Dylan Wang x GQ China May 2026 Cover Feature
Dylan Wang is the quintessential high-energy operator. It means there is no real downtime in his day: filming, basketball, meals, gaming, listening to demos, chatting, and fitting in a few pages of English vocabulary on the side. More often than not, he is on set by six in the morning and wraps at six in the evening, only to change clothes and head straight into another two hours on the court. Somehow, all of it is compressed into the same twenty-four hours. There is a vibrant, irrepressible vitality about him. In his presence, people are instinctively drawn in, gathering around him almost without realising it.
Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to share a plate of fish-fragrant shredded pork with Dylan Wang?
Midway through the shoot, someone leaned in to say something to Dylan Wang.
'That’s insane!' he suddenly exclaimed, his voice ringing across the entire set.
The news they had brought him was a freshly delivered NBA game update: the Los Angeles Lakers were down three against the Houston Rockets in the closing seconds, when LeBron James drained a game-tying three to force overtime. Everyone on set who followed basketball was deep in discussion about his performance.
We asked Dylan what he thought.
'For a 41-year-old veteran, that was more than fierce enough,' he said, punctuating the remark with an imaginary crown-placement gesture in the air. 'If they make it past the first round, that’s basically a championship already.'
The line set off a ripple of laughter from those around him.
From a distance, Dylan seems to be enveloped by a peculiar gravitational field, drawing friends and staff effortlessly into his orbit. It is almost impossible to tell which are which.
Jacket: Polo Ralph Lauren; top: Number (N)ine; ring: Budahood
But if you really want to see the pull of that gravitational force clearly, the best place is the basketball court.
In Hengdian, there is a well-known basketball 'middleman' nicknamed Xiao Si, the manager of a local court. Dylan Wang first started playing there while filming Unchained Love, and that was how the two met. Five years on, they have become thoroughly familiar with one another. In Dylan’s eyes, Xiao Si is 'the sort who looks unreliable, but is actually very dependable when it comes to organising games', someone who 'puts real thought into team selection and knows how to look after everyone'.
Xiao Si’s idea of looking after people means keeping the games relatively 'health-conscious': cardio-focused, with minimal aggressive physical contact.
Within games like these, Dylan is the undisputed centrepiece. In his own words, he is 'the thigh', basketball slang for the player everyone leans on. Which is to say: go one-on-one with him and you will get destroyed, but end up on the same team and you are almost guaranteed to win. Actor Wang Runze recalls that he first played basketball with Dylan six years ago, during the filming of Super Penguin League. Since then, both have spent years filming in Hengdian and have long since become regular teammates on the court.
Of course, even the strongest 'thigh' cannot score alone. Basketball, after all, is still a team sport.
Top: Number (N)ine; trousers: Zhang Dingyun; boots: Our Legacy; bracelet: Vintage; ring: Budahood
On the basketball court, Dylan Wang resembles a floor general more than anything else. He watches for whoever has the hot hand and feeds the ball their way more often; if someone has yet to settle into rhythm, he deliberately creates an open look to help them find their touch; if another player’s stamina is fading, he rotates early to cover the defensive gaps. By the end of the game, the score belongs to everyone, but the tempo has been his to command all along.
After basketball comes the inevitable second round: the dinner table. Hengdian has no shortage of good food, hotpot, barbecue, Zigong Yanbang cuisine, Northeastern dishes, even meticulously prepared diet meals. Lately, his favourite has been a serving of garlic pork slices from a Zigong restaurant, paper-thin cuts of meat coated in a punchy garlic sauce, fragrant, bright, and deeply satisfying.
At tables like these, there is no set agenda. Conversation drifts wherever it pleases: whose game was the worst that day, how someone managed to claw back a win in a video game, how filming went. Naturally, the food itself becomes part of the discussion too, which dish deserves another order, which one inevitably reappears on the table the next evening.
Jacket: Ala Tianan; trousers: Solid Homme
People from Sichuan and Chongqing are natural-born gourmands, and Dylan Wang is no exception.
While filming Wander Together, the Chongqing-style fish-fragrant shredded pork he recommended left a lasting impression. The wok must be flooded with oil and heated until searing hot, the pork strips flash-fried until golden before bamboo shoots, garlic shoots, and wood ear mushrooms are added in quick succession. Once the wok hei reaches its peak, the sauce is reduced over high heat. What sets the Chongqing version apart is the final spoonful of chilli oil and vinegar, giving the finished dish a vivid heat and crisp fragrance that leaves you drenched in sweat by the end of the meal.
Dylan’s verdict: 'It feels like doing cardio inside your mouth.'
Bring a bowl of rice and pull up a chair beside him, who wouldn’t want to animatedly dig into a plate of fish-fragrant shredded pork with Dylan Wang and call it cardio training?
Top: Peter Wu; trousers: Solid Homme; shorts: Louis Vuitton; bracelet: Vintage
Before filming Light to the Night, Dylan Wang had very little experience with grounded, realist dramas. At first, he admits, it all felt 'somewhat unfamiliar', so he had to gradually find the right emotional register and performance rhythm for the role.
