# Choo Ja-hyun
**Choo Ja-hyun** (추자현; Chinese stage name 秋瓷炫, born 1979) is a South Korean actress who built her career across the Korean and Chinese screen industries. After debuting on South Korean television in 1996, she moved to China in the mid-2000s and became one of the most prominent Korean actors working there, led by the 2011 hit drama *The Temptation of Going Home* (回家的诱惑). Since the late 2010s she has worked again in South Korea in television, variety, and film, returning to Korean cinema with *While You Were Sleeping* (당신이 잠든 사이, 2024).[1](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/pnc/peopleView.jsp?peopleCd=10072977) • [2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1979, Daegu, South Korea; agency BH Entertainment[1](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/pnc/peopleView.jsp?peopleCd=10072977) |
| Debut | 1996, SBS teen drama *Growing Feelings 18* (성장느낌 18세)[3](https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2015/01/19/2015011911075039199) |
| Korean film breakthrough | *Bloody Tie* (死生决断, 2006); Best New Actress in film at the 43rd Baeksang Arts Awards (2007), one of eight awards the film brought her[4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/celebrity/272733) • [5](https://baike.sogou.com/m/v406592.htm) |
| Chinese career peak | *The Temptation of Going Home* (回家的诱惑, 2011) as Lin Pin-ru; Asia Idol Award for most popular overseas actor[2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D) |
| THAAD period | After China barred Korean content in July 2016, the Chinese public exceptionally sympathized with her, and she continued to work in China[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2024.2362714) |
| Korean comeback | Variety show *Same Bed, Different Dreams*; drama leads from *Beautiful World* (2019); film return in *While You Were Sleeping* (2024)[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285) • [8](https://enews.imbc.com/News/ViewAmp/412194) |
| Spouse | Chinese actor Yu Xiaoguang (于晓光); one son, born 2018[9](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E7%93%B7%E7%82%AB%20/4653469) • [7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285) |
## Early career in South Korea
Choo debuted in 1996 as a teenage actress in the SBS drama *Growing Feelings 18* (성장느낌 18세)[3](https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2015/01/19/2015011911075039199). Through the 1990s and early 2000s she was known in the Korean industry for an elegant image, and in 2003 she reached Chinese-speaking audiences through the Taiwanese drama *Lian Xiang* (恋香), opposite the Taiwanese idol [Eddie Peng](https://www.edgepedia.org/eddie-peng) (彭于晏)[2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D) • [3](https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2015/01/19/2015011911075039199).
**Breakthrough with *Bloody Tie*.** Her image changed with the 2006 crime film *Bloody Tie* (死生决断), in which she played Ji-young, a desperate drug addict. The Korean Film Archive database KOBIZ records that co-starring actors were reportedly unnerved by her performance and that the role, the best of her career to that point, repositioned her as a rising actor in Korean film[1](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/pnc/peopleView.jsp?peopleCd=10072977). The film brought her eight awards, including Best New Actress in film at the 43rd Baeksang Arts Awards in 2007[4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/celebrity/272733) • [5](https://baike.sogou.com/m/v406592.htm). She followed it with the thriller *Missing* (2009), playing a woman searching for her missing sister, and *Portrait of a Beauty* (2007), in which she played the gisaeng Seolhwa[1](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/pnc/peopleView.jsp?peopleCd=10072977).
## Stardom in China
Choo entered mainland Chinese television with the 2005 costume drama *The Legend of the Great Flag* (大旗英雄传), in which she played Shui Ling-guang, followed by *The Legend of Chu Liuxiang* (楚留香传奇, 2006)[2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D) • [5](https://baike.sogou.com/m/v406592.htm). She later explained the move as a search for more varied acting opportunities; in a 2008 interview with a Korean journalist she said that while filming Chinese dramas she had been "yearning for acting" and "waiting for a good screenplay" in South Korea[10](https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169250/1/EC_Celebrity%20Studies_Accepted.pdf). She has said that because she had made her name in Korean films about eroticism, serial killing, and drug addiction, few roles were offered to her at home[10](https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169250/1/EC_Celebrity%20Studies_Accepted.pdf).
**The 2011 peak.** The urban melodrama *The Temptation of Going Home* (回家的诱惑), a Chinese remake of the [Korean drama](https://www.edgepedia.org/korean-drama) *Temptation of Wife*, in which she played the housewife Lin Pin-ru, opened the peak of her Chinese career and won her the Asia Idol Award for most popular overseas actor[2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D) • [4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/celebrity/272733). In 2012 she starred in the historical drama *Mu Fu Feng Yun* (木府风云) as A Le Qiu, a performance that led Chinese media to call her a "new generation ratings queen", and in 2013 she received an international cooperation award at CCTV's China TV Drama Annual Star Ceremony[2](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D). Her other Chinese credits include *Dance Music Legend* (舞乐传奇), *Three Strange Detectives in Chang'an* (长安三怪探), and *The Last Battle* (最后一战)[11](https://v.daum.net/v/20240506064619151) • [4](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/celebrity/272733).
Korean press framed her Chinese success largely in economic terms. A Korean talk show reported in 2013, from an unnamed source, that she was paid 100 million won per episode of a Chinese drama, and income rumors of this kind circulated repeatedly in Korean entertainment news[10](https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169250/1/EC_Celebrity%20Studies_Accepted.pdf). A Huace Media executive interviewed by Starnews in 2015 held her up as a model for Korean actors targeting China, attributing her success to thorough localization in Chinese-style productions[3](https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2015/01/19/2015011911075039199).
