Jackie Chan

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Life Story

Jackie Chan was born in Hong Kong on April 7th, 1954. His parents, Charles and Lee-lee Chan named him Chan Kong-sang which means "born in Hong Kong." Jackie weighed 12 pounds when he was born and his mother required surgery to deliver him. Jackie's parents were so poor that they had to borrow money from friends to pay the doctor.

Although Jackie's parents were poor, they had steady jobs at the French embassy in Hong Kong. Charles was a cook and Lee-lee was a housekeeper. Together, the Chan family lived on Victoria Peak in Hong Kong. When Jackie was young, his father would wake him early in the morning and together they would practice kung fu. Charles Chan believed that learning kung fu would help build Jackie's character, teaching him patience, strength, and courage.

His Study and Early Career

When Jackie was seven years old Charles took a job as the head cook at the American embassy in Australia. He felt that it would be best for Jackie to stay behind in Hong Kong to learn a skill and so enrolled him in the China Drama Academy where Jackie would live for the next 10 years of his life.

During Jackie's time at the school, he learned martial arts, acrobatics, singing, and acting. The school was meant to prepare boys for a life in the Peking Opera. Chinese opera was very different from any other kind of opera. It included singing, tumbling, and acrobatics as well as martial arts skills and acting. Students at the school were severely disciplined and were beaten if they disobeyed or made mistakes. It was a very harsh and difficult life but Jackie had nowhere else to go, so he stayed. He rarely saw his parents for many years.

While at the China Academy, Jackie made his acting debut at age eight in the Cantonese movie "Seven Little Valiant Fighters: Big and Little Wong Tin Bar." He later teamed with other opera students in a performance group called "The Seven Little Fortunes." Fellow actors Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao were also members. Years later the three would work together and become known as The Three Brothers. As Jackie got older he worked as a stuntman and an extra in the Hong Kong film industry.

Being Star

When Jackie was 17, he graduated from the China Drama Academy. Unfortunately the Chinese opera was no longer very popular, so Jackie and his classmates had to find other work. This was difficult because at the school they were never taught how to read or write. The only work available to them was unskilled labor or stunt work. Each year many movies were made in Hong Kong and there was always a need for young, strong stuntmen. Jackie was extraordinarily athletic and inventive, and soon gained a reputation for being fearless; Jackie Chan would try anything. Soon he was in demand.

Over the next few years, Jackie worked as a stuntman, but when the Hong Kong movie industry began to fail, he was forced to go to Australia to live with his parents. He worked in a restaurant and on a construction site. It was there that he got the name "Jackie." A worker named Jack had trouble pronouncing "Kong-sang" and started calling Jackie "little Jack." That soon became "Jackie" and the name stuck.

Jackie was very unhappy in Australia. The construction work was difficult and boring. His salvation came in the form of a telegram from a man named Willie Chan. Willie Chan worked in the Hong Kong movie industry and was looking for someone to star in a new movie being made by Lo Wei, a famous Hong Kong producer/director. Willie had seen Jackie at work as a stuntman and had been impressed. Jackie called Willie and they talked. Jackie didn't know it but Willie would end up becoming his best friend and manager. Soon Jackie was on his way back to Hong Kong to star in "New Fist of Fury." It was 1976 and Jackie Chan was 21 years old.

Once Jackie got back to Hong Kong, Willie Chan took control over Jackie's career. To this day Jackie is quick to point out that he owes his success to Willie. However, the movies that Jackie made for Lo Wei were not very successful. The problem was that Jackie's talents were not being used properly. It was only when Jackie was able to contribute his own ideas that he became a star. He brought humor to martial arts movies; his first success was "Snake in Eagle's Shadow." This was followed by "Drunken Master" (another blockbuster) and Jackie's first ever directing job, "Fearless Hyena." All were big hits.

A Little Frustrated

Jackie was becoming a huge success in Asia. Unfortunately, it would be many years before the same could be said of his popularity in America. After a series of lukewarm receptions in the U.S., mostly due to miscasting, Jackie left the States and focused his attention on making movies in Hong Kong. It would be 10 years before he returned to make Rumble in the Bronx, the movie that introduced Jackie to American audiences and secured him a place in their hearts (and their box office). Rumble was followed by the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon series which put Jackie on the Hollywood A List.

Despite his Hollywood successes, Jackie became frustrated by the lack of varied roles for Asian actors and his own inability to control certain aspects of the filming in America. He continued to try, however, making The Tuxedo, The Medallion, and Around the World in 80 Days, none of which was the blockbuster that Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon had been.