In the series, he stars opposite Pan Yueming as a mentor-and-apprentice pair of criminal investigators with clashing temperaments and entirely different personalities. To properly inhabit the composed and restrained detective Ran Fangxu, Dylan consciously trained himself out of his habitual tendency to gesture while speaking. In Ran Fangxu, there is barely any obvious trace of Dylan himself.
Playing a police officer carries a certain childhood romanticism for many boys, and he is no exception. The types of characters Dylan gravitates towards have almost always contained a streak of heroism: as a child, it was Sun Wukong; later on, it became crime dramas.
When he first entered the industry, Dylan watched Day and Night and was deeply struck by Pan Yueming’s dual performance. 'I thought it was incredible. I really admired him.'
A few years later, the senior actor he once watched through a screen had unexpectedly become his mentor figure in Light to the Night. Even now, recounting it himself, Dylan still sounds slightly surprised by it.
Singlet: Comme des Garçons; trousers: Esoteric; belt: Our Legacy
In the drama, the mentor and apprentice sit across from one another eating noodles while discussing a case. Food scenes carry all kinds of unspoken implications. The mentor, who appears constantly at odds with his apprentice, casually passes him the coriander from his own bowl. Even the way they hold their chopsticks is almost identical, tilted at precisely the same angle, like mirrored reflections facing one another.
Off screen, that mentor-apprentice dynamic became real as well, only the classroom shifted from interrogation rooms to late-night supper tables.
The beginning of that 'late-night supper friendship' was a bottle of alcohol.
During filming, Dylan Wang and Pan Yueming lived on different floors of the same building. Dylan would often bring late-night snacks upstairs to chat with Pan Yueming, discussing pacing, performance choices, and their understanding of the characters.
One day, Pan Yueming gifted him a bottle of alcohol. Unsure what to pair it with, Dylan figured drinking called for sashimi, so he bought some salmon and headed upstairs again to talk through scenes together. After that meal, Pan Yueming somehow came away with the impression that Dylan loved sashimi, and from then on, sashimi became a regular fixture at their late-night gatherings. In turn, this left Dylan convinced that Pan Yueming was the real sashimi enthusiast.
And so, each believing the other genuinely enjoyed it, the two continued ordering sashimi whenever they met, politely enduring it for quite some time while subtly masking their discomfort. Eventually, one day, both finally reached their limit. They looked at each other in bewilderment and discovered the truth: between the two of them, not a single person actually liked sashimi all that much.
Singlet: Comme des Garçons; trousers: Esoteric; belt: Our Legacy
In Dylan Wang’s eyes, Pan Yueming is 'very understated, like an adorable panda'. Yet even someone with such a calm disposition gradually revealed a far more playful side under Dylan’s influence. Dylan has a song titled Seaside Tango, and whenever it comes on during breaks or gatherings, Pan Yueming unfailingly sings along when the chorus reaches 'Yeah, it's okay'.
Beyond acting, music makes up the other half of Dylan’s world. Here, he does not have to be anyone’s apprentice, nor anyone’s senior. He is simply another friend who enjoys being part of the noise and excitement.
Jacket: Polo Ralph Lauren; top: Number (N)ine; trousers: Zhang Dingyun; slippers: Vetements; sunglasses: Louis Vuitton; ring: Budahood
Whenever he is with his rapper friends, the gathering place changes depending on the city. In Beijing, they book a recording studio, better acoustics than karaoke, more satisfying to sing in. In Chongqing, whoever happens to be free heads straight to someone else’s studio. Whether a new track has officially dropped or exists only as a rough demo with a handful of lines, someone immediately plugs in the equipment and plays it aloud for everyone.
Dylan’s new single Elegant came with what he calls a 'massive-scale production' music video, filmed over fourteen straight hours in a single day. The final result is dazzling, the set design evoking something out of Now You See Me. At gatherings, he could hardly wait to cast it onto the screen for all his friends to watch together.
At the Macau stop of his D.Party Macau concert this January, the entire brotherhood turned up to support him. Rap artists GAI, Wang Qiming, PUSHA and several other friends appeared as guest performers, making for a formidable line-up. The moment GAI arrived, Dylan immediately pulled him into four or five songs in a row. When the Sichuan-Chongqing rap classic Chao Tian Men began playing, the entire venue erupted, and both performers became visibly emotional.
Even now, recalling that moment, Dylan still smiles. 'Huge thanks to Brother GAI for delivering a million-dollar-level performance.'
After a brief pause, he added with a laugh, 'Though I’m also pretty good at getting him to open his mouth to sing.'
All clothing and footwear by Louis Vuitton
Let's Head Towards the Distance Together
Amid the constant orbit of friends around him, Dylan Wang often reveals a far gentler and more attentive side beneath the swagger associated with rap culture.
Actor Wang Duo, who worked with Dylan on Per Aspera Ad Astra and Live Long and Prosper, describes him as someone who is 'rough around the edges, but meticulous underneath'. On the surface, he appears carefree and uninhibited, yet he is always quietly paying attention to whoever has been left on the sidelines. Wang Duo is naturally slow to warm up socially and tends to hold back on variety programmes, but Dylan invariably notices, drawing him back into the flow whenever he risks fading into the background.
