Ayanga (Chinese: 阿云嘎; pinyin: Āyúngā, Mongolian: ᠠᠶᠤᠩᠭ᠎ᠠ, born 23 October 1989) is a Chinese musical theater actor, singer and songwriter of Mongol ethnicity. Ayanga was born in the Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. His parents were sheep herders and died before he turned seven. He was raised by his older brother who was 20 years older. He received education in Mongolian and spoke little Mandarin when he was young. He was sent to Ikezhao League Art School after his parents passed away. He was selected into the Song and Dance Troupe of Inner Mongolian PLA at the age of 14. He went to Beijing to pursue his dream in art and performance at the age of 17. He then studied at Beijing Dance Academy and majored in Musical Theater. After graduating from college, he joined the Beijing Opera and Dance Theater and became a musical theater actor and a singer. In 2012, Ayanga starred in China's original musical Kunlun Myth with the theme of intangible cultural heritage Kunlun mythology, playing Sauran and Pangu.[4] The same year, he starred in the original musical Tianqiao directed by Tian Qinxin, playing Lin Pengfei.[5] Recommended by Tian Qinxin, Ayanga joined the Beijing Song and Dance Theater as a solo actor after graduating from Beijing Dance Academy.[3] In 2013, Ayanga participated in the musical Nasirdin Afandi.[6][7] The same year, he participated in The Third Inner Mongolia Young Singer TV Competition and won the first prize for mainstream singing.[8][9] In 2014, he won the third prize of the "Wenhua Award" popular group in the national vocal competition.[10] In 2014, Ayanga participated in the Anhui TV's reality show Mr. Super which he won the championship;[11] and the CCTV-3 music reality show Rising Star China which he emerged as runner-up.[12] In June 2015, Ayanga released his first solo single "Thank You".[13] On 31 December of the same year, Ayanga held a concert with the title "The Return of The Thunder God" in Ordos City, which was his first solo concert since his debut.[14] He also participated in the musical The Legend[15] and the dance opera History in the Song.[16] In February 2016, Ayanga participated in the CCTV New Year's Gala for the first time with Jiang Xin, Du Fu, Wu Yingwei and others.[17] The same year, he co-starred in the web drama Weapon & Soul.[18] In December, he held a concert with Zhaxi Dunzhu titled "Two Heroes Battle" which was broadcast on CCTV.[19] He also released his first solo album Shartal Grassland.[9] In 2017, Ayanga starred in the musical A Moment of Remembrance;[20] as well as musical My Bucket List.[21] His second solo concert Sing Your Heart Out was broadcast on CCTV-15.[22] The same year, he also participated in several important occasions, including the closing ceremony of the 13th National Games;[23] the closing ceremony of the 26th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival and the Sino-Russian Artists Gala. In February 2018, Ayanga's third concert Peak Musical Concert was broadcast on CCTV-15.[24] The same year he played Namuhai in the television series The Story of My Parents' Youth directed by Kang Honglei.[25] Ayanga then participated in Hunan Television's music reality show Super–Vocal and emerged as one of the six final winners.[26] Together with Zheng Yunlong, Frank Ju (Ju Hongchuan), and Cai Chengyu (who were collectively known as Super-Vocal finalist group), he participated in Hunan Television's singing contest show Singer 2019 and emerged as the 2nd runner up of the season.[27] Ayanga is often seen performing as a duo with fellow musical actor and Super Vocal contestant Zheng Yunlong; the two have been friends since university and are collectively known as "Double Yun".[28][29] On 4 February 2019, he participated in the CCTV New Year's Gala and sang the song "Building a Chinese Dream Together".[30] The same year, he starred in the play The Merchant of Venice playing Antonio.[31] Forbes China listed Ayanga under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2019 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields.[32] From 2019 to 2020, Ayanga joined Dragon TV's singing variety program Our Songs.[33] In 2020, Ayanga appeared in CCTV New Year's Gala, performing a song item "Dear China" alongside Zheng Yunlong and veteran artists.[34] The same year, he announced that he will star in the Chinese version of musical Jekyll & Hyde.