Li Yong

Who is Li Yong?

Li Yong is a leading host on China Central Television. He is known for his unorthodox presentation skills and outfits.

Li's family originate from Shandong, but he grew up in Xinjiang, the west part of China, where he was interested in painting as a child. He excelled in the National College Entrance Examination and planned to become an actor. From 1987 he studied radio at the then Beijing Broadcasting Institute, where he began dating Ha Wen. The two subsequently married; Ha has both produced Li's programmes for CCTV and been his publicist. Li is a member of the Communist Party of China. After graduating, he joined CCTV's in 1991 as a choreographer. While he has also worked in news, he has made his name in light entertainment. He now lives in central Beijing and the couple have a daughter born in 2002.

Since 2001, he has been one the six main hosts of the CCTV New Year's Gala, which has a regular audience estimated at over one billion people. He is often used in on-screen and printed promotional material as the public face of CCTV.

Li was launched to fame by Lucky 52, a CCTV-2 gameshow with audience figures around 50 million. Based on a British gameshow format. The show aired on Saturdays at 6:55pm. The last air was 25 October 2008 and its repeats, as Li has announced/CCTV has announced that Lucky 52 will go off air.