1. His real name is Jung Ho-seok.

2. Before his debut, he considered “Smile-Hoya” as a stage name.

3. J-Hope was born Feb. 18, 1994, in Gwangju Metropolitan City.

4. He is BTS’ sub-rapper and main dancer.

5. J-Hope dreamed of becoming a professional tennis player during his elementary school years.

6. He has one elder sister.

7. He likes melodramatic movies.

8. His blood type is A.

9. He is 177 centimeters tall and weighs 65 kilograms.

10. He has no religion.

11. His favorite color is green.

12. His favorite song is Radiohead’s “Creep.”

13. His specialties include street and freestyle dance and beatboxing.

14. J-Hope’s ideal type is a woman who is considerate and good at cooking.

15. He enjoys window-shopping and listening to music.

16. He attended the same dance academy as TVXQ’s Yunho, Big Bang’s Seungri and 2NE1’s Minzy.

17. J-Hope and Zelo of B.A.P went to the same academy in Gwangju to learn rap and dance.

18. Before his debut, he was a member of a street dance team called Neuron.

19. The first album he bought was g.o.d’s.

20. Big Hit Entertainment was a small agency in its early days, but J-Hope was already a well-known dancer even before his debut. Back then, the agency was known as “Jung Ho-seok’s company.”

21. J-Hope had tough times during his trainee days, prompting him to leave the team for a while.

22. His bandmates persuaded him to come back, and then they made their debut as BTS.

23. He is enrolled in Global Cyber University along with bandmates V and Jungkook.

24. He disliked math in his school days.

25. J-Hope loves traditional Korean foods such as kimchi.

26. J-Hope is affectionately called “Manager Jung” because he plays a key role in choreographing dance moves for BTS songs.

27. His favorite BTS choreography includes that for “Save Me” and “DNA.”

28. He is considered the cutest band member.

29. He used to post his dance-practice videos under the title “Hope on the Street” on BTS’ official blog and Twitter account.

30. He danced in Jo Kwon’s video “I’m Da One” in 2012.

31. He never traveled abroad before his debut. His first international destination was Japan.

32. He is confident of his leg lines.

33. He went to a high school where his father taught literature.

34. He hates exercise.

35. He is scared of needles.

36. J-Hope is the only BTS member who doesn’t have any piercings.

37. He started rapping only after joining the agency.

38. On March 2, 2018, J-Hope released his first mixtape, “Hope World,” with the title track “Daydream.”

39. He ranked 63rd on the Billboard 200 in March last year, a record for a Korean solo artist. His bandmate RM later broke that record with his mixtape song “Mono.”

40. “Hope World” was inspired by Jules Verne’s novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.”

41. His role models are ASAP Rocky, J. Cole, Beenzino and G-Dragon of Big Bang.

42. His favorite designer is Brian Donnelly, aka Kaws, who is best known for his Bearbrick art. J-Hope also loves to collect the bears.

43. Actor and World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler John Cena picked J-Hope as his favorite BTS member.

44. He has a dog named Mickey.

45. J-Hope was a fan of the anime “Atashin’chi” as a child.

46. His ideal date is holding hands and walking on the beach together.

47. J-Hope’s Myers-Briggs personality type is ESFJ: extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging.

48. For J-Hope, the three elements of happiness are family, health and love.

49. His motto in life is, “If you don’t work hard, there won’t be good results.”

50. J-Hope ranked 88th on TC Candler’s list of “the 100 most handsome faces of 2018.”


By Lee So-jeong (xojeong2@heraldcorp.com)