The 23-year-old Korean Han Hee-jun, who was one of the top ten participants of American Idol Season 11, is poised to make his debut in the U.S. music market.

Han made the top 9 of American Idol last year, which was a first in the show’s history for an Asian. Han has made a contract with Korean agency Polaris Entertainment, and is ready to release his first single in the U.S. It has been reported that Han is going to work with famous agent Max Gousse, who used to manage many big stars such as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and Usher, making the possibility of Han’s success in the U.S. stronger.

According to the Korean daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo, Han was contacted by at least 100 agents after the show, but he decided to choose a Korean agent because he wanted to stick to his Korean background.

When Han participated in American Idol last year, he was one of the most popular contestants in terms of Internet voting score. He said, “I think using a chest voice made me popular because that was little bit unique compared to other participants who were using either a head voice or a nasal sound.”

Han participated in American Idol to raise awareness about the disabled at a missionary organization in New York, where he is working as a volunteer.

“I used to suffer from severe depression. I was getting vocal training from some agency in Korea for two years to become a professional singer from 2010, but it didn’t work well. I also participated in a Korean singing competition show, but I didn’t make it. These failures put me a depressing situation,” Han told the Chosun Ilbo.

Han added, “I happened to visit a missionary organization in New York and meet about 200 disabled people there. I saw them happy by singing and playing music instruments together. It opened my eyes and made me decide to participate in American Idol because once I make it up to 24 people, I will have a chance to talk about my personal life story, and I thought if I can let people know about these disabled people’s story, they can get more help from here and there.”

His goal has been achieved. After getting exposure on national television, the missionary organization and the disabled received many donations from across the U.S.

Han has an English name, “Dante.” However, he always goes with his Korean name “Hee-jun.” That is because Han’s goal is to be a famous singer in the U.S. as a Korean, just like Psy.

Image Courtesy : Heejun Han Fan Page

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Foxconn, a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturing company, has officially admitted that it hired under-aged children workers illegally for its factory in China.

According to Foxconn’s statement released on October 16, its factory in Shantung area, China, hired children aged from 14 to 16, and they worked there for three weeks. It was the first time that the giant manufacturing company admitted that they hired children. The New York Times and several Chinese media have reported that Foxconn might hire children to reduce its labor cost, but the manufacturing company has denied or kept silent about it.

Foxconn said through its statement, “We are going to take a responsibility of breaching the Chinese labor laws and company’s internal regulations by hiring underage workers, and we already sent all children back to their school.” However, when it comes to the question whether other factories of Foxconn hired under-aged children or not, Foxconn did not give any specific answer, and it also did not show how many children were hired illegally and which schools were involved.

Foxconn’s statement was quite shocking for people worldwide because the electronics manufacturing company was involved in controversies related to how it manages employees in China early of this year, making Apple hire the Fair Labor Association to conduct an audit of working conditions at Foxconn factories.

Even though Foxconn admitted its wrongdoing, strong doubts about whether other factories in Jiangsu and Huaian areas in China hired under-aged children illegally or not have been raised. According to the US-based non-governmental organization China Labor Watch (CLW), Foxconn’s Shantung factory hired about 2,000 under-aged students in September, and they were forced to work all night every day. CLW said even some of children were not allowed to take a break even though they were sick.

The Korean daily newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported that the number of children workers in China has been decreased since 1980s, but it is estimated that about three million children are still forced to work at restaurants or factories in rural areas or small cities in China.

The newspaper also pointed out that the lack of labor forces in southern China is one of the main reasons why children are forced to work these days. The living expenses of this area have been soared lately, and this makes people in other parts of China not willing to move to this area, causing the lack of labor forces.

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