Huang Xiaoming
Huang Xiaoming or Mark Huang is a Chinese actor and singer. Huang rose to prominence for playing Emperor Wu of Han in the television series The Prince of Han Dynasty, followed by popular series such as The Return of the Condor Heroes, Shanghai Bund, The Patriot Yue Fei, Cruel Romance, Nirvana in Fire 2, Winter Begonia, as well as films The Message, The Last Tycoon, and American Dreams in China.
Early life
Huang was born in Qingdao, Shandong and is an only child. His father was an engineer while his mother was an accountant. At age nine, he was selected by a film studio to play the child protagonist in a movie. Huang is the second older cousin of Olympian Chen Meng, who won two table tennis gold medals at Tokyo 2020.Throughout his school life, Huang planned to become a scientist, but when the Beijing Film Academy came to Qingdao to recruit students, his Chinese teacher encouraged him to take advantage of the opportunity. A month before his interview, his foot was run over and crushed by a jeep, so he had to walk into the interview on crutches with a plaster cast on his leg. The interviewer, Cui Xinqin, would be Huang's class monitor at the Beijing Film Academy, where he was classmates with Zhao Wei and Chen Kun. Huang graduated from the academy in 2000.
Career
In 1984, Huang was initially chosen by a producer to star in a drama as a child actor, but was dropped later because of his shy and introvertedpersonality. In 1998, while at the Beijing Film Academy, he debuted in the drama Love is Not a Game.
Huang gained attention when he was chosen to replace Lu Yi for the leading role in The Prince of Han Dynasty, which earned high ratings. He later starred in all three installments of the series from 2001 to 2005, and went from an unknown newbie to an A-lister.
He followed with a list of popular TV dramas, such as Merry Wanderer Tang Bohu, for which he won the Outstanding Actor award at the 14th Zhejiang TV Peony Award for his performance; My Fair Princess III. He played the leading roles in Shanghai Bund, a remake of the 1980 Hong Kong television series The Bund, and Royal Tramp, adapted from Louis Cha's wuxia novel The Deer and the Cauldron.
After achieving success in television, Huang decided to extend his career into cinema. His first major role was in the historical film The Banquet as the antagonist. He then starred in the Hong Kong action film The Sniper, martial arts film Ip Man 2 and the historical epic Sacrifice directed by Chen Kaige. He made a comeback to television with Taiwanese idol drama Summer's Desire, based on the novel of the same name by Ming Xiaoxi.
Huang's performance as a bandit leader in An Inaccurate Memoir won him the Best Actor award at the 4th China Image Film Festival. Huang also starred in martial arts epic The Guillotines and played the younger version of Chow Yun-fat's character in The Last Tycoon. The same year, Huang was selected as the ambassador of the Changchun Film Festival and became the first mainland actor to have his wax figure displayed in Hong Kong's Madam Tussauds museum.
Huang starred in the film American Dreams in China by Peter Chan. The success of the film brought a new impetus into Huang's career, and won him the Best Actor award at the 29th Golden Rooster Awards, 15th Huabiao Awards, 12th Changchun Film Festival and 32nd Hundred Flowers Awards. The same year Huang starred in another television project, playing the titular hero in the historical drama The Patriot Yue Fei.
Huang next starred in John Woo's The Crossing. Set in 1930s Shanghai, the romantic epic is based on the true story of the Taiping steamer collision and follows six characters and their intertwining love stories; Huang plays a successful general who romances a wealthy debutante. Another romance film followed; where Huang starred next to Fan Bingbing in The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom, adapted from Baifa Monü Zhuan.
Huang starring alongside Joe Chen in the period romance drama, Cruel Romance. The same year, he starred alongside long-time friend Zhao Wei in the action comedy film Hollywood Adventures. In 2017, Huang starred in the historical wuxia drama Nirvana in Fire 2. In 2018, Huang starred in the drama film Forever Young, which tells stories of four generations of students from Tsinghua University. In 2019, Huang starred in the disaster film The Bravest as a fire fighter. In 2020, Huang starred in the period romance drama Winter Begonia produced by Yu Zheng.
Other activities
Investment
Huang is a shareholder of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation, with about 1.8 million shares.Philanthropy
In 2009, Huang donated one million yuan to adopt two panda cubs and was named an ambassador to China's Panda Protection Research Center.In 2010, Huang donated 200,000 yuan for earthquake relief to support for victims of the Yushu temblor in Northwest China's Qinghai province.
In 2016, Huang was named a UNAIDS National Goodwill Ambassador for China. The same year, he was appointed as an advocate for anti-trafficking by the Ministry of Public Security.