Han Geng  | ||
Chinese name | 韓庚 (Traditional) | |
Chinese name | 韩庚 (Simplified) | |
Pinyin | Hán Gēng (Mandarin) | |
Jyutping | Hon4 Gang1 (Cantonese) | |
Birth name | Han Geng | |
Ancestry | Nanai | |
Origin | Mudanjiang, China | |
Born | February 9, 1984 Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China | |
Other name(s) | 한경 (Hankyung) | |
Occupation | Singer, dancer, actor, model | |
Genre(s) | pop music, dance, R&B, folk dance | |
Instrument(s) | Piano | |
Voice type(s) | Tenor | |
Years active | 2005–present 2010-present (solo) | |
Associated acts | SM Town, Super Junior, Super Junior-M | |
Influences | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Jackie Chan, Andy Lau | |
Official | Han Geng's Official Site | |
Awards
| ||
Korean name | |
Hangul | 한경 |
Hanja | 韓庚 |
Revised Romanization | Han Gyeong |
McCune–Reischauer | Han Kyung |
Han Geng (born February 9, 1984), is a Mainland Chinese pop singer and actor well-known for his dance skills and the numerous amounts of charity works he has done. In 2001, he was chosen by SM Entertainment (SME) to become a member of South Korean boy band Super Junior, which debuted in 2005, and as the leader of its sub-group Super Junior-M in 2008. On December 21, 2009, Han Geng filed a lawsuit against SME to terminate his contract as he felt the 13-year contract was unlawful and overly restrictive.
For his various contributions to the spread of Chinese culture, Han Geng was also chosen to become a torch bearer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, becoming the first boy band member in history to hold this role.
Early life
Han Geng, an ethnic Nanai from Northeast China, was born in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang, China. He attended Guang Hua Elementary School from 1990 to 1996.
Han Geng started to learn dancing since he was young. By the age of 12, he was accepted into the dance department of the Central University for Nationalities. He left his family and his hometown in the Northeastern part of China to attend dance school in Beijing. During his years in the school, he mastered all 56 types of Chinese traditional dances from the 56 Chinese ethnic groups.
At Central University for Nationalities
At the age of 12, he was accepted into Central University for Nationalities and left Mudanjiang for Beijing to pursue dancing. During that time he also learned ballet and martial arts and performed in many countries including the United States, Russia, Taiwan, and Macau.
In 1999, as a representitive of the Nanai ethnic group, he participated in the parade in honor of China's 50 year anniversary.
Career
Korea and Super Junior
In December 2001, Han Geng 's friend notified him of a talent scouting audition that was going to be held in Beijing, and his friend encouraged Han to sign up with him. Although hesitant at first, Han Geng agreed to audition with his friend. Together they signed up for the H.O.T. CHINA Audition Casting, a casting audition that was hosted by Korean talent agency and label SM Entertainment. The competition rate was 3,000 to 1, and Han Geng had no hopes of getting selected after auditions ended.
After the audition, Han Geng began to work briefly as a cameo actor in short low-budget Chinese films to earn a salary before entering college. In late August 2002, Han Geng was notified that he had been selected by SM Entertainment. After Han's graduation from the Central University for Nationalities, he was sent to South Korea and received private lessons in singing, dancing, acting, and Korean language. By mid 2003, Han Geng had moved into dormitories and lived with other trainees who were under the same label. With the other trainees, he was enrolled in training classes. He started out as a Class C dancer (the lowest class for dancing), but later on he went straight to Class A, skipping Class B. At that time, there were only 4 people in Class A, including Han Geng.
On February 6, 2005, Han Geng was officially announced to be part of one of South Korea's all-boy rotational musical groups, Super Junior, as a member of its first generation, Super Junior 05. Being the first group with a Chinese and foreign member to formally debut in South Korea, the media closely followed the group. Three months later after the announcement, Han Geng made his first media appearance as a runway model in a fashion show organized by Bum Suk.
Han Geng was one of the few members of Super Junior who actively appeared on variety shows, such as being a regular guest in Love Letter and Star Golden Bell. Being active in variety shows, his popularity within Super Junior grew and Han Geng became popular overseas. Aside from South Korea, Han Geng also became well-known in China, where he made guest appearances in different Chinese variety shows, being one of the first K-pop idols to appear in them. Han Geng became a national celebrity in China with the debut of Super Junior's third subgroup Super Junior-M on April 8, 2008 in China. The subgroup released their first Chinese-language studio album, Me, on May 2, 2008. The album debuted on Taiwan's G-music combo charts as #2 and #1 on many of China's and Thailand's music charts.
