Spoiler Warning: Plot details, ending details, or both are in the text which follows.
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Huang Lee (李皇, Lǐ Huáng) is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. He was first mentioned in the LCPD Database in Grand Theft Auto IV.
Huang is the spoiled son of a Triad leader who, for most his life, never had to solve any problem himself, his wealth having always gotten him out of trouble. However, when his father is murdered for mysterious reasons, Huang travels to Liberty City to deliver the Yu Jian Sword, a family heirloom won by Huang's father in a card game, to the family's new patriarch, Huang's uncle Wu "Kenny" Lee. Upon arrival, Huang is attacked by unknown assailants that steal Yu Jian and leave him for dead. Thus begins Huang's quest to find the person responsible for the theft of the sword and the death of his father, along the way working for various people in Liberty City's underworld.
Contents
Biography
A spoiled rich kid from Hong Kong, Huang owes his status as a Triad member to his father, a Triad boss from China. After the murder of his father, his uncle, Wu "Kenny" Lee calls Huang to Liberty City to help deliver a family ‘heirloom', the Yu Jian Sword, to secure his family’s claim to the leadership of the Triad gangs. However, what was supposed to be a weekend of table service and strippers turns into a dangerous adventure after arriving at Francis International Airport only to be hijacked, robbed of his sword, and left for dead. Huang dug deep into the rotten core of Liberty City - and deep within himself - to avenge his father's murder and reclaim his family's honor.
Events of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Once Huang arrives in Liberty City, an ambush is waiting for him. Huang is shot and left for dead with the Yu Jian stolen. Huang manages to escape and find his way to Kenny's house. Kenny explains he wanted to give the sword to Hsin Jaoming, the aging Triad leader, but has been dishonored by the sword's loss, leaving Huang and Kenny to work to keep their business afloat.
Huang contacts Zhou Ming, and Hsin's son Chan Jaoming, who are competing to be the successor of the Triad family. After Huang was hired by a deal that was intercepted by the LCPD, where Huang meets Wade Heston, an officer under pressure from internal affairs. Heston offers to help find the killer of Huang's father and the thief of Yu Jian. Heston suspects a Korean gang is the culprit. After fighting against the Koreans, Heston has a bug planted in the Korean headquarters, where they learn of a group called Wonsu. They conclude the leader of Wonsu is behind all this, and there is a police informant giving the triads trouble.
Meanwhile, Hsin had Huang to work for him, to find the killer and the thief, but suspects Huang himself, and tries to have him killed. Kenny however convinces Hsin to give Huang time. Hsin learns of two gangs that are likely housing the rat, the Angels of Death and the Koreans. Huang contacts Lester Leroc, an informant of the Angels of Death, and performs his own work against the Koreans. Huang is thrown off course by mobster Rudy D'Avanzo, who lies to Huang that the mole works for the Messina Crime Family. Hsin exposes his lies, and Huang kills D'Avanzo as a result.
When the Koreans and the Angels of Death are proven innocent, Huang takes a new course in the investigation. Heston and Huang hack into FIB files and two names pop up; Zhou Ming and Chan Jaoming. Hsin is disgraced that his son is a suspect, and steps down as leader of the Triads, appointing Kenny as the new leader. He allows Huang to kill both Chan and Zhou, despite both denying guilt.
Heston later calls Huang and says that the information they uncovered was fake, and that the Wonsu leader is having a meeting with his allies, and the two infiltrate the meeting. They discover Kenny, who confesses to being the rat, and killing his brother. Kenny tries to make an escape while Huang and Heston fight their way out.
Heston and Huang pursue Kenny across town, cornering him at Hsin's residence. Here Kenny explains that he was tasked by Hsin to retrieve Yu Jian, thus Huang's father would have to die for it to be passed on to him, in exchange for a position underneath Chan. Kenny complied with this but attempted to have Yu Jian stolen to keep himself from such a dishonorable position and later framed Zhou and Chan to cover his tracks.
After a final confrontation between Hsin and Kenny, Hsin demands the hand over of Yu Jian. Kenny ironically responds by stabbing Hsin with the sword as his way of presenting it to him. With Huang as a witness to the murder and truth, Kenny engages in an inevitable final battle with Huang, who is the only one left in the way of Kenny's undisputed rise to power. Huang eventually kills Kenny, fulfilling his promise to avenge his father. Immediately the IAD and FIB arrive to arrest Heston and Huang, however, Heston claims that he was in deep undercover and orders the arrest of everyone except Huang. Hsin praises Huang with the loyalty and nobility to become his true successor as the Triad boss, to which Huang has no immediate answer.
Appearance
Huang is a young adult of visible Asian heritage. He has a somewhat lighter than average skin-tone, and short, medium-brown hair. He has facial hair in the form of some hard-to-spot chin stubble and a soul patch beneath his lower lip. He almost always carries an expression of bored indifference, only showing significant emotion during very few cutscenes in the game, as well as a harsher, angrier expression in the game's official artworks.
