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William Hung (孔慶翔, Pinyin: Kǒng Qìngxiáng, Cantonese Yale Hung Hing cheung, born January 13, 1983William Hung is a Chinese American college student who gained fame and notoriety in early 2004 as a result of his audition performance of Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the television series , Season 3.

Born in Hong Kong and originally from the Sha Tin area, Hung moved to Southern California in 1993. He entered the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001.

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While a civil engineering student at Berkeley, Hung was inspired to audition for the third season of the reality talent search program in San Francisco during September 2003 after winning a talent contest at his dormitory. The President of the Hall Association and the Publicity Director at the Clark Kerr dormitory invited Hung to sing during meetings and events, including an end-of-semester auction. American Idol producers never told him that his audition would be broadcast, and he only found out about it when it aired four months later. His audition was the final one on the January 27, 2004 installation, the of an hour-long episode that showcased other would-be pop stars, mostly lacking in talent.

As judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul tried to hold back their laughter, judge Simon Cowell dismissed Hung's performance outright: "You can't sing, you can't dance, so what do you want me to say?" Hung defended himself, stating "I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all." Jackson and Abdul applauded his positive response, and Abdul said, "That's the best attitude yet." Hung's response to Cowell's criticism was in stark contrast to earlier contestants' often angry, confrontational rejoinders. Hung also remarked, "I have no professional training," eliciting a response of mock surprise from Simon Cowell, saying that it was "the surprise of the century". Hung was not admitted to the next round.

Hung rapidly gained a cult following around the world. A William Hung fan site set up by realtor Don Chin and his wife Laura, recorded over four million hits within its first week. Hung subsequently appeared as a guest on a number of television programs including . He was reportedly invited to perform at the MTV Asia Awards held in mid-February. Remixes of his performance topped song request lists at a few radio stations. An online petition to get Hung back on the show claimed more than 100,000 signatures by late February.

Hung was brought back to , which aired March 1, 2004. The special documented what it was like to go through the audition process and, in Hung's case, emerge as an inadvertent celebrity. There is a degree of irony in the situation, as Hung has become more prominent in the public eye and modern culture than most other previous

At a February 18 volleyball game at University of California, Berkeley, Hung again performed his rendition of "She Bangs", and was offered a surprise $25,000 check from the Fuse music channel and a record deal from Koch Entertainment. On March 8, Koch Entertainment announced that Hung had decided to sign the record deal he was offered in February. Hung's first single, a cover of The Village People's "YMCA," debuted on March 19. Hung's debut album, , recorded over the weekend of March 6, was released on April 6 and includes covers of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" and "Shake Your Bon Bon" and Elton John's "Rocket Man," as well as a 40-minute DVD documenting the making of the album called .

To promote his album, Hung performed before nearly 20,000 fans during half-time at a Golden State Warriors game on April 6. Several of his songs reached the top 10 on Apple's iTunes charts, and his album reached #3 on Amazon.com's sales rankings. With the release of his album, Fuse also aired a half-hour special called , featuring Hung in his first music video, another rendition of "She Bangs".

Hung released a Christmas album, , was released July 12, 2005 and became an instant failure. Its poor reception perhaps indicates that Hung's fifteen minutes of fame had finally run out.

Hung appeared in commercials for the search engine Ask Jeeves and mobile phone service provider Cingular Wireless.

His first movie, a HK$10 million (US$2 million) Hong Kong period comedy called (2004), was released in January 2005. Hung played a good-natured village kid who sells Chinese pancakes to pay his mother's medical bills and gets discovered as a singer and helps a woman protect her business from a jealous and scheming older sister. In this film Hung played opposite to veteran Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit and parodied his own American Idol performance with the song Shao Bing (Chinese Pancake), obviously a deliberate allusion to the title of his American Idol audition song, , an hour and a half long film documenting Hung's sudden rise in fame.

In February 2006, Hung played himself in an episode of the television series

Hung's sudden fame has been met with various reactions from the Asian-American community. Some feel that Hung, due to his appearance and mannerisms, is being used to perpetuate historical American racist stereotypes of Chinese and Asians in general, and point out that Hung would have probably not have gained so much attention had he been of another race. Others feel that the American public's interest for him is entirely innocent and independent of his race, and that he should capitalize on his fame as much as he can. Some have speculated that his unabashed innocence, honesty and work ethic during a time of crisis and scandal in the U.S. may have promoted his popularity; others have noted the lack of Asian males in the U.S. media, and claim William Hung to have been a focal point for minority groups.

William Hung is perhaps- in virtually every sense- the exact opposite of Hirai Ken, the only Japanese artist to appear on MTV Unplugged, Live in New York.

Rumors circulated around the Internet in mid-2004 that Hung had died of a heroin overdose. Started by a satirical article on Broken Newz written by Bill Doty and Joe the Peacock, the rumour spread far enough that a Singaporean newspaper, , printed an article confirming that he was not dead and would fulfill his tour schedule in that country.

William Hung appeared on the last day of the 4th season where he acted in the show's parody of Simon Cowell's affair and offered to do the investigation.In his free time, Hung is a fan of the anime Pokémon, and is an avid player and online strategy writer for the trading card game based on the series.In the aforementioned card game, William Hung has placed surprisingly well, making the Top 32 at the 2005 World Championship with a "Sharpedo" deck.