In 1970, Yao Gang was born in an ordinary family in Dalian, Liaoning Province. His father was a public security officer and had strict education and rules for him, but as the only son in the family, he was still favored by his parents and two older sisters.
When he was a child, Yao Gang often heard beautiful singing voices from his neighbor's house, and that neighbor who loved to sing was Sun Nan, who later became a famous singer. They live in the same compound and often play together.
Although Sun Nan didn't think singing was good at first, but was obsessed with working in the factory, Yao Gang developed a strong interest in singing.
With a love for music, Yao just started trying to learn to sing. He begged his father to find him a vocal teacher, and his father found one through his uncle's connections. However, after nearly a year of studying, the teacher finally left only one sentence and left, "Think of other ways out".
This blow made Yao Gang feel frustrated, but his stubborn personality made him unwilling to give up easily.
The unwilling Yao Gang decided to go to the Shenyang Conservatory of Music to continue learning singing, however, the reality once again poured cold water on him. The university teacher bluntly told him, "You're not good at singing, but maybe you can try to be an actor."
Although this sentence disappointed Yao Gang, it also pointed out a new direction for him.
As a result, Yao Gang turned his attention to theatrical performances, frequenting the theater near his home, carefully observing the actors on stage, and even following them after the performance to learn more details about the performance.
Yao Gang's passion for acting grew, and he often followed the actors in the corner of the theater to learn the movements.
After the people of the troupe found out about Yao Gang's existence, they encouraged him to learn acting, which gave Yao Gang great encouragement. Yao Gang rushed to the theater to study before dawn every day. After unremitting efforts, in 1981, Yao Gang was successfully admitted to the repertory troupe, which marked his official entry into the entertainment industry and laid the foundation for future development.
Soon after, because of the excellent conditions in all aspects, Yao Gang was selected by the Shenyang Military Region to become a literary and artistic soldier. During his two years in the army, he began to get into drama and perform on stage. "The Navy Family" became Yao Gang's first drama, and gave him the opportunity to come to Beijing and start his hard work in the entertainment industry.
In 1990, Yao Gang's acting career finally improved, and he ushered in some opportunities for official roles. He has participated in works such as "Love Like a Conspiracy", "Autumn Harvest Uprising", "Tianxi Life", "Yue Fei", "Sea Breeze" and other works.
Although these roles provided Yao Gang with valuable acting experience, they never made him truly popular in the entertainment industry.
Faced with the bottleneck of his career, Yao Gang chose to bow to reality, and in order to make a living, he temporarily left his beloved stage and turned to the business world. Relying on his keen business sense, Yao Gang opened a unique double-storey duplex structure bar in Liaoning.
The first floor is a bar for guests to entertain, and the second floor is a restaurant where you can eat, this novel business model attracted a large number of rich second generations and rich ladies, and the business was booming, allowing Yao Gang to quickly recover his costs and obtain considerable profits.
However, despite his achievements in the business world, Yao Gang's love for acting has never stopped. Whenever he enjoys a movie alone, watching the vivid and natural actors perform on the screen, there is always a ripple in his heart, and he remembers that he was once one of them.
This feeling made him more and more enthusiastic about returning to the performance stage.
In 1998, Yao Gang got a great opportunity to return to the entertainment industry. The famous director Chen Xunqi found Yao Gang and invited him to participate in the TV series "Shanghai Tango", Yao Gang accepted the invitation without hesitation and played the role of Zhou Biao in the play.
This drama became a major turning point in Yao Gang's career and opened a new door for his acting career.
Yao Gang, who returned to the front of the screen, seems to have found a home in life, and he has successively acted in film and television works such as "Heroes Without Regrets", "Age of Passion", "True Love Never Sleeps", "Tianzi No. 1", "Let Love Be the Master" and so on.
Although most of these characters are not the protagonists, Yao Gang is fully committed and strives to interpret each role in place.
However, just as Yao Gang's career gradually improved, his family began to worry about his marriage. Looking at Yao Gang, who was about to enter his first year, his mother called him frequently, wanting to introduce him to someone.
However, Yao Gang stubbornly believes that only after a successful career can he consider starting a familyWhenever his mother mentions marriage, he always makes excuses that he is busy, and then hangs up the phone in a hurry.
Yao Gang silently swore in his heart that he must achieve something in his acting career in order to give an explanation to his family. His firm attitude made his family happy and worried, but it also made him go further and further on the road of acting.
For Yao Gang, this is a difficult choice, but he firmly believes that only by achieving success first can he find a life partner that is truly suitable for him.
2008 was a turning point in Yao Gang's career. This year, he participated in two important TV series, namely the costume drama "Peacock Flying Southeast" in April and "Aunt Duohe" at the end of the year.
However, what really made Yao Gang famous in one fell swoop was the role of Zhao Huanghuang he played in the anti-corruption drama "Crime Domain".
Yao Gang played Zhao Huihuang in "The Domain of Crime" is a very charismatic villain, although he is the second male lead, he has nearly 200 more scenes than the male lead. Yao Gang interprets this "big villain" very well, showing a villain who is both cultivated and personable, and even quite charming in the hearts of female audiences.
His performance is so authentic that after the episode airs, he is often recognized and scolded in real life.
Once, Yao Gang was recognized by an eldest sister on the street, and she bluntly said to Yao Gang: "Zhaohui, you are too bad. This situation made Yao Gang laugh, but he was also secretly happy, because it proved that his acting skills were recognized by the audience.
