Please make sure to thank the translator @mystaryunho for her amazing translation of this precious interview!!

Jung Yunho’s Youth, U-Know Yunho

When we met TVXQ’s U-Know Yunho, soon to enlist in the army, what we wanted to know most about was not TVXQ nor U-Know Yunho, but Jung Yunho, a 31 year old man. That is because he is the person we’ll meet as short-haired U-Know Yunho passes by the guardhouse.

Q. Today’s photo shoot consists of three themes: Jung Yunho’s youth, U-Know Yunho as an artist, and the images of TVXQ’s U-Know Yunho. Which image do you like the most? It seemed that you were most enthusiastic during the shoot for (Jung Yunho’s) youth. You even gave your suggestions to us first to try different things.

A. You’re right. In that shoot light was filtered through a water tank to make afterimages. I like that kind of sensibility. It’s not stereotypical. After all, those afterimages are the lingering images of my youth. It made me feel good to go through the shoot thinking about its meaning in that way because it was as if I were looking back on past times.

Q. We wanted to look inside Jung Yunho, not U-Know Yunho, because we wanted to show people Jung Yunho before he enlists.

A. Wow, that’s incredible. It’s scary.

Q. You don’t need to be scared. What does your name Jung Yunho mean? The chinese characters.

A. Jung means ‘name of country,’ Yun means ‘to have faith,’ and Ho means ‘big.’ (Altogether) it means to aim higher with a big and broad mind, to make others trust you, and understand and tolerate others. My name bears those meanings since I am the firstborn. I am also the eldest son of the eldest son in the 27th generation. 27th generation of the Jinju Jung family’s Hwang Chungjanggong branch. I was school president in elementary school. I was also vice president at a time, and a member of the student committee. Since I was little, I always stood in front for everything I did. But it wasn’t a role I enjoyed playing.

Q. But don’t you get naturally used to the role when you keep on repeating your work as a leader?

A. Jung Yunho has always been lonely. When you think of him separately, Jung Yunho was a kid more innocent and younger(naive) than anyone else, but lonely. He doesn’t know how to express that side of him to others. Rather, he tries to use his imagination to solve his way through his insecurities. Once he is given a certain goal or task, he tries till he becomes perfect even when he (initially) falls short for it. On the contrary, it was different as U-Know Yunho. He was always relaxed and thought that he was the best. The passion was the same, but the way he registered and worked through it was different.

Q. How can those two ways co-exist within the same person? Continue reading →