Mention Jackie Chan and people immediately think of that hero of the silver screen who pulls off the ultimate stunts and braves the greatest of dangers to bring down the baddest of the bad.
At the end of September, Chan injured his leg while shooting a film, and he came to Taiwan to accept the award with bloodshot eyes that at times came to tears. At the airport waiting for his luggage, he was caught napping on by luggage cart and given a reminder by his agent Chen Tzu-chiang, "You're an outstanding youth now!" Chan alertly snapped to attention.
"Once excellent," Chan says, "always excellent!" After winning, he felt as if he was shouldering a new burden. Even when just walking on the street, he seemed to think that he had to pay more attention to his behavior. Wearing a suit and tie with an air of refined and gentle elegance, it was difficult for film fans to recognize that larger-than-life superstar.
A fighting hero for healthy entertainment: "If during summer vacation there isn't the latest Jackie Chan flick in which he risks his life," says film critic Wang Chih-cheng, "the film viewing public just isn't satisfied."
And though many movie buffs who get their thrills seeing Chan's latest death-defying stunts quickly forget his movies' plots when leaving the theater, few can deny that his films are extremely entertaining.
Wang Chih-cheng points out that though Chan's movies have action scenes full of difficult stunts, violent explosiveness galore and good-natured innocent humor between the sexes, there is little sex, and the principled heros in pursuit of justice rarely kill. "In contrast to the rest of the cops-and-robbers films being churned out in Hong Kong," Wang says, "Chan's are squeaky clean. The board of censors don't cut or blur his films."
"There are lots of different kinds of films," says director Tsai Ming-liang. "Jackie Chan's movies "cover" a lot of people." It's not easy to make a good kung-fu movie. Chan's transcend regional appeal, and they are healthy--kids can see them without being badly influenced. "They've got the flavor of cartoons and comic books," Tsai adds. "It's just like with James Bond," says Chou Hsu-wei, who once served as an assistant director for the R.O.C. production Pushing Hands and was a student of film. "The structure stays the same, and people always come back to watch."
Chan's efforts to help the weak and aid the needy extend into his life off screen.
Optimistic do-gooder: He was selected because he happily does good deeds while being successful in his career. Jason C. Hu, the director of the R.O.C.'s Government Information Office who nominated Chan, was impressed that after Chan became successful in his career, he remained an optimistic do-gooder with the heart of a child. Hu said that there weren't any people from the movie industry on the panel of judges for the Outstanding Youth Prize, but Chan was able tc win unanimously because of his excellent image in society. His election as an outstanding youth should help both in raising the image of actors and shaking up industry's willingness to invest.
In 1987 Chan established the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation in Hong Kong and followed it up with a foundation in Japan the next year. He's also filmed public service commercials to promote traffic safety and to encourage people to give blood, as well as visiting police groups in order to boost morale.
For his various achievements, he was selected as one of Hong Kong's "Ten Most Outstanding Young Persons" in 1986 and as one of "The Most Outstanding Young Persons of the World" in 1988 and was awarded an M.B.E. (Member of the order of the British Empire) in 1989.
When receiving "The Overseas Chinese Out standing Youth Prize," Chan recalled what his father told him at the airport before emigrating to Australia: "Don't take drugs and don't get involved in the world of crime." Since then, it has been his creed. "I can say proudly that in all the years since, I've lived by it!"
And he hopes that by making an example of his own behavior, he can influence the rank and file of his movie fans: teenagers.
In Hong Kong, he has even gone as far as picking up condoms to shoot commercials for preventing AIDS. "What I want to do is to help others. If because of my fame I am able to attract more people's notice, and what's to be said needs to be heard," Chan says, "I'm more than willing to act as a spokesman."
Chan's fame is a result of hard work.
Starting in small roles: When he was just playing bit parts and working as a martial arts extra, he never expected that he would be a male lead and director one day, but he has always dreamed about making something of himself in the field.
When Chan was seven, he entered a school for Chinese drama, learning the trade from his teacher Yu Chim Yuen. Under Master Yu's strict guidance, he studied Peking opera and was trained in kung fu. For ten years, he occasionally took child parts in movies and performed Peking Opera with his classmates in a company they named "The Painted Faces."
