"Of the nine million sitting China's toughest exam - known as the gaokao - one 17-year-old stands out: Wang Junkai, lead singer of China's most popular boyband, TFBoys."

To make foreigners understand who Wang is, CNN made an analogy with the US idol Justin Bieber taking his SATs. CNN has also illustrated how popular Wang is in China.

"When the young star took his high school entrance examination three years ago, the hashtag 'good luck' had 170 million views on Weibo."

"And this year, under the hashtag 'Good luck to Wang Junkai Gaokao 2017,' Weibo has been flooded with more than one million posts from fans, media and celebrities ahead of the exam."

Three-time Chinese Basketball Association champions the Beijing Ducks appointed Greek hoops guru Yannis Christopoulos as its new head coach on Friday.

Christopoulos, who assisted former Chinese national squad coach Gong Luming at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has signed a three-year contract with the Ducks. He has been tasked with leading the dethroned league champion back to the top with support from a reshuffled management group.

Citing his previous experience working with the national team, the 43-year-old Greek boasted of his confidence in completing the task despite the team's recent decline in strength.

"I have been here enough years to understand the culture and the mentality as well as how the people are functioning on and off the court in China," said Christopoulos, who started his national assistant role in 2013.