However, the excellent villain performance also caused trouble for Yao Gang. When he goes out to eat, he is sometimes even treated differently by the waiter at the restaurant because they think the role he plays in the TV series is too hateful.
After Yao Gang's father watched his son's TV series, he couldn't help but say: "I can't stand it anymore, I want to arrest you and educate you."
However, Yao Gang did not change his path as an actor because of this. He continued to play villain roles in 2009, playing the role of Da Da Shi in "New Bao Qingtian: Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", Xia Mingyu in "Non-Biological Sisters", and Xing Ningguo in "The Way of the World".
In 2012, he played the role of Chen Longhai in "Cold Winter" and left a deep impression on the audience again.
During this time, Yao Gang's career was booming, but there was no breakthrough in his personal life. Although he is over forty years old, he still maintains strict requirements for marriage, believing that only when he meets someone he really likes and is suitable can he enter marriage.
He often said: "If the right person doesn't show up for a long time, then stay single for the time being, don't delay each other, don't waste time".
This insistence made Yao Gang's mother feel anxious, and she often cried insomnia because of her son's marriage. Yao Gang is also very conflicted in his heart, on the one hand, he hopes to meet the right person as soon as possible to reassure his mother; On the other hand, they are reluctant to marry for the sake of getting married, fearing that the marriage will make both parties unhappy.
The struggles in life haunted him like a haze that could not be dissipated - Yao Gang. Even with his great professional success, he is still looking for someone who connects with him spiritually and accompanies him throughout his life.
As time passed, Yao Gang's acting skills gradually became proficient. In 2012, he played the role of Chen Longhai in "Cold Winter", which attracted wide attention from the audience. Subsequently, the broadcast of "Admiral Hong Xuezhi" made Yao Gang's image in the hearts of the audience have a positive change, reversing the previous negative impression brought by the villain.
In 2018, Yao Gang starred in the TV series "Set Sail" once again surprised the audience. This drama series with the theme of urban development made Yao Gang very enthusiastic. For this play, he put in a huge effort.
Every day, Yao Gang has to recite five thick lines, and even when eating, he doesn't forget to recite the scene where he runs with sand and gravel in the rain, Yao Gang's shoulders are worn out, but he doesn't realize it.
After the filming, the moment the director shouted to stop, Yao Gang did not immediately deal with his wounds, but went to check his performance as soon as possible, and asked the director if he needed to reshoot.
This professionalism of his was unanimously appreciated by the director and colleagues.
However, Yao Gang has not changed his attitude towards marriage because of his career success. Even at the age of 52, he still insists on his opinion: "Only when you meet someone you really like and are suitable can you enter into marriage smoothly."
If you haven't been able to meet, you'd rather be single, not delay each other, and not waste time."
This insistence made Yao Gang's mother feel tormented. Thinking that her son had not yet found his other half, she was distraught and had trouble sleeping. As she waits day by day, she often can't help but cry.
In her heart, her son's happiness is the most important, and when she didn't see her son get married, there was always a hurdle in her heart that she couldn't overcome.
Yao Gang's heart was urgent and sore, but he couldn't go against his heart to make concessions. He hopes that he will meet the right person as soon as possible, so that his mother can rest assured and make his life better.
But until that person comes along, he'd rather stay single than casually step into a marriage that may not be happy.
Despite disagreements with his parents on marital issues, Yao Gang is an extremely filial son in his daily life. Every family holiday, he would carefully select gifts and take them home to surprise his parents.
Even if he is filming in other places, he will squeeze out time in his busy schedule and rush home as soon as possible to accompany his family and celebrate his birthday together, which shows Yao Gang's deep affection for his family.
Yao Gang learned that his father was sick when he was filming in the crew, and immediately asked for leave to rush back to the hospital to visit the patient, and took on the responsibility of taking care of his father. He realized that he was the man of the family and could not let his mother and sister be too tired.
During his stay in the hospital, Yao Gang not only took care of his father's daily life, but also often chatted with his father and told interesting stories about himself on the set to relieve his father's illness and boredom.
After his father was discharged from the hospital, he always hoped that his son Yao Gang would be able to come home more often. However, on every call, the father always told his son: "Everything is fine at home, you have to take care of yourself outside, and my mother and I will always be your back."
This selfless love has strengthened Yao Gang's determination to continue to struggle in his acting career.
However, fate is always fickle. Not long after, Yao Gang's father died. This heavy blow left Yao Gang in deep grief and unable to extricate himself. Fortunately, his childhood friend Sun Nan has always been by his side and helped him gradually get out of the haze.
In order to take care of his mother, Yao Gang also specially asked Sun Nan to help pack his mother's things and take them to live with him at home.
When Yao Gang was not at home, Sun Nan would help take care of Yao's mother, and the friendship between them had gone beyond ordinary friends, and was more like brothers supporting each other.
However, although Yao Gang is a very filial son, his insistence on the perfection of his marriage has never been able to alleviate Yao's mother's worries about his marriage. Whenever she saw Yao Gang alone, Yao's mother always felt heavy and even cried silently.
Deep down, she always hoped to witness Yao Gang start a family in her lifetime, but Yao Gang's persistent pursuit of an ideal marriage made this wish unattainable.
Faced with his mother's expectations and his own persistence, Yao Gang was in a dilemma, he wanted to calm his mother's heart, but he didn't want to be reluctant to get married. This is a major obstacle in his life, and it also makes him seek a dynamic balance between the pursuit of personal happiness and filial piety.