A-Mazing Johnny Huang

Education and personality :

Huáng Jǐngyú  黃景瑜   was born November 30, 1992 (age 31 years), in Dandong, Liaoning province, PRC - Star signs Monkey and Sagittarius. His foreign stage name is "Johnny Huang", his nickname is Whale (because of the near homophone 鲸鱼 Jīngyú). Fans also  call him "Huang Lao ban" (boss Huang),  "Huang dabao" , "Yu baobao"  etc.

Some childhood pictures from the "Little Prince" fan video by  HJY fan  TANHT75  posted to Youtube,  Jan 6, 2023   My GIF excerpt from a video presentation of Liaodong (Eastern Liaoning)  university in Dandong, with views of the iconic twin bridges over the Yalu river.

Dandong is a port city on the border of North Korea and the P.R.C.     Huang Jingyu went to Eastern Liaoning University to study, aiming to become a flight attendant.   Note: Despite Liu Yuning is another celeb native of that city (two years older than HJY), they moved in different circles and may only have become acquainted at Weibo night 2024: they are not known as close friends. Only other connection is that LYN sang an OST song for the drama Bright Eyes in the dark, as a work commissioned by production.

His personality is very friendly, warm and caring, he speaks forthright, according to his fans and colleagues.  He has many friends in Chinese entertainent (c-ent) or not,  but he is not excessively seeking attention to be recognized outside of events and screen work. He expressed himself several times about the heartaches to bear when separated from family and when having to deal with invasion of privacy : 

"Born and raised in the northeastern city of Dandong, Johnny is used to a calm lifestyle. Valuing his freedom and privacy, he often shared his stress and anger about being a public figure. He once called out the paparazzi for violating his privacy, saying, “We are living in a real world, not a Truman show.”  He understands that privacy is something that has to be sacrificed as a public figure, but when asked about his feelings, he admitted to feel lonely at times, and longing for his family :  “When you’re so busy, so tired, and so stressed, you think of your family. They are our anchor. They brighten our lives, and they are also the reason why we work so hard.” (from Jayne Stars, addy,  June 26, 2020)

Career and talents:

Huang Jingyu is 1.87m (6'1") tall and weighs between 70 and  90 kg (198 lbs); very muscular, he works out every day..

He had worked several part-time jobs before he was introduced by his friends to work as a model.  In 2016, Huang became the first celebrity to be featured on a Chinese Bank card (see Fandom, below)  and he was invited to Milan Fashion week by Dolce  Gabbana fashion brand (picture, left).  Since then, he has been  brand ambassador for Pantene in 2017, Dior and Elisabeth Arden fragrances, Johnnie Walker whisky, Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and skincare brands SNP (Shining Nature Purity) and Sesderma in 2018, Bally footwear in 2021 and since, for Breitling watches and Fila sportswear. He has also recorded clips to promote his birth city and province, such as the ones below in 2021 (in uniform!) and for the October National Day holiday 2024 + watch him cook.

2021.02.11 - Message from Dandong's Border Management Ambassador Huang Jingyu (My GIF adding 4 pictures, click on GIF above to view and listen to the clip in full on YouTube. )

Johnny Huang tourism ambassador of Dandong 24-09-28 (click on my GIF to view in full the clip, which used HJY Weibo material).

In 2016, he made his acting debut in the "danmei" BL web drama Addicted, which propelled him to fame. But the drama was then banned by Chinese authorities before its finale due to its depiction of homosexuality, even though several explicit scenes were cut; the depiction of such "Boys love" contributed to the ban of all BL related or suspected dramas after 2020. The two lead actors, Huang Jingyu and Xu Weizhou, were briefly hampered for acting projects but found their way back to studios nonetheless. 

Xu Weizhou, besides being an actor, is a successful rock and pop singer, who married recently a non-celeb who he keeps firmly out of the limelight, for their peace of mind ; Huang Jingyu had a marriage or relationship with a minor celeb painter which ended in a protracted 6 year feud on Internet, where contradictory allegations had fans and public take sides despite a court ruling that grounds were not found for any sentence (see below: shrews story).

Huang Jingyu is busy with his career as model (brands mentioned above), sportsman (he is a brown belt champion in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and also likes active sports such as motor racing, all kinds of things with wheels like cars, motorcycles, bikes, can also play ball games from tennis to rugby), actor and occasional singer on stage, although he does not consider himself as a pro at singing.  

My GIF excerpt of the official MV for "Under the National Flag", a song for the 2021 Chinese Literature and Arts Circle's Spring Festival Gala, which fits well with the patriotic feelings of the "King of soldiers"  actor (click on to listen to his singing voice). Right: My Gif excerpt from a 2022 video on Youtube showing one of Huang Jingyu's way of exercising, and various pictures from fan sites of the sports he practices, and of a Fila sportswear promo event in Chengdu in 2024 where he added his autograph on a jacket.