His attire remains consistent throughout the game, likely due to the top-down view making character customization rather pointless. He wears a green overcoat overtop of a red button-up tee, which is worn over top of a plain white tee-shirt. His red shirt is always open in-game, and he wears his collar up, leading to the misconception that the red shirt is actually the inner lining of the overcoat. It is seen buttoned up only in the official artworks. Additionally, Huang wears blue jeans, which aren't significantly visible, if at all, in any of the game's cutscenes, and lastly, artworks depict him as wearing two different kinds of shoes: a pair of green-and-white high-top sneakers, and a pair of brown boots, which may simply be an unintentional inconsistency on the artist's part.
Another noteworthy physical characteristic about Huang is his athleticism. He is adept in martial arts and other athletic maneuvers, such as rolling, and can vault over ledges much quicker than other HD Universe protagonists. Huang can outrun virtually every vehicle in the game, and he is also capable of knocking down street poles and destroying cars with punches alone; all three of these are things none of the other HD Universe protagonists can do.
Personality
Throughout the course of the game, Huang appears to be very cocky and quick-witted. He is portrayed to be much more intelligent than other characters in the game who seem to be oblivious to Huang's constant mocking and sarcastic remarks.
Huang does not value honor and tradition in the same vein as his Uncle, claiming that "this is 2009 and not 1403". However, he is very loyal to his family and his gang, following their orders with little hesitation, even to the point he'd murder other Triads. Huang acknowledges that he is a "pampered little snot" in the opening cutscene, and he reveals that he has visited Liberty City before where he "caught crabs off a Swiss tourist".
He seems to dislike most of the characters he gets missions from, but he shows the occasional respect for his Uncle Wu Lee (before finding out that Wu killed his father). Even after Chan and Zhou are revealed to have not been traitors, Huang never shows any remorse for killing them (especially given the fact that Chan often annoyed Huang).
Name
The correct pronunciation for the name Huang is Hoo-ang. People mistakenly pronounce the name Hoo-ong, which is incorrect. Huang translates to yellow if written 黃, but can be translated to anything that uses the same pronunciation.
Another area of confusion is the mixed use of Mandarin and Cantonese spellings in his name. Huang Lee hails from Hong Kong, where the Cantonese dialect is more commonly used, but "Huáng" (黃) is written in a Romanized Mandarin spelling when "Wong" should be used. This also happens with his surname as "Lee", and in extension the more commonly in pinyin spelling, "Lǐ", are pronunciations in Mandarin, whereas the correct Romanized writing should be "Lei". This means Huang Lee's name may also been purely referred -in Chinese name order- to as "Lei Wong" in Cantonese and "Lǐ Huáng" in Mandarin. His early background in Hong Kong remains largely unexplained. In some Chinese-language websites Huang Lee's given name is written 皇, which has the same Mandarin pronunciation as 黃 (huáng), but here it means "royal", "regal", "emperor" and commonly used in ways associated with royalty.
Characters murdered by Huang Lee
- Minigun Wonsu Assassin - Killed in order to save Wade Heston.
- Rudy D'Avanzo - Killed for lying to him and using him for his own goals.
- Chan Jaoming - Killed on orders of Hsin Jaoming, for supposedly betraying the Triads.
- Zhou Ming - Killed on orders of Hsin Jaoming, for supposedly betraying the Triads.
- Wu "Kenny" Lee - Killed for murdering his father, stealing the Yu Jian Sword, and betraying the Triads.
Optional
- Cherie - Can be killed during her Random Encounter.
- Tommy - Can be killed during his second Random Encounter.
- Selma - Can be killed during her second Random Encounter.
- Giorgio - Can be killed after his second Random Encounter.
- Phyllis - Can be killed with Giorgio.
- Alonso - Can be killed after his Random Encounter.
Crimes committed by Huang Lee
This is a list of all crimes committed by Huang during the main storyline, as well as crimes that the player may commit while playing as Huang.
- Helping Ling Shan escape from the LCPD.
- Killing the Spanish Lords attacking one of Wu Lee's restaurants.
- Killing several Spanish Lords in retaliation for Ling's death.
- Stealing three cars for Chan Jaoming.
- Engaging in two drug deals.
- Sabotaging a racer's car.
- The burning of two stores protected by the Spanish Lords.
- Killing several hostile gang members in order to save potential new Triads.
- Attacking three drivers during a race to assure Chan Jaoming's victory.
- Infiltrating a compound, killing the guards, and stealing Melanie Mallard's TV van back for her and Chan.
- Killing numerous Yardies to protect Chan's drug shipment and Melanie.
- Breaking into a Yardie drug factory, killing all the guards, and destroying their drug supply, while being filmed by Melanie.
- Giving free drugs to several dealers while being filmed by Melanie.
- Infiltrating the Channel 15 studio, killing the guards and Melanie's cameraman, and kidnapping Melanie for Chan to kill her.
- Sneaking on the back of a delivery truck and helping Zhou Ming steal its merchandise.
- Killing several hostile gang members in order to save Chan.
- Kidnapping a patient under protection of the LCPD and delivering him to Zhou (who kills him).
- Killing several Triads in order to disarm three car bombs and to prevent them from planting any further bomb.
