"Huang Xiaoming"

Huang Xiaoming (born 13 November 1977) is a Chinese actor, singer, and model. He is often referred to as China's "number one heartthrob" or "number one young male" (中国第一小生). His best known roles in television are Yang Guo in The Return of the Condor Heroes (2006) and Xu Wenqiang in Shanghai Bund (2007). Huang graduated from the Performance Institute of the Beijing Film Academy in 2000, alongside other well known actors such as Zhao Wei and Chen Kun. He first rose to prominence in 2001 for playing Emperor Wu of Han in the television series Da Han Tian Zi. The series reached number one in the ratings when it aired in Taiwan, and his later dramas all achieved high ratings in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In 2007, Huang signed a contract with Huayi Brothers and began focusing on his film career, appearing in movies like The Sniper, The Message, and Ip Man 2. In 2010 he became one of the first mainland Chinese actors to star in a Taiwanese television drama, acting as Luo Xi in Summer's Desire, alongside Peter Ho and Barbie Hsu.


Huang was born in Qingdao, Shandong and is an only child. When he was young, rumors of his good looks and his obedience would cause neighbors and strangers alike to visit their house in order to take a look at him. At age nine, he was selected by a film studio to play the child protagonist in a movie due to his looks. But because he was too shy, he kept his face covered and refused to act. While growing up, he was extremely shy, obedient, and studious; he does not recall ever going through a rebellious stage, and he is still very close to his parents.

Throughout his school career, Huang planned to become a scientist, but his language teacher encouraged him to apply to the Beijing Film Academy, which rarely came to Qingdao to recruit students. A week before his entrance examination, his foot was run over and crushed by a jeep; luckily, the injury was not serious because he was wearing army boots. His father carried Huang on his back to the examination room.

In his interview examination, Huang was asked to imitate someone catching crickets, but he replied that there were no crickets in Qingdao. The teacher in charge of the interview likened Huang to "a block of wood" due to his lack of acting abilities. However, another teacher, Cui Xinqin, said that even if he was a block of wood, he was still "a pretty block of wood". As a result, Huang was enrolled into the academy. While recalling this incident, Huang said that when he was maturing, the person who had the greatest influence on him was Cui.

While studying at the Beijing Film Academy, Huang was good friends with Zhao Wei and Chen Kun, and the three were known as the "Three Musketeers."

Unlike his classmates, Huang struggled to find work as the date of his graduation drew nearer. On the eve of his graduation, he received an offer to act in the TV series A Netizen's Diary (网虫日记). During filming, however, he was involved in a head-on collision with a truck and lost consciousness for more than half an hour. He had to get a total of six stitches on his chin and ear.

While filming Long Piao (龙票), Huang was involved in another car accident, which took place on the way from Yinchuan to Inner Mongolia. His head was scratched and his vertebrae shifted, and he was informed by a doctor that he had to wear a plaster cast for his head and neck for four months, otherwise the healing of his bones would be affected. But Huang refused to rest for fear of delaying filming and causing losses for the crew, so he appeared on set wearing a neck brace.

After his fellow Musketeers shot to fame, Huang did not think he would become famous as well, since one of the academy's teachers had said that it was difficult enough for one or two students from each graduating class to make it big. Fame found him in 2001, however, when he was chosen to replace Lu Yi for the leading role in Da Han Tian Zi. Because the TV series was such a big production, and Huang was virtually unknown, many people had misgivings but the foresight and boldness of the investors is now admirable. Huang starred in the series' three installments, from 2001 to 2005, and he went from a newbie to a front-line actor.

In 2004, Huang was chosen to play Yang Guo, the leading role in The Return of the Condor Heroes, a television series adapted from Jin Yong's novel of the same title, and a sequel to The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2003). Director Zhang Jizhong selected him over actors Nie Yuan and Huang Jue to play the highly-fought-over role. The role of Xiaolongnü, Yang Guo's love interest, was rumored to go to Zhou Xun, but ended up going to Liu Yifei, who is ten years Huang's junior. Yang Guo is arguably Huang's most recognizable role to date.

Huang's most controversial and difficult, but most critically acclaimed, role was in Shanghai Bund, a remake of the 1980 Hong Kong television series The Bund, which starred Chow Yun-fat. Because Chow was his idol, he felt nervous, excited, and pressured about portraying the same role his idol had. In order to play Xu Wenqiang, he had to learn to smoke, and went through several packs a day. He also sang the ending theme for the drama, a duet with his costar Sun Li. The song was included in his first studio album, It's Ming, which was released in December of the same year.

On April 9, 2007, Huang signed with Huayi Brothers Media, an entertainment and record label. In October of that year, Huang purchased the company's shares. After acting in several films produced by Huayi, including 2009 espionage thriller The Message, he left the company in 2010. It has been said that he will switch to Asia Media Films Hong Kong, although this has yet to be confirmed.

In 2009, Huang was chosen to replace Dylan Kuo in the 2010 Taiwanese idol drama Summer's Desire, an adaptation of a trilogy by Ming Xiaoxi. Although originally slated to play Ou Chen, Huang asked if he could play Luo Xi instead. The drama also starred Peter Ho, who was the producer as well, and Barbie Hsu, with whom Huang had always wanted to work. He later admitted that he lowered his acting fee in order to participate in this series.

In 2010 Huang joined the cast of Chen Kaige's film Sacrifice, which was one of the biggest mainland Chinese film productions of that year, with a budget of US$45 million.

In 2007, Huang signed a deal with Italian luxury brand Gucci to promote their 2008 limited edition sports line, becoming the first Asian celebrity featured in a Gucci advertisement. A production team flew from Italy to Hong Kong to shoot the print ads. In the same year, he also signed as a spokesperson for Mercedes-Benz. In 2008-2010, he was featured in advertisements for Pepsi, Toshiba, Diadora, and Tissot.

Huang is also known for participating in charity work and environmental friendliness events. On 7 July 2007, he performed at the Live Earth concert in Shanghai.  He is also an ambassador to China's Panda Protection Research Center. In October 2008, he adopted twin pandas named Ping Ping and An An, the first panda cubs born after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2009, he was appointed as a UNICEF Ambassador and participated in a charity run that year. In 2010, Huang was awarded as one of the international well-known philanthropists.