Actor and martial-arts expert Jackie Chan has challenged outdated norms, pulled off
unbelievable stunts, and experimented with different genres in his films.
His rise to action-movie stardom has just as many twists and turns
as his best stunt sequences. Here are some things you may not know about Jackie Chan.
As reported in The New Republic, Jackie Chan's family wasn't exactly well-off:
his parents worked in hospitality for a consulate in Hong Kong,
and he was often called a, quote, "servant's kid." Though the Chan parents worked at a
diplomatic facility, they didn't have access to any of its privileges. As Jackie wrote,
"Our home was run-down, small, and stuck in the back. The folks at the consulate treated us well,
but from the very beginning, we existed in two different worlds."
That didn’t stop the young Chan from developing a crush on the French consul's daughter.
He even tried to protect her from those who teased her, ending up in a brawl with
another kid. His dad was so scared of the possible consequences that he beat
Chan mercilessly and forced him to offer his apologies to the boy he fought with.
Chan’s parents eventually left for Australia,
abandoning their son at the China Drama Academy, a boarding school. There,
Chan was forced to follow a strict schedule and had to endure terrible living conditions.
Still, he saw it as an important experience that helped define him as a person.
The fact that Jackie Chan's folks chose to leave him and his siblings behind may be hard
to understand for many, but it wasn't unheard-of in China in those days. Filmmaker Mabel Cheung,
who directed the film Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family, told The Guardian,
"It was so commonplace in China. Life was cheap. It has always been
cheap. It's a very common thing to do [there], abandon your children."
During their research for the film, Cheung and her team figured out that Chan's mom
was into opium smuggling and gambling - a notorious figure in the underworld,
in fact. That was something even Jackie didn’t know until later.
His mom’s underworld dealings predated his birth – his parents actually met
when his dad tracked her down and arrested her on smuggling charges.
At the time, she was struggling to get by, supporting her kids on her own.
As revealed by The Guardian, Jackie Chan's father was once a spy.
"Tell me what your father was like."
"My father was a spy."
Further details have emerged in Screen Rant, reporting that Fang Daolang served as
a spy in the 1930s and 1940s, working for Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalist Party. He was also a,quote,
"gangland boss," but eventually gave it up for a quieter life.
By the time he'd decided to forge a new life with Jackie Chan's mother, he'd let go of his
past and was living under a different name like his wife was. According to Mabel Cheung, who
talked to Chan’s dad in making the film A Tale of Three Cities about Jackie’s parents, Fang wasn't
initially excited at the prospect of discussing his past. Quoted in The Guardian, Cheung said,
"We had to befriend him, sing [karaoke] with him,
dance a little bit, before he was willing to talk again.”
Jackie Chan looked up to Bruce Lee and loved his style and his dedication to martial arts.
According to Screen Rant, he had a close encounter with the superstar
on the set of the iconic film Enter the Dragon. At that point, Chan was a nobody who found
himself in an intense scene that involved a brawl with other stuntmen against Lee.
“At that time, he was a huge star. I was a low-class stuntman.”
According to Chan, Lee accidentally hit him with a stick while filming the fight. Lee realized
what had happened, though, and apologized to Chan right after they were done shooting.
“The he just come, ‘Oh, Jackie, ok, ok.’”
Chan admired Lee right away and even pretended to be more hurt than he was,
just to get attention from the martial-arts star.
He later said that working with Bruce Lee inspired him to attempt his own stunts.
But Jackie Chan hasn’t always done his own stunts. According to The Guardian,
he has admitted to working with stuntmen when he feels it's necessary. It might be surprising news
to many, considering Chan's reputation for taking onset risks with a degree of flair.
Yet he was quoted as saying,
"I will use stunt doubles if you ask me to ride an F-16 jet fighter,
or to jump over a series of hurdles with a crazy horse,
or to perform two 720-degree somersaults. But one somersault, I'll do it myself."
As per the Associated Press, Chan acknowledged that his fans hold
him in high regard and believe that he does his stunts without any assistance. He said,
"I do my own stunts most of the time, that's what audiences expect from me.
I used doubles in a few shots but I do over 90 per cent of my stunts."
Also, according to Mental Floss, Chan doesn’t hesitate to let stuntmen take over when it's
a minor scene and simply requires his character to do something simple like
walking or driving. The star gets some much-needed rest during these shots.
For Jackie Chan, being a martial-arts expert has meant enduring quite a few injuries.
The film Armour of God even nearly cost him his life - more on that later. Recently,
according to Today Online, in January 2021, he was spotted limping painfully at a public appearance,
reportedly due to the flareup of an old back injury. In one interview, he remarked,
"When will one start to feel that they're growing older?
These few years, every time I receive news that a friend has passed on, I feel my age."
He added that he had a far more hectic schedule when he was young, which meant
that he simply could not afford to slow down. That’s changed as he’s gotten older, though.
In what may come as a bit of a surprise, Jackie Chan has admitted he is fairly indifferent to
beautiful women. According to the Los Angeles Times, he always received plenty of attention
from members of the opposite sex even when he wasn't a celebrity. When he got into films
and worked as a stuntman, he didn't really have trouble getting attention from attractive women.
