Ex-Super Junior Member Hangeng's Recent Interview Raises Several Eyebrows

I believe it is safe to say that former Super Junior member, Hangeng, didn’t leave the group on amicable terms and he hasn’t been shy about expressing his opinions on previous occasions. However, he appears to have recently conducted a new interview that paints a much darker image of his time in the popular idol group, with mentions of how he even contemplated death due to the severity of the work and how he found his Super Junior M activities tiring because none of the Korean members could speak Chinese and he would have to interpret for them.

On September 28, former Super Junior member, Hangeng, conducted an interview on Bejing TV’s “Music Billboard Chart” program where he talked about how he ended up debuting as Super Junior along with explaining why he had no choice but to leave the popular idol group.  He explained that the reason he wanted to debut as a celebrity was because “The most important thing for me was to earn money so I let my parents live comfortably” and how he “Never thought about becoming a singer or how popular I can get.” 

He then talks about his struggles, stating that “Because I was the first foreign celebrity to debut in Korea, the laws regarding that weren’t perfected and there was restrictions on what I could do. I couldn’t participate in advertisement recordings or other certain schedules and I had to stay at the dorms on my own.” He goes on to say that “It felt like I had lost all hope. I cried during the performance of “Twins” I did with the Super Junior members.” He also mentions that his first ever payment was 4000 yuan, the equivalent of US$650 by current exchange rates. He goes on to state that he “saved up money like crazy because seeing my struggling mother was heart breaking.”

He then moved on to talk about his experiences when he was part of the Super Junior M sub group, saying that he became a rookie again when he debuted as Super Junior M in China in 2008. He also talked about his time in China saying that “It was comfortable being in China and I earned a lot of money that year. It was over a million Yuan (Around US$160,000). I did a lot of concerts and I also recorded advertisements.” However he then mentions that ” The only thing tiring back then was interpreting for the Korean members because they couldn’t speak Chinese. They caused me a lot of head aches.”

He also talked about some of his grievances with SM Entertainment, mentioning that “I wanted to be an actor but they wouldn’t let me even though they let the other members act. They didn’t even give me any advertisement jobs” which eventually caused his “Grievances to pile up and then explode out” leading to him leaving the group. During this time he states that “I thought there was something wrong with my mental state back then. I thought ‘What if I commit suicide at this rate?’ I need to be happy.“

He also talked about how he “Secretly gave all of my bank information and medical records to a Korean law office without the agency knowing in preparation to sue them” and that he “Contacted his manager every day so that the agency wouldn’t get suspicious” but that “If I had 2 or so hours spare after a schedule, I would secretly go to the law office.”

The latest interview has raised a few eyebrows amongst Super Junior fans, with fans stating that Hangeng should have been more careful about what he was saying and that this was being discourteous towards his former members. Hangeng left Super Junior in 2009 after applying for an injunction against his former agency, SM Entertainment, citing that his contract terms were unreasonable. 

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