It's all about context
Apologies for the delay this week! I’ve been trying to knock these out every Wednesday, for no other reason that it aligns with #wybwednesdays on Bluesky (hint, hint); but this week I got hit with a cold that really knocked me for six, and by the time Wednesday rolled around I was too exhausted to do more than collapse into bed.
It’s been a week and a half and I’m still battling this thing, which makes it seem even more ridiculous to me that while I’ve been unable to anything more strenuous than order takeout (hot and sour soup, my lifeline), Wang Yibo spent that same time period popping over to another continent for a few days, racing another whole ass racecar into oblivion, and possibly gearing up to play tennis alongside (or against?!?!) one of the best pro players on earth. Meanwhile just typing that makes me want to lie down.
What did Yibo do this week? (Lots, as usual)
We had another big week this week! Though thankfully not as jam-packed as last week. The biggest item: Yibo hopped over to Europe — friends had to remind me that he’s done that no less than four times this year, which is an awful lot of time to be spending in Europe without giving us a European tour or a surprise European movie, just saying — for the Milan fashion week, courtesy of his new endorsement, Jimmy Choo. O sole mio, emphasis on shoe soles, get it??
If you’re wondering if this means Jimmy Choo managed to put him in decent shoes, no, it does not.
This whole event was so weird. Yibo’s navy pinstripes were perfection, of course, but he looks like he's acutely aware that he’s standing in front of a free-floating sea of terrible shoes, and it only got worse from there. Jimmy Choo didn’t seem to know what to do with him, left him sort of dangling uselessly for all the events he attended, and at one point made him do a photoshoot where he picked up various shoes and stared at them. What is this.
It wasn’t just Jimmy Choo that indulged in oddities, to be fair: Vogue China staged a photo with Yibo surrounded by pizzas? Because…. Italy? When the paparraz-eye make you eat pizza-pie, that’s am— [is throttled by rocco and all his brothers]
Outside of this weirdness, though, Signor Wang looked fantastic as usual. The jerk.
The day after this, he showed up at the flagship Jimmy Choo store looking even snazzier in a creamy regency hero-ish top with billowy sleeves and trousers to die for; still they mainly just had him stare at shoes some more, which is such a tragedy because when someone fills out a pair of pants that beautifully absolutely nobody in the room is gonna be looking at his shoes. Park your eyes 0:54 seconds into this video and you’ll see what I mean. (Here at chez newsletter we try not to be creepy or anything, but facts are facts and sometimes Yibo’s incredible physical fitness has to enter the conversation, I’m just saying.)
Rumors that Yibo would attend this year’s Weibo Music Awards proved to be alas unfounded. Instead, after this he jetted back home and immediately skittered off to the Zhuhai racetrack, where he somehow managed to run yet another incredibly expensive racecar off the track — though in his defense, it was raining, and the difficulty level was high. Still, that’s another day of training lost and another car down for the count. Afterwards, he took to his Insta to post “🌧️😕”
Me, calling 911: Operator, I need a welfare check
Dispatch: Is anyone hurt?
Me: I don’t know!
Dispatch: What’s the location of your emergency?
Me: Southeastern China
Dispatch: China? Do you know the victim?
Me: Yes I talk to him every day
Dispatch: If you talk to him every day why do you need a welfare check?
Me: Because he POSTED A FROWNY EMOJI to INSTAGRAM, not even to weibo, TO INSTAGRAM, DO YOU KNOW HOW UPSET HE MUST BE
Dispatch: …
Me: he could be IN PAIN! What if he’s all alone, what if he NEEDS A HUG
Dispatch: Okay. Does he have any friends who are closer to his location who could check on him?
Me: He has 41 million Weibo followers?
Dispatch: [click]
Me: Hello? Hello?
Yeah, so Yibo seems determined to make racing into a real career, and he clearly has the resources and an apparently endless supply of wreckable cars (or at least the same three cars being repaired again and again, but in either case kudos to his mechanics) to make it happen, but that doesn’t lessen my fear surrounding any of this. It’s dangerous! I have said this already in this newsletter, but I will keep saying it! IT’S SCARY, YIBO, BE SAFE OUT THERE.