## THAAD and the transnational persona
In July 2016, after South Korea announced the deployment of the American THAAD anti-missile system, China barred the showing of Korean media content and the performance of Korean stars, and Korean celebrities disappeared from Chinese screens[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2024.2362714). Among them, the Chinese public exceptionally sympathized with Choo. Elaine Chung, associate professor in Japanese and Korean studies at [Cardiff University](https://www.edgepedia.org/cardiff-university), argues in a 2024 study in *Celebrity Studies* that Choo's persona as a foreigner who "genuinely loves China" allowed her to accumulate personal political capital with Chinese audiences, which mitigated, though did not overcome, the de facto ban[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2024.2362714). Choo herself said she had begun preparing her return to Korea well before the restrictions, driven by a wish to express herself more deeply in her native language[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285).
## Return to Korean screens
Choo's Korean comeback began in variety. She hesitated before accepting a role on the SBS program *Same Bed, Different Dreams* (동상이몽), a show she had not initially seen as fitting for someone unaccustomed to social media, but the run planned for four episodes was extended after a strong response[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285). After the birth of her son in 2018 she returned to acting with *Beautiful World* (2019), her first leading role in a Korean drama in roughly ten years, and she has noted that Chinese productions are mostly dubbed in post-production, so the drama marked her first fully live-voiced screen acting in a decade[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285).
Her subsequent Korean credits include *My Unfamiliar Family* (가족입니다), *Green Mothers' Club* (그린 마더스 클럽), *Little Women* (작은 아씨들), and a role in the Netflix series *Suriname* (수리남)[12](https://businessnews.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2024/03/23/2024032380002.html) • [11](https://v.daum.net/v/20240506064619151). In 2023 she appeared on Mango TV's *Ride the Wind 2023* (乘风2023), displaying dance and singing skills[11](https://v.daum.net/v/20240506064619151).
**Film return.** *While You Were Sleeping* (당신이 잠든 사이, 2024), a thriller romance directed by Jang Yoon-hyun, director of *The Contact* and *Tell Me Something*, marked her first Korean film since *Fantasy Theatre* (환상극장, 2011)[8](https://enews.imbc.com/News/ViewAmp/412194) • [13](https://woman.chosun.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=115076). She played Deok-hee, an art lecturer with selective memory loss after a traffic accident, opposite Lee Moo-saeng, and described the melodrama as a genre she had first encountered in China and long wanted to perform in Korean[8](https://enews.imbc.com/News/ViewAmp/412194) • [13](https://woman.chosun.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=115076).
## Personal life
Choo married the Chinese actor Yu Xiaoguang (于晓光), whom she has described as a source of support during her early, difficult years in China; the couple appeared together on *Same Bed, Different Dreams 2* and recorded the duet "是你啊" ("It Is You")[9](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E7%93%B7%E7%82%AB%20/4653469) • [11](https://v.daum.net/v/20240506064619151). Their son was born in 2018[7](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285). Her Chinese-language Weibo account, which identifies her as a Korean actress and lists *The Temptation of Going Home*, *Mu Fu Feng Yun*, and *Dance Music Legend* as representative works, had about 10.487 million followers[14](https://weibo.com/u/1975548657).
## References
1. [CHOO Ja-hyun, KOBIZ (Korean Film Archive people database)](https://m.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/pnc/peopleView.jsp?peopleCd=10072977)
2. [秋瓷炫 profile, 电视猫 (TVmao)](https://www.tvmao.com/star/a1JYLA%3D%3D)
3. ["중국 진출을 노리는 배우들, 추자현을 보라" (인터뷰), Starnews, 19 January 2015](https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2015/01/19/2015011911075039199)
4. [秋瓷炫 celebrity page, Maoyan](https://piaofang.maoyan.com/celebrity/272733)
5. [秋瓷炫, Sogou Baike](https://baike.sogou.com/m/v406592.htm)
6. [Elaine Chung (2024). Political capital and stardom in China: the transnational persona of Choo Ja-hyun. *Celebrity Studies* 16(2), 145–163.](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392397.2024.2362714)
7. [[인터뷰] '작은 아씨들' 배우 추자현③, Cine21, 21 October 2022](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101285)
8. ['당잠사' 추자현 인터뷰, iMBC 연옜뉴스, 19 March 2024](https://enews.imbc.com/News/ViewAmp/412194)
9. [秋瓷炫 (with 于晓光), 中文百科全書](https://www.newton.com.tw/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E7%93%B7%E7%82%AB%20/4653469)
10. [Elaine Chung, Political capital and stardom in China (accepted manuscript), ORCA, Cardiff University](https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/169250/1/EC_Celebrity%20Studies_Accepted.pdf)
11. [추자현 "남편 우효광, 내 인생에 빛이 되어준 사람", Daum 뉴스, 6 May 2024](https://v.daum.net/v/20240506064619151)
12. [['추자현'이라는 단단함에 '사랑'이 더해졌을 때, 디지틀조선 비즈니스뉴스, 23 March 2024](https://businessnews.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2024/03/23/2024032380002.html)
13. [[인터뷰] 추자현, 40대의 멜로, 여성조선, 30 March 2024](https://woman.chosun.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=115076)
14. [秋瓷炫's Weibo account](https://weibo.com/u/1975548657)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of East and Southeast Asia › South Korean actors, 2000s onward › Surnames A to H*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 19, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license