Yang Caiyu (Chinese: ; pinyin: Yáng Ciyù; born September 28, 1992) is a Chinese singer and actor. She made her acting debut in the short film Boy's Dairy (2012) and has since been in a number of films including Love in the 1980s (2015), Youth (2017), and Don't Forget Your Original Heart (2018). (2018).
Childhood and education
Yang, who was born in 1992 to Thai Chinese parents, attended a kindergarten in Wuhan before moving to Shenzhen, where she completed fifth grade and advanced immediately to junior high school. In her second year of junior high school, she was one of the top three kids in the city and the only one in her grade. In March 2007, she hosted the Ministry of Education's 2nd National Primary and Secondary School Art Exhibition and Awards Gala finale.
She moved to the United States after finishing junior high school and finished her high school career. Yang was admitted to the University of Southern California, Boston University, and five other universities in the United States for a major in media in 2011, but she chose to return to China and apply as a foreign candidate at the Beijing Film Academy. She was accepted into the Performance Department, and actress Zhou Dongyu was in her class. She was a freshman class representative of the Performance Department at the Beijing Film Academy and the multilingual host of the 10th Beijing Film Academy International Student Film Festival in 2011.
Yang earned an MFA admission offer from Columbia University after graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 2017, making her the third Chinese candidate to be admitted to the MFA program at Columbia University. She turned down the admission to pursue her acting career.
Career
She sang the theme song for the Chinese animated series The Legend of Nezha in 2003. She made her acting debut in the short film Boy's Diary, a promotional short film for Peking University, in April 2012. Yang appeared in the 3-D film Legendary: Tomb of the Dragon in 2014, opposite Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren. She appeared in the TV program Code of Youth in 2012.
She appeared in the 2015 romantic film Love in the 1980s, directed by Huo Jianqi. She played the character Cheng Liwen in the film. The film received an award nomination at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival. In 2017, she starred in the mystery thriller film Edge of Innocence, as well as the film Youth, directed by Feng Xiaogang and written by Yan Geling. She played Lin Dingding in the film and got the Best Supporting Actress Award at the first Marianas International Film Festival in Saipan for her performance.
In 2018, she co-starred in the adventure thriller TV drama Seven Days with Li Chen and Wang Qianyuan. In 2020, she appeared in the film Only Cloud Knows, directed by Feng Xiaogang.
In 2021, she starred in Faith Makes Great, a series of short dramas produced by the National Radio and Television Administration to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party of China. The same year, she was nominated for Best Actress in a Chinese Contemporary TV Drama at the 32nd Huading Awards for her work in the TV drama Like a Flowing River 2.
Private life
Yang disclosed publicly on July 6, 2017, that she was dating businessman Chen Jinfei, the CEO of Beijing Tongchan Investment Group and Hongxing Entertainment Media Investment Co., Ltd, who is 30 years her senior. Chen was also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference's 9th and 10th National Committees. He also serves as the godfather to Chinese actress Liu Yifei.
Yang and Chen married on December 18, 2019, according to certain Chinese news sites. When asked for confirmation of the report, Yang did not answer, although Chen did not deny it while also stating that "there is no need to respond to this, it is just a matter of her own life."