The new documentary series is making it increasingly clear that Wang Yibo really fears no one and nothing, which raises the question of why he hasn’t gotten back on the motorcycle track since his infamous wreck in 2020. (It seems unbelievable that it was that long ago, and yet.) Disclaimer: This is all pure speculation, consume the contents of my brain responsibly, etc. I really think it’s because of the reaction from OG racers the day of the wreck (which, if you recall, involved another competitor essentially deliberately running Yibo off the track just as he was about to finish and almost certainly place first or second). That day, many of the racers who witnessed what happened were, according to leaked alleged WeChat messages, mocking Yibo and openly resenting him for what they saw as him essentially grandstanding his way into the sport.
I believe Yibo from that day on just simply said, “fine, I won’t go where I’m not wanted,” which is why, despite still spending time racing privately with his Yamaha team, he seems to have totally shifted his competitive focus towards cars. I know all about what it’s like to be shunned by a community you love, and I definitely know what it’s like to simply give up and move on because you realize you’re only going to get hurt worse if you stay in that community. I think that’s just simply not Yibo’s way. When he’s done, he’s done. I just hope very much that we won’t see a repeat of that day on the track when he trades bikes for cars.
Yibo and endorsements (again)
If you’ve been in or adjacent to K-pop or C-ent fandoms long enough, you know that there are an infinite number of mysterious entities that do analytical analysis on every conceivable event that happens involving idols, and thus reportedly, Yibo was either the 7th-most-talked-about idol to appear in MFW, or the 12th, if you count the members of Enhypen as individuals. In any case, it’s a good look for Yibo, who also revealed yet another new endorsement this week, his gazillionth — Edifier, who apparently sell headphones and other presumably edifying ear gadgets:
Unlike Jimmy Choo, Edifier, as with many of the brands we discussed last week, knew exactly how to capitalize on this gift! It debuted this honestly impressive box set of Yibo goodies along with the headphones shown above, including lots of cool photos, a panther-green bluetooth speaker, and an interactive Tracer 85 helmet!
According to yet another report of unknown sourcing, Yibo currently has 27 endorsements, which is still — as it has been since 2020 i believe? — the highest number of endorsements of any celeb in C-Ent. This is down from what was, if memory serves, the peak of like 32 in 2021, which just sounds unbelievable to me except I lived through it and watched him do that hustle. He’s creeping back up again, though; he’s due for #28 next month, per gossip. Supposedly this will be Yoose? Which makes……… this cube?
Having this many endorsements speaks for itself, more or less, especially on the fashion end — which is why Yibo was just included in a list of “definitive index of people shaping the global fashion industry” by the magazine Business of Fashion, which noted in its entry for Yibo, “Straddling the worlds of entertainment and sport, Wang has become one of the most in-demand celebrity ambassadors in China. By 2024, he had secured deals with fashion, luxury and sportswear brands including Chanel, Loewe, Jimmy Choo, Moncler, Lacoste and Anta.”
I love this because I refer to him making the #2 spot on the Forbes China list all the time, but that was in 2021 and there’s been no Forbes list since (listen guys I just wanna talk about your capitulation to government-driven hysteria over ranking things), so it’s high time we got him on another big high-profile list, even if I had never heard of this magazine before yesterday. He made the list alongside his hero A$AP ROCKY, too, which hopefully will please him.
What will Yibo do next?
This might have already happened by the time you read this, but Yibo’s about to — maybe? ????? — have some sort of tennis match/event/exhibition with none other than Novak Djokovich as part of a huge Lacoste event taking place on the Great Wall of China tomorrow. No one is really sure what this involves, but Lacoste has been promoting it nonstop. Right now the only thing that’s confirmed is that both Yibo and Djokovic will be there, and there does indeed seem to be a tennis court set up right next to the Wall. (But not, alas, on top of it.)
Meanwhile in documentary land
This week saw Yibo go free-diving, which is absolutely brain-breaking to me because that is not a thing the human body should be able to do, and yet he did it for so long! He apparently ascended to 8 meters which would be pretty damn impressive even if he weren’t holding his breath the whole time. Just: How. This whole series so far has involved me asking “HOW” over and over and over again, and the only consistent answer seems to be “Because Wang Yibo.” ¯\(ツ)/¯
At one point, Yibo finds this giant wonky branch and then carries it around for the rest of his time across the island, using it for various practical tasks like hanging lanterns and drying clothes. He’s so proud of this stick. It is his emotional support stick. When they drop back the island to move to a bigger island, he collects it and takes it with him.