Devotion

Jackie's lifelong devotion to fitness has served him well as he continues to do stunt work and action sequences in his films. In recent years, Jackie's focus has shifted and he is trying new genres of film C fantasy, drama, romance C and is spending more and more time on his charity work. He takes his work as Ambassador for UNICEF/UNAIDS very seriously and spends all his spare time working tirelessly for children, the elderly, and those in need. He continues to make films in Hong Kong, including the blockbuster drama New Police Story in 2004.

Jackie has been married to Lin Feng-Jiao since 1982 and has a son, actor-singer Jaycee Chan. To learn more about Jackie you can read his biography, I Am Jackie.

Jackie Chan Highlights

Jackie Chan Highlights Related

Kung Fu attraction highlights

It is not only a sporting exercise but also an artistic form, used to cure illness as well as for self-defense and is a comprehensive form of culture of the human body.

• Dengfeng
• Danjiangkou

• Shaolin Temple
• Mt. Wudangshan
• Beijing Shichahai Sports School

Kung Fu Film attraction highlights

As one of film genres, Kung Fu Film has mainly been produced in China, peaking in the 1970s, and has been dominated by Hong Kong action cinema and its kung fu and wuxia films. This genre is a type of action film characterized by extensive fighting scenes employing various types of martial arts. Famous actors include Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.

• Hong Kong

Martial Arts Fiction

Martial Arts Fiction is a great hit for Chinese Kungfu lovers. Even though some are filmed into TV shows or movies, some people still like to read the original version, because it's more authentic.

Jackie Chan FAQ & Travelers's Tips

1. What kinds of people do Chinese people think are gracious or nidering?
2. What's the best moral can a Chinese have?
3. What's the most important aspect of most Chinese people's lives?
4. Do Chinese people believe in God?
5. Are there any thoughts or feelings on issue that Chinese share with the west?
6. Why are Chinese people called the 'Descendants of the Dragon'?
7. How do Chinese people like their own culture?
8. How did Chinese people's value change?
9. What's Chinese people's life style?

1. What kinds of people do Chinese people think are gracious or nidering?

   In ancient China, loyalty and filial piety were used to define weather one was a good person or not. In China nowadays, they are still the standards for judging a person.

   • Loyalty: Loyalty evolved as devotion for one's family, gene-group and friends. Loyalty comes most naturally amongst small groups or tribes where the prospect of the whole casting out the individual seems like the ultimate, unthinkable rejection. Loyalty to tribes evolved from the evolutionary tactic that there is a greater chance of survival and procreation if animals form packs/tribes.
     
     In a feudal society, centered on personal bonds of mutual obligation, accounting for precise degrees of protection and fellowship can prove difficult. Loyalty in these circumstances can become a matter of extremes: alternative groups may exist, but lack of mobility will enter a personal sense of loyalty.
     
     The rise of states (and later nation states) meant the harnessing of the 'loyalty' concept to foster allegiance to the sovereign or established government of ones country, also personal devotion and reverence to the sovereign and royal family.
     
     Wars of religion and their intermingling with wars of states have seen loyalty used in religious senses too, involving faithful support of a chosen or traditional set of beliefs or of sports representatives. And in modern times marketing has postulated loyalties to abstract concepts such as the brand. Customer churn has become the opposite of loyalty, just as high treason once stood as the opposite of the same idea. Compare loyalty card.
     
     Loyalty is also seen in business in a variety of ways. As governments have grown in size and scope, some people are more loyal to a company rather than to a country. As corporation complexity has grown, people have shifted their loyalties to individuals rather than companies. As those individuals move between companies, they often take other people with them. Stock options are one method devised to keep people loyal to a company.
     
     
   • In Confucian thought, filial piety is one of the virtues to be cultivated: a love and respect for one's parents and ancestors.
     
     In somewhat general terms, filial piety means to take care of one's parents; not be rebellious; show love, respect and support; display courtesy; ensure male heirs, uphold fraternity among brothers; wisely advise one's parents; conceal their mistakes (though some schools advocate pointing out and correcting their mistakes); display sorrow for their sickness and death; and carry out sacrifices after their death.
     
