CLARIFICATION: the reason why one of Kris’ nicknames given by his Chinese fans is “cowboy-ge” (牛仔哥) is because he stole the hearts of many girls and became famous after somebody posted this pre-debut video(click to see) of him crossing the street in a denim shirt. lol

Back then before people knew his name, the fangirls were calling this mysterious and handsome trainee in denim shirt “cowboy-ge” and the nickname stayed (especially since he still wore that same famous denim shirt in the official teaser photos and subsequently wore a denim jacket in airport)

In Chinese:  denim = niu zai(牛仔) = cowboy, and ge(哥) = oppa/big brother

p.s. Kris himself commented in Sina interview that he liked this nickname because it felt friendly and down-to-earth