Year-end gala events are crowded, brightly lit, and tightly choreographed. Wang Runze rarely attends occasions like that and found himself somewhat overwhelmed. Somehow, Dylan noticed him almost immediately, weaving through the cluster of guests to stand beside him and strike up a conversation, making him feel 'far less awkward and out of place'.
All clothing, underwear, footwear, and sunglasses by Louis Vuitton
During the shoot, both Wang Duo and Wang Runze dropped by the set. Also making an appearance was Donnie, Dylan Wang’s self-proclaimed 'godson'.
Donnie belongs to one of Dylan’s close friends in Hangzhou, and was named after Robert Downey Jr., the actor behind Iron Man. The first time Dylan met the dog, it was barely two months old. Five months later, Donnie already weighs around 35 kg, and expresses affection with overwhelming force, tugging Dylan across entire rooms whenever it gets excited.
Whenever work brings Dylan to Jiangsu or Zhejiang, he makes time to reunite with the dog. Either he goes to visit Donnie himself, or Donnie arrives freshly bathed and fully 'styled' to visit the set. Their closeness exceeds what most people would expect. The leash, the dog food, even the electric scooter, all were gifts from Dylan.
Between one work commitment and the next, maintaining a relationship untouched by professional obligations can feel unexpectedly difficult. Yet Dylan always makes the effort to show up.
Vest and shorts by Marrknull; boots: Undercover; belt: Ala Tianan; necklace: Louis Vuitton; sunglasses: Gentle Monster
Four years ago, Dylan Wang, Wang Chuanjun and Wu Dajing appeared together on Wonderland (Taohuawu). In one behind-the-scenes clip, the three attempt to assemble a basketball hoop together.
What should have been a straightforward task, read the instructions, match the parts, tighten the screws, rapidly descended into chaos. Wang Chuanjun ignored the manual entirely and started assembling things by instinct. Wu Dajing and Dylan followed along beside him, yet somehow not a single part lined up properly. The three of them circled the hoop in mounting confusion, installing sections backwards, dismantling them again, swapping directions, drifting further and further off course until nobody could even tell which step had originally come first. One mishap after another left the trio collapsing into laughter.
As filming continued, the bond between them only deepened, to the point where viewers eventually nicknamed them the 'Three Fools of Wonderland'.
That friendship extended far beyond the programme itself, lasting right through to today, four years after the show ended.
Back during Wonderland, they had made a promise: when Wu Dajing eventually retired, Dylan and Wang Chuanjun would go together to 'pick him up from work'. On 6 January this year, Wu Dajing officially announced his retirement, and the old promise was genuinely fulfilled. Wang Chuanjun appeared in person before him, while Dylan joined through a live video call on the phone. The 'Three Fools' had come to honour their appointment, even with one absent in person.
Base layer top and hoodie by Near4rest; necklace: Budahood
Over the past four years, the three of them have rarely managed to reunite offline at the same time. More often, meetings happened in pairs. Speaking about the friendship, Dylan Wang’s tone carries a trace of melancholy: 'After enough time passes, you stop deliberately wondering whether you’ll ever all reunite again.'
Yet while filming The Inn 2026 earlier this year, Wang Chuanjun and Wu Dajing travelled overnight to the inn. The long-awaited reunion of the three in one frame came as an enormous surprise to Dylan. Once again, they ended up sleeping side by side on a giant communal bed, playing rock-paper-scissors to decide who had to get up and turn off the lights.
Dylan said the feeling was like being transported back to the golden days of Wonderland, a kind of 'happiness regained after having lost it'.
Dylan is especially fond of Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece. During Wonderland, when the cast were asked to choose someone for an imagined conversation across time and space, he chose Luffy.
'I hope that on my own voyage, I can become someone like you...'
Then, shouting into the microphone, he declared:
'Forever hot-blooded. Forever sincere. Forever passionate.'
And in many moments, he truly does call Luffy to mind, that infectious momentum that makes people want to set out along with him, eager for the next meeting, hoping to become his friend, his companion, someone allowed to remain aboard his ship for the journey.
Base layer top and hoodie by Near4rest; necklace: Budahood
Creative Direction & Supervision: Boh. Project
Styling: Eagle, Bale @ Teameagle
Artist Coordination: Yoyo Wang
Editorial Planning: Zhu Xu
Special Appearances: Wang Duo, Wang Runze
Make-up & Hair: MATT (Dylan Wang)
Production: IT'S FINE PRODUCTIONS
Hair: Chen Rong @ Salsa Studio (Wang Duo, Wang Runze)
Make-up: Sisi (Wang Duo, Wang Runze)
Lighting Assistants: Zhang Yilong, Chen Fei
Art Assistants: Cai Peijian, He Weiwei, Jin Jin
Styling Assistants: Xiaowan, Yrral, Xigua
Location Support: 暮色深处, Hangzhou
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