On June 25, 2020 , he participated in the China Central Radio and Television Station’s Dragon Boat Festival special program " Dragon Boat Festival Ankang " and sang the song "Youth" 《少年》with Meng Ran 梦然 (who released the song as a single in November 2019) and Hui Ruoqi 惠若琪.   (Click on picture above to watch and listen to the performance  ; duration 2'07.   Alternately, watch and lsiten to the original version of the song with Hanzi, pinyin, and English translation)

Likes, sports, and pets :

He likes to travel, and to exercise every day, to walk alone in the streets, and/or to walk his dogs, the most well known of which is his Doberman, cutely called "Hotpot" (ehm- HJY's favorite dishes are BBQ and ...hotpot, but no dogs in those pots, even if some Dongbei people are supposed to appreciate those soups in winter, but Dongbei is a vast region, where many people wouldn't even touch rabbit stew, preferring pork, beef , lamb skewers or ... sauerkraut filled jiaozi!  Hmm, bit too close to kimchi for my taste, which is more Southern, or plain Beijing laojia.). Huang Jingyu  has raised several other dogs : "Billy" the Samoyed and another dog called "Local" (I'm not sure about which  dog that  one is) ; there are several videos showing him with many dogs, big or small.  

Aside from exceptional belts, brown belt is the highest ranking color belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It requires at least five years of dedicated training to achieve. It is awarded for mastery of attack techniques.- Johnny Huang tackling a young student, getting the brown belt (he was ritually whipped by his BJJ classmates after that!) and, on Happy Camp Jan.2017, "tougher" Xu Weizhou / ZZ". (My GIF from three videos).

My Gif adapted from picture + Huang Jingyu and his love of dogs (YouTube, May 2022, by TANHT75). Also on this Twitter and  this Douyin page.

On April 16, 2016, he participated in Zhang Huimei  张惠妹  aka A-Mei's Utopia World Tour Concert in Bangkok, and performed on the same stage with her  "I Only Care About You" (a classic song originally sung by Teresa Teng/Deng Lijun ; link to video with Hanzi, pinyin, and English translation).    Click on picture above to watch and listen to the performance;

"Screams rose another few decibels when young actor Huang Jingyu from the hit web series “Addicted” came out on stage to duet with her on “It’s You I Only Care About”, a cover of the late Teresa Teng’s classic song.

“He is my guest in Taiwan and Thailand only,” A-Mei told the crowd before handing over to the young actor to introduce himself.

“Hello everyone, I’m Huang Jingyu and I’m very nervous because we only had one rehearsal for this concert,” he said to applause." (Reported on nationthailand.com)

 On the 19th, Huang Jingyu was recommended as a new idol by the media at the 16th Music Billboard Annual Ceremony.

Huang Jingyu has many fans, both in China and internationally .  Since his given name is near homophonous with "Whale" (鲸鱼 Jīngyú), he created himself on the 5th of March 2016, his fandom name "Hù jīng tuán" 护鲸团 " which means "Whale Guards Group" . 

The fans call each  other Yu jiejie, and view themselves as "Dolphins" because Johnny took part in a variety show featuring dolphins, called Feel the World  in 2019.

Johnny Huang has fan bases on Facebook from different countries who are actively sharing Johnny's news, on the  Thailand (not maintained since end 2023), Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, even French fan pages. There are also fan accounts on IG who are actively sharing Johnny's news.  To be more up to date with news, best sources are Chinese social media such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu : searchin Johnny's name 黄景瑜 will yield latest updates.  And, of course, his Weibo page showing the "whale" design :

Weibo social media page which mentions 2326万粉丝 (23.22 million fans) 128关注 (followers) 3.78亿转评赞 (378 million likes and retweets), and 1.94 billion total discussions. (2024, September 17) Fandom name : 护鲸团  Hù jīng tuán (Whale guards group) Fandom colour is  Ocean Blue. Fanchant is  一路风景瑜你同在  "yīlù fēng  Jǐng yǔ nǐ tóng zài  ("Will go all the way together with Jingyu" ). There is also a fan song written for Johnny by fans, below, linked) : Although Huang Jingyu has appeared on stage for events and some songs, there is no official light stick  as for pop stars. He hasn't done concert/fan meetings for a long time, staying low key and focusing on acting instead. The last time he had a fan meeting was on 30th November 2018 for his birthday party.  Fannish made keyrings [Thank you to ADWG (MDL member) for help and precisions about HJY fandom]

In November 2016 China Merchants Bank issued a debit card with the whale logo, and invited Huang Jingyu for the launch

Nevertheless, it is important to note that Huang Jingyu does not rely on fans to gain popularity, as he now focuses on his acting career and strives to be better recognized as an actor and not as an idol, if he ever was, as AWDG expressed in her comment :  "Johnny has a good fan base, but he is not on idol road , his fan base doesn't work to make data for him that much. He already has become the real actor with  wide audience favor and with actor's achievements." AWDG  concluding with links to testimonials about his acting in The First Shot (see chapter 4, end references).

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