When he was 15, Chan started to take small adult roles in movies, and two years later he was promoted to director of martial arts. At 18, he took a leading role for the first time in Little Tiger from Canton, but the reaction was less than enthusiastic, and he didn't receive much notice. "At the time I still wasn't well known, and when the leading lady saw how I looked, she angrily said to the director, 'how can he be matched with me?'" Chan recalls painfully. "As soon as I heard her, I ran to the bathroom and cried bitterly."
Dispirited, he joined his parents in Australia, where he learned interior decoration skills with in contractor during the day and worked in a Chinese restaurant as an assistant cook at night. Clever and hard working, Chan has always done his work well--no matter if it be decorating houses or cooking.
Yet as a small cook scurrying about in the smoke of the kitchen, far removed from the grand world of movie heros, Chan's heroic dreams still lingered. A year later, Chen Tzu-Chiang, the general manager of the Lo Wei Company (named after the famous director), invited Chan to return to Hong Kong and shoot a film.
Making one's way with kung fu: This performance opened doors for him in Hong Kong, and a string of films--The Doors to Shaolin, Shaolin Wooden Men, The Pair of Shooting Stars Amid the Storm, and Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin--started to get him noticed. With Wu Szu-yuan's supervision of production and Yuan Hoping's direction, Snake in Eagle 's Shadow was a box-office smash, and Chan reached the first peak in his career. Alternatively solemn and humorous on screen, Chan has lightning quick hands and feet that have got him named as Bruce Lee's successor in the history of Chinese film. But in one respect the two differ: Bruce Lee had a tragic aura, whereas Jackie Chan is the satisfaction-guaranteed "happy hero."
Still later, the success of Drunken Fist turned Chan into the darling of the box office, and Chan took advantage of the situation to direct his own film, The Fearless Hyena. In 1979, Chan entered the Golden Harvest Group at the invitation of Raymond Chow and Ho Kuan-chang and shot a series of kung-fu pictures. The first film, The Young Master was the biggest box office hit in both Hong Kong and Taiwan that year. The following Project A series, Police Story series, Meals on Wheels, Amour of God, and Mr. Canton and Lady Rose, were all box office hits. During summer vacation, the release of many a film was timed to avoid coming out at the same time as Chan's.
In order to move into international markets, under arrangements made by Golden Harvest, Chan worked with famous Hollywood actors to shoot such films as Battle Creek Brawl and Cannonball I. Japanese film buffs were among his most passionate admirers, and for several years running, he was named as "The Most Popular Foreign Male Film Star" in surveys there.
Striving to be a multi-talented performer: "As a star, he continued to expand the range of his own characters," says Wang Chih- cheng. The Chinese have an expression, "Whores have no feeling and actors no loyalty," which shows the lack of respect actors have in China compared to the West. Yet Chan, from serving as a stunt man, actor and director of kung fu to directing and producing, continued to raise the level of his craft, and he walked the road to international markets by introducing Western movie technology (spending huge amounts of money on cranes to raise and lower photo equipment) and expanding movies' range of vision (by filming in Africa, Southeast Asia and mainland China).
Although some hold that Chan's skills as a script writer and a director do not match his as an actor, he continues to walk the path of the "multitalented" artist, having recently started recording record albums.
Chan is a great lover of singing and karaoke, and though many were uncertain about his move into singing, his first album, The First Time, went Taiwan platinum ten times over, selling 500,000 copies.
Besides his professional achievements, Chan's record of working for the public good has also made a deep impression on people.
From a phony to the real McCoy: In 1987, he established the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, which has held various fund-raising galas, both establishing scholarships and helping to support such charitable institutions as hospitals and orphanages. Knowing that he contributes money to charity and does good deeds, many of his fans send him money to forward on to these good causes.
Chan's childhood environment was less than ideal, and he remembers that when he was in opera school, he would eagerly await the representatives of the Red Cross, who would bring clothes and delicious food. When he got on his own feet, the former recipient of charity has even more eagerly sought out opportunities to help others. "It can be considered remembering with gratitude those who helped me!"
