Ren Yueli | |||||
Birth Date: | 13 April 1988 | ||||
Birth Place: | Zhuozhou, Hebei, China | ||||
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Ren Yueli (born April 13, 1988), better known by her nickname Xidan Girl (Chinese: 西单女孩), is a Chinese Mandopop recording artist and a previous street musician-turned Internet celebrity.
From a poor village in Zhuozhou, Hebei, she migrated to Beijing at the age of 16 looking for work. Struggling to get by, she was eventually forced to perform songs on a street. In December 2008, a video of her performing the song "Tianshi de Chibang" (天使的翅膀; "Angel's Wings") with a guitar in Xidan subway station, Beijing, recorded by a bystander, went viral online. As her name was unknown then, she was simply called "Xidan Girl" by Chinese netizens, many claiming to have been reduced to tears by her heartfelt performance.
TV stations and journalists soon located her and she began performing on TV. In April 2010, Ren Yueli signed with Beijing New Run Entertainment Co., Ltd. In 2011, she performed in CCTV New Year's Gala, China's top-watched annual television event.
Her life experiences were dramatized in a 2011 Chinese film Xidan Girl.