[3] Aged 17 years and 284 days, Yan became the youngest player ever to contest a ranking final when he faced Mark Williams at the 2017 Northern Ireland Open, but lost in a deciding frame.

[14] China B started as 50/1 outsiders but they topped their group, knocking out England in the process, before beating Australia and Wales in the knock-out stages, and Scotland in the final.

[16] Shortly afterwards it was announced that Yan's tour card would be deferred until the 2016–17 season in order for him to complete his education in China and become eligible for a working visa.

[18] Yan finished the year by winning the San Yuan Cup, an amateur Chinese competition, in Chengdu, beating Jin Long 5–4 in the final.

[19] A trio of deciding frame wins saw Yan reach the fourth round of the Paul Hunter Classic, where he lost 1–4 to Dominic Dale.

[20] Yan qualified for the German Masters by overcoming Sam Baird 5–1 and Shaun Murphy 5–4 and at the venue beat Dale 5–2 and Michael Holt 5–1 to reach the first ranking event quarter-final of his career, which he lost 2–5 to Stuart Bingham.

[21] Yan defeated world number one Mark Selby 4–1 in the third round of the Welsh Open, before being knocked out by a reversal of this scoreline to Kurt Maflin.

[22] Yan became the second youngest player to compete at the World Championship which he qualified for by beating Sam Craigie 10–8, Mark Davis 10–7 and Alexander Ursenbacher 10–4.

His wins over Ronnie O'Sullivan, Ricky Walden, Jack Lisowski, and John Higgins, saw him make his first career semi final, where he lost 2–9 to Mark Allen.

Yan secured his first triple crown event title at the Masters after beating Neil Robertson, Stephen Maguire, Stuart Bingham, and John Higgins.