Where eagles dare

From boy-band star to a lead role in hit TV dramas, teen idol Wang Junkai seems to be finding his onscreen feet while earning his acting chops in the process, Xu Fan and Li Yingxue report. 

When most youngsters his age are striving to gain university entrance, 19-year-old Wang Junkai has already stunned the show business industry by demonstrating the influential power that a super idol can hold.

Making his acting debut headlining the 40-episode teen adventure tale, Eagles and Youngster, the TV drama has now accumulated 4 billion clicks since it began running on online streaming platform Youku.

The hit series has garnered ratings as high as 7.7 points out of 10 on Douban and 8.8 on Maoyan, two of the country's most popular film and TV review sites.

As a mark of Wang's popularity globally, the series has also made forays into overseas markets thanks to broadcasts on Malaysian satellite TV service Astro and global streaming platform Youtube.

"Zhang Baoqing's (the protagonist played by Wang) journey of exploration fulfills my dream of embarking on an adventure, and I think we both grow up together on this trip," Wang tells China Daily in an email interview.