Zhang Hao (장하오)

When AND2BLE's debut mini-album *Sequence 01: Curiosity* sold more than 560,000 copies in its first three days and topped the Hanteo Chart daily album chart for three consecutive days in May 2026, the milestone carried an extra layer of context: one of the group's key members, Zhang Hao, had reached that point only after navigating a very public transition out of one of South Korea's most prominent audition-born acts. A Chinese artist operating at the center of the Korean idol industry, Zhang Hao had already redefined what that path could look like before he was twenty-six.

From audition history to ZEROBASEONE

Zhang Hao rose to prominence through the audition program that produced ZEROBASEONE, a group whose formation generated what coverage at the time described as a "huge sensation." His profile within that process was notable enough that he was later credited, in reporting from his home country, with having "rewritten idol audition history" for Chinese trainees — a characterization that speaks to how his placement was received in China as much as in Korea. He joined ZEROBASEONE as its Chinese member, a distinction that brought with it a particular weight: his choices, he told media after the group concluded its full nine-member activities in March 2026, felt outsized in their consequences. "My choices have too big an impact, it's scary," he said at the time.

ZEROBASEONE's full-group run ended with an encore concert in March 2026. Zhang Hao and fellow member Han Yu-jin delivered final farewells to fans at those shows. By that point, the group's reorganization had already been announced — Zhang Hao would depart, with the remaining lineup restructuring into a five-member configuration around Sung Han-bin and others. Zhang Hao returned to his original agency, YH Entertainment, which operates under the Yuehua Entertainment umbrella.

AND2BLE and a second debut

The transition was not a quiet one. Within weeks of ZEROBASEONE's conclusion, Zhang Hao was announced as a member of AND2BLE (stylized and also rendered as Andwble in some reporting), a new Yuehua-affiliated group that also includes Han Yu-jin — meaning the two members who gave the final ZEROBASEONE farewell together debuted again together within roughly the same calendar year. The group's first mini-album, *Sequence 01: Curiosity*, arrived in late May 2026.

The numbers from that debut were immediate and substantial: 560,000-plus album sales within three days, half-million-seller status, three consecutive days at the top of the Hanteo Chart daily ranking, and more than ten million music video views for the title track. For a group making its very first release, those figures placed AND2BLE in a tier of debuts that draws direct comparison to established acts — coverage at the time noted the expectation of "friendly competition" with ZEROBASEONE itself, whose comeback activities overlapped with AND2BLE's launch window.

Zhang Hao's involvement in the project extended to the creative side. He and fellow member Ricky both contributed to writing the lyrics for the group's title track, a detail that had been flagged ahead of release as a point of anticipation.

Activities and public presence

Alongside the AND2BLE debut, Zhang Hao maintained a visible media presence in the period surrounding the transition. A March 2026 *V Magazine China* cover — shot in what was described as a powerful retro mood — placed him squarely in the fashion editorial space, and the timing, just before ZEROBASEONE's final concerts, framed the shoot as a threshold moment. Earlier in the year he had also received a domestic award in China, recognized in his fourth year since debut.

On South Korean variety programming, Zhang Hao appeared on both *Knowing Bros* and the web entertainment series *Salon Drip* in the weeks around AND2BLE's debut. On *Knowing Bros* he discussed the origin of his nickname "Jjang Laoshi" — a play on his name and the Korean-Chinese word for teacher — and his background as a music student teacher in China before his idol career. On *Salon Drip* he described the itinerary he arranges for his family when they visit Korea: performances, department store shopping, and dermatology appointments, which he characterized as a form of filial piety. He also reflected, with some humor, on the cross-cultural difficulty of Korean honorific language — specifically, whether to address Han Yu-jin's mother as "Noona," given that he uses the same term for variety personality Jang Do-yeon, who is around the same age.

Standing

Zhang Hao occupies an unusual position in the current landscape of the Korean idol industry: an artist who completed a full cycle with one major act, participated in its conclusion with a degree of public reflection about the stakes involved, and then moved directly into a new group whose debut metrics matched or exceeded those of many established names. The AND2BLE launch demonstrated that the audience he built through ZEROBASEONE — and the profile he maintained through fashion, variety, and domestic Chinese recognition — translated cleanly into a new context. Whether that trajectory continues to develop is a question the material has only just begun to answer.