop music world, including
Faye Wong, Cai Guoqing, Wang Xuechun and
Liu Chunyan.he became known by his stage name, Da Zhang Wei. In January 1999, The Flowers signed with 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 "School's Out". In December 2001, they released their second album,
Strawberry Statement (""). In 2002, they won the Media Award for the 2nd Chinese Pop Music Festival. 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 signed a contract with EMI. In June, they released a single CD,
I Am Your 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" (), propelling Zhang to household-name status. "Xi Shua Shua" remains popular overseas, in countries such as
Malaysia, as well as in China, especially for parties,
square dancing () and
karaoke. 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 in China and sold some 200,000 copies in the forty days after its release. The Flowers have been referred to as China's "first famous adolescent band." The band disbanded in 2009, and Zhang embarked on his solo career afterwards. Since 2009, he has released five albums and over thirteen singles, achieving record sales of over five million copies.
2010–present Zhang became known to younger audiences as a host and TV personality. In 2016, he became a co-host for China's top talk show
Day Day Up. In 2021, he departed from the show along with Wang Yibo, as Hunan TV reworked Day Day Up and Happy Camp following scandals of other hosts. In 2014, Zhang released "Bei-er Shuang", meaning "Super Euphoric". He performed the song at China Central TV's Spring Festival Gala, a show viewed by Chinese audiences at home and abroad. The song became an instant national sensation. Psy used "Bei-er Shuang" when he performed with Chinese girl band
SNH48 in China. In 2016, Zhang created a theme song for the advertisement of
Alipay's new function, combining
Beijing opera with EDM. He also performed in
Heroes of Remix as a guest performer, remixing Beijing folk song "Beijing Chick" and 1980s rock song "The Long March" in the song "New Beijing Chick" (). In this show he brought forward the concept of CDM—China Dance Music, encouraging musicians to create music using their own ethnic style, rather than forgetting their own cultural identity in following international trends. In 2018, Zhang appeared as a judge on
Rave Now. On the show, he scouted the winning performer, Jiang Liang. He also scouted a team of EDM musicians who mainly performed in underground pubs and
bars in China. His 2018 song,
Am a Popping Candy, combines EDM with traditional
Yunnan ethnic style and
Shandong clapper talk, an ancient storytelling music performance.
Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony ) His 2018 song "Sunshine, Rainbow, White Pony" () later gained international viral attention online after being widely used in memes and short-form videos. The chorus repeatedly uses the Mandarin pause/filler word (often pronounced
nèi ge or
nà ge), literally meaning "that," and commonly used in speech similarly to English "um." Because the pronunciation can be misheard by some English speakers as an English racial slur, the refrain has been cited as an example of cross-cultural linguistic misunderstanding, including in discussions surrounding a 2020 controversy involving a University of Southern California professor’s classroom use of the same filler word. During YouTuber
IShowSpeed’s trip to China, he met Zhang in Changsha in April 2025 and performed the song with him at a Hunan TV studio. == Artistry ==