- Stealing a van from the Spanish Lords (and, optionally, killing its driver).
- Killing numerous Spanish Lords attacking one of Wu Lee's stores.
- Helping Zhou Ming slaughter numerous drug dealers by driving him to their locations.
- Killing numerous Spanish Lords who ambushed him and Chan Jaoming during a drug deal.
- Stealing a Korean gang leader's car and using it to frame him by assaulting several LCPD officers.
- Killing the Korean gang leader and all his underbosses.
- Destroying a gambling den using a leaking tanker.
- Killing numerous Spanish Lords attacking Wu Lee's warehouse.
- Infiltrating the Spanish Lords' warehouse, killing the guards and stealing a van.
- Killing numerous Korean gang members as a distraction for Wade Heston to plant a bug in their hideout.
- Killing the Wonsu Nodong lieutenant and all his men who ambushed Wade Heston's squad.
- Infiltrating a construction site, killing the guards and destroying all the merchandise using a flamethrower.
- Stealing a truck with a dragon costume and using it as a disguise to help Zhou Ming and men (who have robbed a bank) escape from the LCPD unnoticed.
- Killing the Spanish Lords attacking Chan Jaoming's boat.
- Saving Hsin Jaoming's men from the LCPD.
- Assassinating a FIB informant with evidence against Chan.
- Destroying Chan's goods to prevent the FIB from confiscating them.
- Killing Chan's entourage using molotov cocktails under the suspicion of being all rats.
- Killing several paparazzis who photograph Zhou Ming.
- Engaging in a chase with a drug dealer to a warehouse, and destroying said warehouse with a car bomb.
- Destroying Zhou Ming's drug ship and killing everyone who attempts to flee.
- Recovering Zhou's illegal goods from the sunken ship.
- Killing two traitorous Korean gang members and their guards, and stealing their IDs.
- Killing several The Lost MC bikers and using the Monoglobe in Meadows Park to destroy the building where The Lost hangout.
- Killing Jimmy Capra's men who ambush him and Rudy D'Avanzo.
- Selling numerous of the Angels of Death's drugs.
- Infiltrating the Koreans' hideout, killing the guards, and helping Hsin's men steal their safe which presumambly contains FIB files.
- Destroying three FIB scramblers and killing the FIB agents guarding them.
- Stealing Jimmy Capra's car for Wade Heston.
- Killing a Korean arms dealer and his guards.
- The destruction of the Koreans' hideout.
- Killing several The Lost MC bikers attacking an Angels of Death convoy.
- Killing three of Jimmy Capra's associates.
- Stealing Wade Heston's car back from the IAD and destroying the evidence inside.
- Killing Jimmy Capra's men who ambush Rudy D'Avanzo with a sniper rifle.
- Killing Rudy D'Avanzo in retaliation for his betrayal.
- Killing the Angels of Death who attempt to disturb Lester Leroc and Meredith.
- Hacking into the FIB servers to retrieve information about the informant who betrayed the Triads.
- Killing numerous Triads who attempt to kill him and Wu Lee.
- Killing Chan Jaoming and his guards for supposedly betraying the Triads and being a FIB informant.
- Killing Zhou Ming and his guards for supposedly betraying the Triads and being a FIB informant.
- Killing numerous Wonsu Nodong members, LCPD officers and IAA and FIB agents in order to escape from an ambush alongside Wade Heston, and chasing and killing Wu Lee for betraying the Triads and being responsible for the theft of the Yu Jian Sword and his father's death.
- Stealing a tank and using it to cause mayhem in the streets as a distraction for a supposed bank robbery orchestrated by Xin Shan.
- Helping a fatally injured Xin escape from the LCPD.
Other crimes committed (player-determinant)
- Grand Theft Auto
- Carjacking
- Manslaughter
- Resisting arrest
- Mass homicide
- Violating gun control laws
- Looting
- Dangerous driving
- Assault
- Drug dealing
LCPD Database record
Huang has a record on the LCPD Database in Grand Theft Auto IV.
2005 - Grand Theft Auto
- Believed to be working freelance for other organizations in addition to his uncle's.
Gallery
Trivia
- "SHIT!" is the only Huang Lee's quote where his voice can be heard when drowning inside a car. This quote can be heard from a random Triad pedestrian, present in Grand Theft Auto IV. He can be also heard coughing violently upon finding a moldy burger/hot-dog in a dumpster.
- According to Huang in the beginning of the game, he has in fact, visited Liberty City at least once, but during his previous visit, he caught crabs after an encounter with a Swiss tourist. This likely happened in 2002 or 2005, as Huang's LCPD database record states that he has been arrested in these two years.
- Upon closer inspection, the player can notice that he reuses Niko Bellic's grunts when climbing over a ledge.
- As seen in the screenshots and trailers, Huang wears a white T-shirt, a red shirt, a light green jacket and blue jeans. However, in the Nintendo DS version, due to hardware limitations, his sprites are rendered in much simpler colours, with the jacket and shirt appearing darker, and his red button-up being coloured green, making it seem as though it's missing altogether. In the PSP version, the portraits are rendered in full colour, with no compromises.
