Its funny that they originally made Hsu Haos model to actually be a new look for Shao Kahn lol.

Anyways i think he is hated so much because he flat out sucks. Like is one of the worst chars theyve made. Now to explain why he sucks..... First off his primary costume design looks dumb but his alt imo isnt bad. His move set design wasnt great but imo it is interesting. However why he really is such a bad character is because of a huge lack of originality with his character. Think about this.... Go back to mk4 and look at Jarek. Jarek is basically a complete Kano ripoff in like every way...... Hsu Haos story and character is basically a ripoff of Jarek from mk4. So Hsu Hao is like a ripoff of a ripoff. Hsu Hao is even more like Kano than Jarek was in a couple ways.

So basically they just did a lazy job with hos story and character and even a lil bit with his moveset. And his primary design really is one of the worst character costumes ive seen in mk.

I honestly kinda liked him.

His design was meh, but the alt was much better. He had a great finisher though in my opinion.

They certainly didn't use him to his potential though.

He was just a poorly designed character and just used for filler basically. If Hsu Hao was redesigned with a better look and moves and not looking like a Mongolian wrestler with a dumb hat, he could be redeemed just like Stryker was in MK9. Ah last though, Hsu Hao is severely hated by Ed Boon and John Vogel so the chances we ever see Hsu Hao again besides maybe getting beaten to death are slim to none.

Looks like he had Jaundice, yellowing of the skin, from abusing alcohol. Being East Asian may come into play.