Chan explained that things got even easier for him when he became a popular star. He recalled,
"Girls would come to me like butterflies. Actually I've been numb after so many years. I have seen
too many beautiful girls, Chinese or foreign. Now I don't think anyone is particularly beautiful."
Also, according to CNN, the actor honestly admitted one of his biggest regrets:
indulging in an affair while being married to his wife, Joan Lin.
Luckily for him, Lin chose to support him and didn't leave despite the affair.
Perhaps because of that, Chan has said that his wife is a far-stronger person than he is.
Nope, this isn't fake news: Jackie Chan had a part in an adult film. According to Mental Floss,
this happened in the 1970s when the actor played a role in a movie called All in the Family. It
starred Chan and a well-known female adult star. While Chan didn't do anything sexual on-screen,
he did shed his clothes for some of his scenes in the film. He later explained,
"I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don't think it's a big deal.
Even Marlon Brando used to be exposed in his movies."
Chan also said that the movie wasn't scandalous and was, quote,
"more conservative" than contemporary cinema. As reported by China Daily,
All in the Family was classified as a comedy. Nonetheless, the fact that Chan
was a part of a film like this generated a bit of controversy when it was first reported in 2006.
Jackie Chan had already been hurt at least 70 times while working as a stuntman and actor,
by the time he reached age 50. According to Cinema Blend, some of these experiences were
incredibly scary, such as the time Chan was badly injured while filming Armour of God in the 1980s.
He still has a hole in his skull on account of that particular injury.
Also, he almost drowned when he was working on the film Vanguard.
As described by Mental Floss, doctors had to insert a metal plate into Chan's head
after his Armour of God accident. The scene was simple enough:
Chan was required to swing from a tree. In the process, though, he ended up hitting his head on
a rock and needed immediate medical aid. It turned out that a piece of Chan's skull had
pierced his brain. On the grueling injury, Chan described how he felt completely numb.
After his ear started bleeding, Chan was taken to the hospital, where he received surgery.
Jackie Chan is a man with many talents. According to Cinema Blend, he isn't just perceived as
a martial-arts expert and a skilled actor in Asia — he's also loved and admired as a singer.
His work in this realm can't be understated: Chan has worked on as many as 20 albums, and
created music in multiple languages for his fans. He's not new to music and has been experimenting
with it since the 1980s. He has even worked on songs for several films in which he acted,
including The Young Master and Police Story. Perhaps most impressively, in 1985’s action-filled
Police Story, Chan was the director, writer, star, stunt coordinator, and theme-song singer.
As illustrated by a Forbes piece, his singing experiments are a part
of the larger Jackie Chan brand. In so doing, the martial-arts actor has
managed to create what is undoubtedly a successful and robust business empire.
Chan has found success as an entrepreneur, and earns profit from a variety of items bearing his
brand. He doesn't intend to stop growing, either. As he once commented on his films,
"Now, I'm not only [an] actor [...] I [also] invest."
As a Hollywood celebrity and a prominent public figure,
Jackie Chan doesn’t mince words about being a strong supporter of the Chinese government,
run by members of the Chinese Communist Party. As reported in Forbes, this stance of political
loyalty has really helped Chan in terms of making sure that his films get showcased in
China, without facing any obstacles from government officials. However,
his attitude hasn't gone down well with certain members of the Chinese public.
In 2015, Emily Lau, chairperson of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, commented that Chan possibly
benefits professionally from supporting the government in Beijing. She was reported as saying,
"If you are someone who'll always do and say what the authorities want,
maybe it's easier for them to approve your ventures."
Chan, predictably, isn't a fan of such criticism. He responded with,
"Should I not be close to [the] Chinese government?
We are Chinese! [...] I think everybody should love your country."
As per Vice, Hong Kong's citizens don't like Chan
at all. They believe that his stance on communism is too problematic to ignore.
Along the way, Chan hasn't shied away from saying some truly controversial
things that have inflamed those tensions. For example, in 2009, Chan publicly remarked,
"I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If
we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."
Some took this to mean that he was implying
that full freedom for Chinese citizens wasn't the best idea.
Let’s just say that Jackie Chan does not have a terrific relationship with his son, Jaycee
Chan. According to the Los Angeles Times, Chan thought that being a good parent meant that it was
necessary to discipline his children physically. He even once picked his son up and threw him into
a couch, after which both his wife and kid were very afraid of him. But after that incident,
Chan vowed not to hit his son again. However, he has struggled to be around for Jaycee,
because of his hectic schedule and work commitments. He said,
"I'm not a good dad, but I'm a responsible dad. I will be very strict in good times
[and] support him to pull through in bad times when he is punished and aware of his mistakes."
In 2014, after Jaycee had been arrested on drug charges, his dad was pretty upset.
The New York Daily News revealed that Jackie Chan was uncomfortable with his kid's actions, saying,
"Regarding this issue with my son Jaycee, I feel very angry and very shocked. As a public figure,
I'm very ashamed. As a father, I'm heartbroken."
He also mentioned that he hoped his son's story would serve as a warning
to others who may be tempted to turn to drugs.
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