Han Geng ceased activities with Super Junior after filing for contract termination from SM Entertainment on December 21, 2009.
Acting
Han Geng made a cameo appearance with band-mate Eunhyuk as a friend of Heechul in an episode of the MBC drama Rainbow Romance early 2006. In August 2006, Han Geng played the role of a police officer in Zhang Liyin's debut music video "Timeless", starring alongside Lee Yeon-hee and bandmate Siwon. The two-part music video was released separately in September 2006. The music video was ranked #1 for four weeks on Melon's Video Chart. In November 2007, Han Geng starred as the lead role in Zhang's debut Chinese music video, "I Will", and "The Left Shore of Happiness" alongside Lee and Siwon. Both music videos were released in February 2008.
Han Geng 's first big-scale film was Attack on the Pin-Up Boys, an SM Pictures production that starred all Super Junior members except Kyuhyun. He played the role of a popular basketball player who later got attacked by a mysterious force. Despite positive critical ratings, that film did not do well in the box-office. However, all four versions of the film's DVD were sold out and broke chart records.
In late 2008, Han Geng filmed the CCTV mini drama called Stage of Youth in China. In the mini drama, he played Xia Lei, a young man who has to go through numerous obstacles and challenges in order to achieve his dream to become the new generation's dancing star. The 12 episode drama was a Chinese New Year Special and also a tribute to the Beijing Olympics 2008. It aired on CCTV-Children (少儿频道) from January 19–31, 2009.
In the middle of 2010, Han Geng was given a cameo role in the government funded film The Founding of a Party (建党伟业) along with many other A-list Chinese celebrities. The movie recently finished filming, and will be released in theaters in June of 2011.
Han Geng was cast alongside Barbie Hsu and Fahrenheit's Wu Chun for the Sino-Hollywood collaboration action movie My Kingdom (2011) (大武生). The film is directed by Gao Xiaosong, produced by Andre Morgan and features action directing by Sammo Hung. Filming began in October 2010, although the actors trained in martial arts and Beijing opera for three months before this. The filming wrapped up in late January of 2011, and the movie will have an estimated release date of Fall 2011. The production team has stated that the film will be released theatrically in the United States and around the world.
2008 Beijing Olympics torch bearer
On March 20, 2008, Han Geng was announced to be one of the torch bearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the first boyband member to be chosen in history. Being active in a foreign country, Han Geng had constantly promoted Chinese culture in Korea, earning him a spot as torch bearer. His torch relay was in the Beijing route on August 7, 2008. He was runner number 240. Besides being a torch bearer, he also sung in the Beijing Olympic theme song "Beijing Welcomes You" (北京欢迎你).
Charity Work
Han Geng is extremely active in many charities and constantly tells his fans that instead of buying gifts for him, they should use their resources to help those in need. Han Geng is most noted for donating most of his 2008 income to the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He also donated 100,000RMB to the 2010 Yunnan Drought. In 2010, Han Geng became a spokesperson for "I Want To Go To School Kappa 1200 Help the School Children Project," a charity designed to help underprivileged Chinese children go to school. While most celebrities that participated sponsored one child through the program, Han Geng chose to sponsor ten, and Han Geng 's fans, know as Gengfans (庚饭, lit. "Geng Rice"), sponsored another 124. Han Geng also recorded a song with Olivia Ong to promote the charity.
Solo career
On June 22, 2010, Han Geng officially announced his solo career at a press conference held at The Great Wall Of China, revealing the release of his first solo album titled Geng Xin 庚心, which hit stores throughout Asia on July 27. The name of the album literally means "Geng's heart", but it is also a play on words because it has the same pronunciation as "start anew" in Chinese. There is also a third meaning to it: the character Geng 庚 in his name comes from the evening star Hesperus/Venus (Chang Geng Xin 长庚星), which is what he's named after. So his album’s title can also mean "Evening Star" or "Geng's star", since Xing 星(star) and Xin 心(heart) have similar pronunciation in Chinese.
