Pardon me for being ignorant. Can people of non-Korean descent become k-pop stars?
Yes. There was even an ah tiong who became part of Super Junior!
In December 2001, South Korea's biggest Entertainment Agency, SM Entertainment, went to China to hold an audition in Beijing with hopes of finding new talents in the country. The audition was called H.O.T. CHINA Audition Casting. Han Geng, who was preparing for his graduation performance at the Central University for Nationalities, immediately caught the attention of the agency's talent scouts and was invited to participate in the audition, but he wasn't very interested as he never heard of the company before. One of his friends, however, was very interested and persuaded Han Geng in accompanying him to the audition. Although hesitant at first, Han agreed to audition with his friend. The competition rate was 3,000 to 1, and Han had no hopes of getting selected after auditions ended.[9]
After the audition, Han began to work briefly as a cameo actor in short low-budget Chinese films and performing in local events across the country to earn a salary before entering college. In late August 2002, Han was notified that he had been selected by SM Entertainment.[8] After Han's graduation from the Central University for Nationalities, he was sent to South Korea in March 2003 and received private lessons in singing, dancing, acting, and Korean language. By mid 2003, Han had moved into dormitories and lived with other trainees who were under the same label and started to receive intense hip hop and street dance training. He started out as a Class C dancer (the lowest class for dancing), as he had zero knowledge in hip hop dance at the time, but in the short period of six months, he went straight to Class A, skipping Class B. At that time, there were only 3 people in Class A – Han Geng, Donghae, and Eunhyuk.[8]
On February 6, 2005,
Han 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 made his first media appearance as a runway model along with fellow group member Choi Siwon in a fashion show organized by Bum Suk. The two members are extremely good friends, and have even considered themselves "sworn brothers."
Han 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 became popular overseas. Aside from South Korea, Han 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.[11] Han became a national celebrity in China with the debut of Super Junior's third subgroup Super Junior-M on April 8, 2008 in China, with Han Geng as the leader of the group. 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.[12] Leading his fellow Korean members to develop in his home country, his popularity immediately soared in China. His overwhelming popularity set him apart from the rest of the group, catching the media's attention and making him become in high demand by numerous TV shows, commercials and movies. However, his agency did not allow him to take part in such activities without the rest of the group, restricting his solo appearances.
Han Geng ceased activities with Super Junior and Super Junior-M, the sub-group that he was leading, after filing for contract termination from SM Entertainment on December 21, 2009. Currently, most of the lines in the Chinese language songs that he sang while active with Super Junior-M are now covered by Eunhyuk and Sungmin who were added into the group as of 2011.