     Filial piety is considered the first virtue in Chinese culture, and it is the main concern of a large number of stories. One of the more famous one is The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars. This story depicts how children exercised their filial piety in the past. While China has always had a diversity of religious beliefs, filial piety has been common to almost all of them; for example, Historian Hugh D. R. Baker calls respect for the family the only element common to almost all Chinese believers. These traditions were sometimes enforced by law; during parts of the Han Dynasty, for example, and those who neglected ancestor worship could even be subject to corporal punishment.
     
     
   People define bad people in different ways. When someone does something and one person was angry about, another person might think he is actually a good person and doing the right thing? Then what kinds of people do Chinese think are bad?

   Someone doing something bad doesn't mean he is bad. Being bad depends on the inner world of a person, and what's the purpose of being bad? A poor good person might steal to feed his family; while a bad person can do all the kind things just to achieve his evil plan. How do Chinese people define being bad?

   • One character is for sure, which is betrayal. Contrast to loyalty, Betrayal is a form of deception or dismissal of prior presumptions, breaking or violation of a presumptive social contract (trust, or confidence) that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Often betrayal is the act of supporting a rival group, or it is a complete break from previously decided upon or presumed norms by one party from the others.

   • In ancient China, disrespecting the emperor was also considered as a big crime and disgraces. The emperor was the supreme power of ruling the whole country. Showing disrespect to the emperor equaled to showing the same thing to the country. People could be executed for showing disrespect to the emperor. Now there is no more emperor, but respect to the elderly, to women and child is still needed in this society. The elderly, women and child are the weak group and they deserve to be respected.

2. What's the best moral can a Chinese have?

   You might wonder why Buddha always has a smiley face. That's because they have reached the highest level of moral, which is 'beneficence'.
   
   Traditionally understood as the 'first principle'of morality, the dictum'do good and avoid evil' lends some moral content to this principle. The principle of beneficence is a 'middle principle' insofar as it is partially dependent for its content on how one defines the concepts of the good and goodness. As a middle principle, beneficence is not a specific moral rule and cannot by itself tell us what concrete actions constitute doing good and avoiding evil.
   
   The Principle of Nonmaleficence, commonly translated as first, 'do no harm' is often considered to be a corollary to the principle of beneficence. In this respect, it shares the same characteristics of beneficence considered as a middle principle. Considered in its own right, nonmaleficence is sometimes interpreted to imply that if one cannot do good without also causing harm, then one should not act at all (in that particular circumstance). The difficulty with this rigorist interpretation, however, is that it makes action almost impossible in a world where even the best actions may have some harmful results. The principle of double effect offers a more reasonable method of analysis for those conflict situations where avoiding harm would require no action, including actions that may be both morally good and necessary for achieving the good. It is important to note that, while nonmaleficence refers to doing no harm, nonmalevolence refers to not intending or willing harm. It may be helpful to think of nonmaleficence not simply as 'doing no harm', but as 'doing no evil' which is closer to its etymological roots.




3. What's the most important aspect of most Chinese people's lives?

   Just like a saying that goes like this: east and west, home is best. Family is always the number one thing a Chinese would think when asked about the most important aspect of their life. Some would say money, because without money, one can't do anything. Yet, money is just a substance that can satisfy one's material need. After one is satisfied with all these material need, a higher lever of desire will come up for sure, which is the need to be accompanied. During festivals, Chinese people take every chance to go back home and unite with their family. Whenever one is happy or sad, they will share with their family first, or at least make sure they will share it with family. Family is always a Chinese's support, and is always where a Chinese belong to.




4. Do Chinese people believe in God?

   Most Chinese are antitheists. Sometimes you might hear people say something about God, but it doesn't really mean they believe in it.

   There are some Chinese Christians in China who believe in God, but the number of the Chinese Christians only takes up a small portion.



5. Are there any thoughts or feelings on issue that Chinese share with the west?

   With the development of China, more and more western thoughts are cramming into Chinese people's heads. Common thoughts shared by both Chinese and westerners are becoming more and more.

   The first thing to mention is privacy. In western countries, everyone deserve the rights to have some privacy even a 3-year-old child. Children usually demand a room of their own when they turn to 14. More and more Chinese now demand privacy too. Mother reading her little daughter's diary is no longer acceptable, and father going into his son's room without knocking is considered as rude.

   The second thing to mention is the aware of protecting animals. China is famous for its cuisines, yet a lot of animals, even endangered animals, are killed and be cooked into a yummy dish on people's dinning table. Chinese people no longer, like most westerners would think, 'eat everything'. Killing precious animals is against the law, and only pork, beef, chicken, mutton, etc. can be cooked as meals.

