A-Mazing Johnny Huang

Education and personality :

Huáng Jǐngyú  黃景瑜   was born November 30, 1992 (age 31 years), in Dāndōng, Liáoníng 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 "Huáng Lǎobǎn" (boss Huang),  "Huáng dàbǎo" , "Yú bǎobǎo"  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 Liáodong (Eastern Liáoníng)  university in Dandong, with views of the iconic twin bridges over the Yalu river.

Dāndōng is a port city on the border of North Korea and the P.R.C.     Huáng Jǐngyú  went to Eastern Liáoníng University to study, aiming to become a flight attendant.   Note: Despite Liú Yǔníng 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 entertainment (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 Dāndōng, 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:

Huáng Jǐngyú 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, Huáng Jǐngyú 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 Dāndōng's Border Management Ambassador Huáng Jǐngyú (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 Dāndōng 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, Huáng Jǐngyú and Xǔ Wèizhōu  were briefly hampered for acting projects but found their way back to studios nonetheless. 

Xǔ Wèizhōu 许魏洲, 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 ; Huáng Jǐngyú 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).

Huáng Jǐngyú 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 Huáng Jǐngyú's way of exercising, and various pictures from fan sites of the sports he practices, and of a Fila sportswear promo event in Chéngdū 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 Mèng Rán 梦然 (who released the song as a single in November 2019) and Huì Ruòqí 惠若琪.   (Click on picture above to watch and listen to the performance  ; duration 2'07.   Alternately, watch and listen 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" (HJY's favorite dishes are BBQ and ...hotpot, but no dogs hot or not, in those pots, even if some Dōngběi people are supposed to appreciate those soups in winter, but Dōngběi is a vast region, where many people wouldn't even touch rabbit stew, preferring pork, beef , lamb skewers or ... sauerkraut filled jiaozi! ). Huáng Jǐngyú  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 Zhāng Huìmèi  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/Dèng Lìjūn ; 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, Huáng Jǐngyú was recommended as a new idol by the media at the 16th Music Billboard Annual Ceremony.

Huáng Jǐngyú 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 Yú jiějiě, 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 Huáng Jǐngyú 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 Huáng Jǐngyú for the launch

Nevertheless, it is important to note that Huáng Jǐngyú 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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Real Life Drama :  

 I had added in appendix an opinion post about the reasons why this actor got actively hated on for a while. It goes back to a feud that opposed Johnny Huang to a former lover or spouse (nothing is totally clear there). But I decided to scrap it as the dispute seems finally well buried and both have come to terms. 

My opinion, based on a number of documents, timeline videos, and a corroborating post in comments at the time, was that the actor got caught in a setup scandal whipped up by still unknown third parties. The slander case was brought to law's attention by Huang Jingyu and the ruling was in his favor. 

But the ex was, from the documents I examined, an older, online influencer and richer lady artist (she had gone to the UK for her own art studies and worked in a Shanghai art gallery, in a senior position, so was neither a naive starstruck fan nor a spring chicken), who may not be totally clean from suspicion. She got living with the young actor at his debuts but the pair quickly got estranged while he was busy building his own career and her clinging and unsupported accusations (no police reports, no hospital assessment to prove she ever really was mistreated - the pictures posted online are no proof as any people in show business well know: an unknown "assistant" posted them and she let the scandal ride without denying immediately, perhaps in spite against the rising star.) She effectively torpedoed any wish for him to find love afterwards. Especially after her protracted swinging between accusations and denial after their breakup, and her abuse of meds years later, presented briefly as a suicide attempt, while she went on implying on social media that slanderers also targeted her, to curry pity. He was well past and away from her for years by then, but still, graciously and with no hate, immediately wished her well through social media after receiving her unhinged message. She still had the gall to say to an interviewer that her ex lover owed her money for having paid stuff for him while he started out!

The two are now hopefully totally parted and last about her was that she was trying to enter c-entertainment through a role in a minor science fiction movie. She did not get an award there, and it looks like this person (let's forget her name) is not anymore in the news, "abusing public resources" as the Chinese phrase terms it.  --I think, although not belonging to HJY's fandom (I am only curious about facts that can be found and read), that it is a pity that some audience got hoodwinked by the first whiff of scandal, to brand him as wrongdoer despite the case judged in court. Or as gay because he played in a drama about gay men, which he clearly is not in real life.  So many actors and actresses get targeted by haters and cyberbullies ; we ought to just side with the court ruling ; and anyway, what he does not share about his private life, now, is none of our business. 

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The latest currently airing TV show Johnny Huang takes part in as regular member, alongside Justin, Lin Yi, Jiang Qilin, Gina Jin, Lee Seung Hyun is "The Top Racer". It started airing May 29, 2025 for 20 episodes : "Seven celebrities who have racing dreams receive training and tests, facing extreme driving tasks. Through real professional racing, drift, and off-road stages, they race all the way and grow into rookie racers before welcoming the peak showdown." (link to watch)