This absolutely delighted me beyond words, because I, too, had an emotional support stick that I also carried around. I carried mine around for years (until I tragically lost it in a move) — it was a gnarled stick that had a flat extended handle at one end, a perfect natural walking stick. I picked it up my sophomore year of college, the day I met one of my best friends. We were both in music school together but for whatever reason had never met before that day, and we started talking and just kept hanging out the rest of the day, and I was high on the joy of having connected so deeply with somebody so quickly, and in the middle of that lovely day I found that stick and kept it forever, as a reminder of that moment of connection, of newness, of friendship, of synergy. So I get it, Yibo, I get it.
When he leaves the island — this is the most important update of this newsletter — Yibo waves goodbye to the monkeys. Yes, you read that correctly. HE WAVES GOODBYE TO THE MONKEYS.
I don’t believe in god, but this boy makes a compelling argument for the divine. Like, maybe the gods, seeing us hurtling towards the heat-death of the planet, were like, let’s give these assholes one last wonder of the world, as a treat. Only it won’t be a place this time, but the mind of a kid from Luoyang who loves to dance and wants to live as hard as he can, as much as he can, with his whole beating heart, every second, and he’ll carry the world’s heart with him as he goes, and no matter how crazy famous he gets he’ll still get excited by bugs and snakes and cool trees and the joy of this beautiful vanishing earth. A person who waves at monkeys, because of course the monkeys deserve that, why wouldn’t they? A person who probably has entire two-sided conversations with monkeys that only he can understand, but they are fathoms deep, containing the secrets of the universe. We’ll see what the world does with him, and what he does with the world. And so far what he’s done with the world is — well. Everything.
Tencent/Discovery are already putting out previews for the next set of episodes, which involve Yibo going up very high very steep rocks, and I cannot deal. Like, there are video clips of him just hanging out like he’s in a deck chair at the beach, except he’s SITTING ON A ROCK LEANING OUT OVER AN IMPOSSIBLE PRECIPICE, and he’s just totally chill?!
He was clearly having the time of his life, totally energized and not terrified in any way. He has a quote about how climbing involves seamless mind-body coordination, and I think that’s exactly the type of stimulation he loves and thrives on.
He’s the polar opposite of the performed version of himself as we’ve come to know him: He smiles so easily throughout each of these episodes; he posts a zillion selfies on social media. He updates frequently! He’s so proud of this show and of his accomplishments. We’ve seen aspects of this side of his personality before, usually in competition, but this is Yibo at his most free and relaxed and in his element, and it’s wonderful to behold.
He’s also been sharing his photography, including this soothing time-lapsed scenery, and I just have to note that I’ve always thought Yibo is an excellent photographer; his eye for composition and interesting subjects and light and details is just so good, and it probably helps that he can afford super expensive cameras, but seriously he’s just great at this:
Speaking of tools, in the cave episodes he talks about how important tools are, and that may sound like an obvious thing, but it goes back to my previous point about how he has the resources to do this safely, where not everyone would. He can afford the best tools and the best experts, he trusts in those tools and experts, he trusts his own knowledge of how to use those tools, and he just moves forward from there.
The only time we’ve really seen him rattled so far was a brief moment in the cave where his rope came loose as he started to climb, and that was quickly remedied. He absolutely doesn’t seem to fear anything, but he doesn’t fear anything because he has absolute trust in the safety network at his disposal. It might also be due to some innate inability to thoroughly process risk, but I think most of it comes from curiosity, from learning how things work, trusting those things to work the way they’re supposed to, and building his confidence accordingly.
This is genuinely such a fascinating documentary — it’s given us so much insight into who Yibo is as a person, and the amazing thing is that it’s happening all on his own terms and in his own unique way. This is a kid who’s gone a literal decade in the entertainment industry without ever really giving us in-depth looks into his mind, and he’s so well-known for that that last year Harper’s staged an entire photoshoot around just letting him be in his own head, not requiring him to say a word or attempting to have him do an interview of any kind. He’s put up with plenty of criticism and harassment for it, too, from antis who claim he’s illiterate because he’s so taciturn, from haters who criticized his answers on the road tours for his movies last year for being too simplistic.
Yet out here in the wild, he’s so chatty, and in his interviews with Chen Er (his director for Hidden Blade and the upcoming Intercross), he’s so clear-headed about the connection between this external exploration of the unknown and the internal exploration of his own psyche, his own wants and needs. He’s got such a clear vision of his own life; he just needs the right contexts to tell us about it. And the right context, apparently, is the one he creates for himself.
Nothing could be more perfectly Yibo than that.
What context will you create for yourself this week?