6. Why are Chinese people called the 'Descendants of the Dragon'?

   Dragons are commonly symbols of good luck/health in some parts of Asia, and are also sometimes worshipped. Asian dragons are considered as mythical rulers of weather, specifically rain and water, and are usually depicted as the guardians of flaming pearls.
   
   In China, as well as in Japan and Korea, the Azure Dragon is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellation, representing spring (season), the element of Wood and the east. A Yellow dragon with five claws on each foot, on the other hand, symbolizes imperial authority in China, and indirectly the Chinese people as well. Chinese people often use the term 'Descendants of the Dragon' as a sign of ethnic identity.




7. How do Chinese people like their own culture?

   Proud of their own culture, Chinese people like to spread their culture to all over the world. However, due to the closed country during the Qing Dynasty when the emperor ordered to close up the country and severed all the diplomatic relations with foreign countries, a lot of tradition was descended and now conflicts with the new generations.

   For example, parents still seem to have the supreme power to decide what their children should or should not do, on the perspective of life style, marriage, even career; younger Chinese demand more privacy while their parents still like to treat them like babies. Chinese people now are under a condition when the transition of new and old generation is taking place. People in the new generation will still be proud of their own culture and meanwhile, carry a western way of thinking.



8. How did Chinese people's value change?

   The marketing economy influenced Chinese's cultural ideas at following aspects:

   • It weakened Chinese people's emphasizes on family and pushed them to enter society. And the conception to conform to elders began to weaken.

   • Chinasmarketing economy was still among the primary stage, which caused Chinese people to pursue material profits blindly, so the parochial idea to make money in illegal ways became more and more popular.

   In 90's, Chinese people's social needs, value goals, and behavior orientations have all been changed.

   • Social needs
     
     Material desires other than basic needs increased; Needs for occupation and income insurance increased; Needs for independence and freedom, for fairness and equality emerged and developed rapidly.

   • Value Goals
     
     Making money has become more and more Chinese people's main life goal. In the eyes of the Chinese people who hold this kind of life goal, how much property (money) one owned is considered as one of the indexes judging people's social status and evaluating whether people make success or not, even is considered as an important happiness resource.

   • Behavior Orientations

     The idea about self-others relationship has been changed from 'only for others not for self at all' to 'Unless for yourself, you will stand condemned by God'. More and more people tend to value asking from society, instead of devoting themselves to society as before.
   
   

9. What's Chinese people's life style?

   Generally speaking, the Chinese people live a life distinct from other peoples in that they pursue such qualities as conformity to nature, harmony, and plain living as opposed to conquest of nature, individuality and material luxury. A pretty flower or a full moon can mean a lot of things for Chinese people, depending on the circumstances.
   
   In connection with their ethics, the Chinese people's lifestyle is characterized by two considerations: Harmony between humans and nature, and harmony among humans.
   
   This preoccupation with nature permeates all aspects of the Chinese people's life. For example, even on an outing, the Chinese people seek to integrate themselves into nature. In springtime, they admire the new-grown greenery in the summer, they appreciate the lotus in the autumn, they climb up a hill for a view of the golden season; and in the winter, they feast their eyes on the first snow.
   
   Festivals occupy an important position in the Chinese's life. Although they offer sacrifices to gods on festivals, the gods are actually of secondary importance. Interpersonal harmony, in contrast, is of primary importance. The most important of all the festivals, of course, is the 'spring festival'. And even on this day, the offerings are intended for people to consume, and the gods are believed to raise no objection to this.
   
   Chinese Culture is omnipresent. Qin (a Chinese stringed instrument somewhat like zither), qi (Chinese chess or go), shu (calligraphy) and hua (painting) are the four most popular traditional forms of entertainment. The point is not how good you can get; rather, it is the mood and atmosphere these activities build up for the player. It is a tempering of the character. There is a dao (literally, way or path; norm, principle for everything. Playing Chinese chess or go, for example, is not just for winning. In the processing of playing, one can learn the art of self-composure and the spirit of detachment to fame and gain.
   
   Another major element in the ordinary life of the Chinese is staying good health. Qigong is the most popular form of exercise by coordinating breathing and other physical as well as mental conditions, qigong reflects the traditional thinking of integrating humans into the universe. In connection with qigong, most people can play some taijiquan or some other 'kung-fu' Chinese martial arts aim primarily at strengthening the body and cultivating the mind. It is a means of making friends not enemies.