About the Korean Netizen smear campaign:

It all started when the site Donga (http://news.donga.com/Enter/3/09/20101117/32657974/1) posted a CF released about two months ago. In the CF, Han Geng is taunted by a Korean speaking lady who insults him and hits him in the head. Then, it switches to Han Geng morphing into a video game character and defeating a character that somewhat resembles the irritating lady. Netizens for the most part thought the CF was a thinly veiled against his previous Korean company, SM Entertainment, but others took more extreme stances and accused the CF of being an attack against Korea.

However, what the Netizens failed to realize was that it was neither an attack against SM Entertainment nor against Korea. Indeed. TianXia 2 marketing campaign purposely pitted Han Geng against a Korean character because months before its release, the game beat the Korean game Aoin for best visuals in a research conducted by IPSOS group:

"Korean games have always been known for their detailed and beautiful graphics and imagery, Aion even has a very strong image preperty system. However, in this blind test, Aion was defeated by TianXia2 and JianWang3 in the general ratings of both the character design and the image design" (Source: http://gl.800n.cn/tx2/news/362636.shtml / translation: luxurious_panda).

Defeating a Korean game in an area where they tend to excel is unprecedented. Thus, it was something worth celebrating for the creators of TianXia2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx2OdW1-sIo&feature=related (CF, credit: GengBao @YouTube)

Donga then accused Han Geng of saying, "I couldn't stand being around Korean because they all smell like kimchi." No source was given for that quote and it was later revealed that Han Geng never said such thing. Instead, Taiwanese MC made a joke about Korea and kimchi when Han Geng was a guest on her show. Han, however, did never say anything negative about Koreans or kimchi and, in fact, as one point gently chided the MC for taking the Korean jokes too far. The video below, starting at minute 14:23, demonstrates that clearly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUC9RxmFZFY (Credit: ChinaHangengBar)

Despite the Korean netizens smear campaign against him, Han Geng has been very successful as a solo artist. His album sold 350,000 copies in less than two months and he is currently rumored working in his first film, “Da Wu Sheng”, starring along Wu Chun and Barbie Hsu. Additionally, a publishing company recently paid a seven digit sum to obtain the rights to publish a Han Geng concept book that will be releasing at the end of the year.

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