Former Super Junior member Hangeng recently participated in an interview with Beijing TV’s ‘Top Chinese Music’, and talk about his debut and why he decided to leave the popular group.

During the interview, Hangeng revealed that at the time of his debut under SM Entertainment, his priority was to earn money to survive and support his parents. With that as his motivation, he worked hard to train and debut with Super Junior.

However, being the first foreign celebrity to debut in Korea, the current laws of Korea restricted Hangeng to appear in commercials and other televised broadcasts. He said, “It felt like I had lost all hope. I cried performing ‘Twins’ with the Super Junior members.” He also mentioned that his first ever payment was only 4000 yuan (~$650 USD).

In regards to promoting with Super Junior-M in China, he said that it was fun and that it was an experience to really hone his character. Despite meeting some success, Hangeng said it was tiring interpreting for the Korean members who were unable to speak Chinese.

He also talked about some of his grievances with SM Entertainment, saying, “I wanted to be an actor, but they wouldn’t let me while they gave them to the other members. I didn't even get any commercials.” He said he began to grow feelings of unhappiness and ended having thoughts of suicide.

With those dissatisfactions, he secretly began to prepare a lawsuit against SM Entertainment, and leading up to finally leaving Super Junior in 2009.