Wu, the 21-year-old world number 186, went down to Croatia's Ivan Dodig but he exited with his head held high as the first Chinese man to play a Grand Slam match.
China is increasingly in focus on the tennis circuit with the Women's Tennis Association replacing Japan's premier tournament with a new event in Wuhan next year -- one of five on Chinese territory.
Tennis Australia is microblogging updates from the Australian Open on Chinese social media sites, and for the first time, a group of Chinese children are performing as ballboys and girls.
Meanwhile, Date-Krumm entered the history books as the Australian Open's oldest female winner at 42, as she crushed 12th seed Nadia Pedrova, who is 12 years her junior, 6-2, 6-0.
Japan's Ayumi Morita joined Date-Krumm in the second round when she beat Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-3, 6-3. Another Japanese, Go Soeda, also reached the next stage of the men's draw with a four-sets win over Australia's Luke Saville.
Peng Shuai followed fellow Chinese women Li Na and Zheng Jie into round two with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-0 victory over Rebecca Marino of Canada.
There was also success for Taiwan with Lu Yen-hsun reaching the second round of the men's draw and women's seed Hsieh Su-wei beating Spain's Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino in straight sets. (AFP)
