Super Junior-M, often referred to as SJ-M, is the third official sub-unit of Korean boy band Super Junior that was established on April 2008. They are the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent. They are also the first group produced by Korea's CT (Culture Technology) organization and was created through a comprehensive localization strategy.Super Junior-M contains five Super Junior members, Han Geng (the leader), Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, and two new members, Henry and Zhou Mi.Pre-debut
Responding to Super Junior's rising popularity in China, Super Junior's management, SM Entertainment, decided to compose a new Super Junior sub-unit that is to focus entirely in the Chinese market. On October 2, 2007, an official announcement was released to the media, stating the birth of a third Super Junior subgroup that would debut in China. Super Junior's original member, Han Geng and an SM Chinese trainee, Henry, were stated to be the first two of the seven members representing the subgroup.Five months later, a second Super Junior member, Siwon, was mentioned in news articles to be the third member.However, the confirmed list of members were not released to the public until April.
Starting from April 4, 2008 to April 7, 2008, the seven members were released to the media in a chain of trailer clips on different days, introducing the members' versatility. Han Geng was the first member to be announced on April 4. On April 5, Donghae and Siwon were announced to be the second and third members. On April 6, a new member, Henry, was announced to be the fourth Super Junior-M member, following Kyuhyun as the fifth. Rookie Zhou Mi was announced to be the sixth member on April 7 following Ryeowook as the final member.A trailer with of all seven members was released on the group's debut day, April 8. Super Junior-M's trailer clips exceeded 1.4 million views in less than four days.
Origin of the name
Before the official name of the subgroup was released, they were often referred to as Super Junior-China. On April 3, 2008, SM Entertainment released the official name of the subgroup, Super Junior-M, with "M" representing the word "Mandarin," expressing the subgroup's ambition to become successful in the Chinese music market not limited to only China. The "M" can also represent a list of other aspects, such as the first letter of their debut album, Me, and also "mi" (Chinese: θΏ·), which can mean "charismatic" as well as "fan" in Mandarin, the latter meaning referring to their desire to connect with their fans.
2008: Debut
Super Junior-M debuted in China on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards and with the release of their first single music video, "U". Their debut album was released in various provinces in China starting April 23, 2008 and the Korean version with three bonus Korean tracks was releasd in South Korea on April 30, 2008. The album was also distributed in several other Asian countries on May 2, 2008 such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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