He is a former national sabre fencer for the Hong Kong fencing team, and ranked 11th in the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, winning first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships in 2011.[1] Jackson is fluent in Mandarin, English, Shanghainese, Cantonese and Korean.
Biography
Early life and career
Jackson Wang was born in Hong Kong on 28 March 1994, to parents who were both athletes (his mother, Sophia Chow/ Zhou Ping was an Olympic gymnast) from mainland China.[2] At the age of ten, he began to train in fencing, being taught by his father and other professional coaches. He went on to win multiple awards as part of the Hong Kong national fencing team,[3][4] including first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011.[1] He attended the American International School in Hong Kong up to the eleventh grade.[5] He was offered a scholarship for Stanford for fencing, but he turned it down to become a singer.
Jackson moved to South Korea in July 2011, becoming a trainee under JYP Entertainment. He trained at JYP for two and a half years before making his debut, during which time he made an appearance on the reality survival program WIN: Who Is Next, which aired on Mnet on 6 September 2013. The program was a competition between YG Entertainment trainees (that have now debuted as the groups Winner and iKON), whom he competed against for the episode alongside JYP trainees Mark, Yugyeom, and BamBam (now Got7 members).
Got7
He made his official debut as a member of Got7 with the debut single "Girls Girls Girls", released on 16 January 2014, from the group's first EP Got It?.[6]
On April 29, 2016, Got7 held their first concert in Seoul, where Jackson performed his self-composed songs "I Love It" and "WOLO (We Only Live Once)" with his group members Yugyeom and Bambam.[7]
In 2014, Jackson joined his first variety show Roommate season 2 as a member.
In December 2015, Jackson made his Chinese television debut as one of the presenters (alongside He Jiong) on the Chinese version of the show Please Take Care of My Refrigerator,[9] called Go Fridge, which was well-received.[10] In March 2016, Jackson was appointed as MC for Fresh Sunday, a show on Hunan TV.[11]
