Early years

Born in Changsha, in Hunan province, and raised in Shenzhen, in Guangdong province, Zhou was introduced to music by her mother, a Chinese folk music teacher, and started singing and writings songs in high school.

She first gained international attention after winning the best worldwide act award at the 2014 MTV Europe Music Awards.

A year later, she became the first pop singer-songwriter from the Chinese mainland to hold two concerts at the iconic Hong Kong Coliseum.

Separately, Zhou initiated Begins to Love in 2015, an annual philanthropic concert, to help hearing-impaired children.

Besides being a singer-songwriter, Zhou is also enthusiastic about photography.

In November 2016, she held her first solo photo exhibition at Beijing's 798 Art Zone, a popular hub for contemporary art.

Titled Wander, the exhibition features Zhou's photographs from her travels over the past three years, and cover the Tibet autonomous region, Finland, France, New York and Iceland.

She says photography is a different way to see and experience the world.