Mark Tuan (born Mark Yien Tuan (Chinese: 段宜恩; pinyin: Duàn Yí'ēn; Korean: 마크투안); September 4, 1993), also known mononymously as Mark, is an American rapper and singer. He is a member of the South Korean boy band Got7.
In 2022, Tuan released his first studio album The Other Side and embarked on his first solo tour that same year.
Born as Mark Yien Tuan in Los Angeles, California, he spent a number of years in Paraguay and Brazil before eventually returning to California, where he grew up. He is Taiwanese, and has two older sisters and one younger brother. He took violin and piano lessons in elementary school, and moved to guitar in junior high school.
He attended Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California. In 2010, while with his friends at school, he caught the attention of a JYP Entertainment scout, who invited him to the auditions. Tuan had no desire to pursue a musical career but was encouraged by his friends and family who told him it was a good opportunity and thus, he gave it a try. He subsequently passed the audition and dropped out of school, which he attended until grade 10. He moved to South Korea in August 2010, where he learned acrobatics for one year, and martial arts for two years. Learning to sing, rap and dance, and performing on a stage as a trainee, inspired him to pursue the idol life and to become a singer.
In 2012, Tuan made a cameo in the first episode of Dream High 2 as a backup dancer alongside JB and Jinyoung, who later became members of Got7 with him.
He appeared in the fourth episode of Mnet's 2013 reality-survival program WIN: Who is Next, which presented iKon and Winner members, who at the time were still trainees under YG Entertainment. It also featured future fellow Got7 members' Jackson Wang, BamBam and Yugyeom.
2014–2020: Debut and solo activities in China
On January 16, 2014, Tuan debuted as a part of K-pop boy group Got7, with the EP Got It?. Since his debut, Tuan has expressed his goals in working harder to become a singer-songwriter and making his own music. He began writing rap and lyrics with the track "Back To Me" from Got7's 2015 extended play Just Right, then participated in the rap and lyric making for five out of thirteen songs from the 2016 album Flight Log: Turbulence. With Got7's third studio album Present: You, Tuan released his first Korean solo song "OMW" featuring fellow member Jackson Wang; an accompanying music video was published on September 13, 2018. As of December 2021, Tuan is credited as songwriter on twenty Got7's songs and on eight as co-composer.
With Dazed Korea May 2017 issue, Tuan launched his career as a model on magazines across South Korea, China and Thailand, appearing on over 21 magazines cover as of April 2021. He has also released two limited edition apparel collections with Represent in 2018 and 2019 titled XCIII, helping in the creation and designing of each piece. The second collection, XCIII Evolution, sold more than 35,000 items, and all the profits proceeded to Save the Children.
On February 10, 2018, Tuan, along with fellow member BamBam, held the "Project Blur" fan meeting in Thailand at MCC Hall The Mall Ngamwongwan, whose tickets sold out in a minute. In the spring of 2019, he joined Jus2 in their "Focus" Premiere Showcase in Asia, acting as the MC for Macau (April 7), Taipei (April 14) and Singapore (May 4) stops.
Tuan's increasing presence in the Chinese market began in 2018 with photoshoots, participation in events and interviews. In January 2019, the variety show Change Your Life (重量级改变) marked his first television appearance in mainland China. On April 11, 2019, Tuan attended the Weibo Starlight Awards in Hong Kong and won the Hot Star Award.
In 2019, Tuan toured China for his first set of fan meetings, titled "On Your Mark". The first one in Nanjing was held on July 20, 2019, and sold out all 3,000 seats within the first minute. The event also saw the signing of his first photobook, Mark Yixia, which had been earlier released on June 30. The second fan meeting was held on September 14 in Chengdu. As both the shows were well received by local fans, they were followed by an additional and final stop in Shanghai on January 11, 2020. On the day of the last fan meeting, he released his first Chinese single, "Outta My Head". His second single, titled "Never Told You" (从未对你说过), was released as a charity single on White Day.
From June 15 until August 28, 2020, Tuan appeared on eight episodes of Huya Super Idol League Season 10 as "Gamer Mark".
2021–2024: Departure from JYPE and The Other Side
In January 2021, Tuan, along with the other six members of Got7, chose not to renew his contract with JYP Entertainment. He moved back to the USA and opened a YouTube channel which shortly gained over a million subscribers before he had posted any content to it.
The opening of his company Mark Tuan Studio in Beijing was announced on February 7 with focus on his solo Chinese activities and promotions. Meanwhile, he also set up a new label, DNA Records, together with his friends. On February 12, he released the single "One in a Million" in collaboration with Sanjoy Deb. An animated music video, which Tuan was also an executive producer of, was then released on his YouTube channel on Valentine's Day. He also served as the executive producer of Got7's "Encore" music video released on February 20, 2021.
A third apparel collection in collaboration with Represent, named XC3, went on sale on March 17. On April 29, Tuan signed with Creative Artists Agency.
In the second half of the year, Tuan sang "Never Gonna Come Down" with Bibi for the movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. On November 12, 2021, he released the digital single "Last Breath." He subsequently released other songs in 2022, namely "My Life" on January 21, "Lonely" on March 24, and "Save Me" on April 7.