Huang Lee (李皇) is a character in the Grand Theft Auto series who appears as the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. He is also mentioned in the LCPD Database in Grand Theft Auto IV.
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 GTA 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 bussiness afloat.
Huang makes contact with Zhou Ming, and Hsin's son Chan Jaoming, who are competing to be the succesor 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 headquaters, 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 makes contact with 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.
The two pursue Kenny across the city and corner him at Hsin's house. Kenny reveals he was tasked to retrieve the sword in exchange for a position under Chan, and to get the sword, his brother had to die, and he framed Zhou and Chan to cover his tracks. In the house, Kenny confronts Hsin who calls Kenny out for his treachery, and demands the sword. Kenny ironically responds by stabbing Hsin as Huang enters the room. Kenny then makes an attempt of Huang's life but Huang kills him. Immediately, IAD and FIB to arrest, Heston and Huang, but Heston claims to have been deep undercover, and tells them to arrest everyone except Huang. Gravelly injured Hsin praises Huang for his loyalty, and appoints him the new Triad leader.
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 demonstrates the ability to sprint continuously without running out of stamina, as well as being adept in martial arts and other athletic maneuvers, such as rolling and vaulting over ledges much quicker than other HD Universe protagonists.
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 the fact 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 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.
Heinous crimes committed by Huang
- The bombing of a store protected by the Spanish Lords.
- Accompanying the murder of a patient under police protection.
- The robbery of The Bank of Liberty.
- Drug dealing overseas.
- Assassination of an informant who sold out Chan.
- Searching for Zhou Ming's contraband scattered all over the river.
- Bombing Happiness Island.
- The bombing of the Monoglobe.
- Breaking into the Spanish Lord's warehouse and steal a van.
- Killing Chan Jaoming and Zhou Ming.
- Killing Wu Lee.
LCPD Database record
Huang has a record on the LCPD Database in Grand Theft Auto IV. It states that he is a 25-year old Chinese native and known associate of Wu "Kenny" Lee's Liberty City Triad Gang. His record also states that he has been believed to be working freelance for other organizations in addition to his uncle's.
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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.
- Upon closer inspection, the player can notice that he reuses Niko Bellic's grunts when climbing over a ledge.
- Huang is the second Asian protagonist in the series, the first being Mikki.
- As seen in the screenshots and trailers, Huang wears a white T-shirt, a red shirt, a light green jacket and blue jeans. But, in the original DS version, he wears a gray shirt, dark green jacket and brown pants. In the PSP version, his appearance has been restored to its original look.