On July 6, Han Geng published a complete demo version of his album's title song "My Logo". The song was produced by American producers, Craig Williams and Rene Van Verseveld. Remarkably, Han Geng and Craig Williams invited Travis Payne and Stacey Walker (best known as Michael Jackson's choreographers) along with Michael Jackson's This Is It dancers - Dres Reid, Shannon Holtzapffel, Tyne Stecklein, and Daniel Celebre to join the choreography for the MV of this song.
Han Geng also held his first two solo concerts in Beijing on July 17 and 18. Tickets for the 2 concert days were sold out in a record time of 37 minutes. His first solo album has topped various major music charts in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. It has sold more than 350,000 copies within only 2 months after its release, and to celebrate such remarkable results, a special celebratory version of the album was released on October 1 with a limited number of 20,000 copies. In addition of the 10 songs in the album, the special version contains 7 MVs and a kareoke disc. As of December 2010, the album has sold more than 530,000 copies.
Han Geng was invited to perform in the in the 2011 CCTV Spring Festival, where he sang the opening and performed a short dance.
Controversies
Performance restrictions
Before his debut, Han Geng entered Korea with a vacation visa and had to return to China every three months for a new one. After debuting in 2005, his company obtained an E-6 (Entertainment Industry) passport, allowing him to stay for longer periods. However, a Chinese passport strictly limited his promotional activities and appearances in various broadcasting corporations in Korea. By law, a Chinese passport holder is only allowed to perform on three television stations. Han Geng was allowed to perform on KBS and SBS, as stated by Lee Soo Man during a Harvard Korean Wave conference in early 2007. Fellow labelmate, Zhang Liyin, also experienced the same issue. Initially, the company did not know of the procedures and was fined because of it. Before Han Geng signed contracts with KBS and SBS, he performed on stage with a mask and a hat to hide his face on screen. Many thought Han Geng was a backup dancer until three months later when his bandmate Heechul finally revealed him to the media by publicly taking off his mask.
Despite visa restrictions, Han Geng performed with the rest of Super Junior at the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival and the 2007 Golden Disk Awards. Both award ceremonies aired on channels that Han Geng was restricted to perform on.
Lawsuit
On December 21, 2009, Han Geng filed for contract termination from his former company SM Entertainment. The following day, December 22, 2009, Han Geng 's lawyer released the reasons for the contract termination: the contract had provisions in SM Entertainment's favor, the 13-year contract length was unlawful, it would take an unfair sum of money to end the contract, he was not allowed to request to revise his contract, he was forced to do things that were not in his contract, he was forced to do things against his will, he was fined if he disobeyed the company, missed any events or was late, and there was unfair profit distribution. Along with this, it was disclosed that because of SM Entertainment's refusal to give him a day off in over two years, he had developed gastritis and kidney disease.
Han Geng 's best friend and current manager, Sun Le, also submitted a statement to the Korean courts citing SM Entertainment's violation of Han Geng 's rights. This statement was later leaked to the public via the internet. Though many suspected the statement to be fan created, it was later confirmed as legitimate. Sun Le's statement contended that Han Geng was forced to wear a mask due to SM Entertainment's ill handling of the visa issue, SM Entertainment purposely discriminated against Han Geng and his family, SM Entertainment refused to cooperate or listen to any of Han Geng 's suggestions, SM Entertainment purposely turned down individual activities for Han Geng (including Ariel Lin's "Fireflies" music video, which later starred two other Super Junior members) and SM Entertainment treated Han Geng 's potential endorsers poorly.
On December 21st, 2010, it was announced that Han Geng won the lawsuit against SM Entertainment. The three contracts have been officially nullified.
Discography
Albums
Album Information | Tracklisting (Simplified Chinese/Traditional Chinese) |
Geng Xin (庚心)
| Tracklisting |
Filmography
Film and television | |||
Title | Year | Role | Notes |
Nonstop (TV) | 2006 | Himself | Season 6, episode 136 |
Attack on the Pin-Up Boys | 2007 | Hankyung | limited release in South Korea |
Stage of Youth (TV) | 2009 | Xia Lei | 12 episodes |
My Kingdom | 2011 | Meng Erkui | Post-production |
The Founding of a Party | 2011 | Zhao Shiyan | Post-production |
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