Casper (Chu Xiaoxiang / Zhong Zexiang)

Biography

Chu Xiaoxiang, stage name Casper (formerly Zhong Zexiang), was born on March 22, 1991 in Shanghai, China. In elementary school, he was selected as a sprinter in the fourth grade, then switched to weightlifting a year later, but was forced to end his athletic career six years later due to a back injury from overtraining. In 2008, Casper participated in the Hao Le Di "Men's KTV" Karaoke competition and won double championships, and also won the Pepsi Burning Microphone contest the same year. He then signed with the mainland Chinese agency Dongwu Tianxia and in 2009 formed the group Xilemen with Wang Shihao, Chen Chaowei, Ka Qishan, and Zhu Yubin. He later signed with the Korean agency Amuse and in 2012 formed the Korean boy group Cross Gene with Shin Won-ho, Kim Sang-min, Kim Yong-sik, Gao Jianing, and Tatsuya Terada. In 2016, Casper starred in the Taiwanese campus film "Ultimate Class" and sang the theme song "After Seventeen" with Bang Bang. In September 2017, Casper announced his departure from Cross Gene. In 2018, he returned to mainland China and participated in Youku's music competition "This Is Singing" and won the championship. In 2019, he joined iQiyi's variety show "Youth With You" but withdrew later that year. He then released several singles including "This Is the Way," "Sweet Love," "Now or Never," "Real Fighter," and "Too Many." In 2020, he participated in Hunan TV's "Chinese Restaurant Season 4" and sang its theme song "Chinese Flavor," and also joined "Shine! Super Brothers" where he was eliminated in the third performance round. In 2021, he released singles "Body," "Flexin," "Time," "Me," "Hero," and his first EP "Imperfect" in August. In 2022, he released the single "Chinese Essence." Additionally, Casper once appeared in a Pepsi commercial with Jolin Tsai in 2009, and about a decade later when he appeared on "Youth With You" in 2019, Jolin happened to be one of the mentors, and the commercial was dug up by netizens, which Casper jokingly called his "dark history."