But he also admits that when he had first broken into the industry and was busy making money to pay for the roof over his head, he would participate in public service activities and make visits to orphanages and old folks homes with an ulterior motive: molding his public image. The movie company would set up everything nicely, and all he had to do was make an appearance. Gradually his conscience began to nag at him, and he began to examine his own actions. After a while, he truly began to help others on his own accord and get his fans involved.
Those who know him say that Chan's charm is evident in his dealings with people and in his working attitude.
A happy hero, chivalrous and tender: Fang-ti, host of a show on the Public Radio System, describes Chan as a rugged wilderness type, chivalrous and tender, who has a big heart for his friends. Because his family was poor when he was a child, says the manager of the publicity department at Golden Communications, he has frugal habits. When he goes to a restaurant, he tends to order light and then ask for more later if it's needed. And if he sees food left over on people's plates, he urges them to finish, saying that they shouldn't let it go to waste. Yet he's someone who always fights for the bill.
The people who work with him all call him "big brother"--not because he is their elder but because he cares for them like family, sharing his good for tune with all. And when there's a mistaken report in the media, Chan doesn't correct it. He says that reporters have been of great assistance in getting him into the position he is in today, and he doesn't want to put them in an awkward situation.
He is known by his staff as being an overgrown naughty boy, but other than being hard to get out of bed, there's not much to complain about. Hsieh Wan-ping, a promoter for Rock Records, says that Chan isn't a performer who changes personas as he goes on and off stage. He has a responsible attitude about his work and doesn't put on airs of self-importance. In the recording studio, though tortured by constant requests for retakes, from start to finish he never loses his patience. And when the final results appear, he is full of gratitude for his staff, giving the credit to others.
Losing freedom to show biz: Recently, Chan was recording an album at the same time he was busy shooting the film Supercop. Because he was working without rest, and missing regular meals and sleep, he got stomach pains. At the recording studio, he got the hiccups when he was trying to sing, but he still didn't want to delay the progress of the schedule. "For several days, he held onto a garbage can, alternatively singing and throwing up," relates the record producer Li Chung-sheng. "It was awful, but he really gave it all he had!"
A special feature of Chan's movies are the out takes shown at the movies' conclusions, which audiences find both startling and humorous. They laugh at their hero slipping up and gasp at the hair raising, death-defying stunts. Word that Chan has injured himself while shooting a film is no longer news to movie buffs. People have suggested that he could use editing to fake scenes and still bring exciting results, but he insists on actually going through the motions.
And for the sake of his career in movies, Chan wants to maintain his status as a screen idol, which means that romance and family life are topics he never discusses. Even if there are numerous reports in the papers in speculation, Chan maintains his silence. Unwilling to let his love life be exposed, he goes to and from public events alone.
Jackie Chan, this "happy hero" of the silver screen, has his bright lights and his loneliness.
[Picture Caption]
Chan has an excellent image. In the movies the helps the weak and aids the needy, and off screen be participates in many public service activities. Here he is posing to promote the giving of blood. (photo courtesy of the R.O.C. Blood Foundation)
The immensely successful Snake in Eagles Shadow made Chan a star in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. (photo courtesy of Szu-yuan Inc.)
Chan has extended his work from acting in front of the camera to working as a writer and director behind it. (photo courtesy of Golden Communications)
On screen Chan always plays the righteous hero, and he rarely kills people. (photo courtesy of Golden Communications)
The hair-raising stunts in Chan's movies are what packs them in. (photo courtesy of Golden Communications)
Upon accepting the Overseas Chinese Outstanding Youth Prize, Chan had the honor of being congratulated by R.O.C. President Lee Teng-hui. (photo by Huang Tzu-ming)
The immensely successful Snake in Eagles Shadow made Chan a star in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. （photo courtesy of Szu-yuan Inc.）
Chan has extended his work from acting in front of the camera to working as a writer and director behind it. （photo courtesy of Golden Communications）
On screen Chan always plays the righteous hero, and he rarely kills people. （photo courtesy of Golden Communications）
The hair-raising stunts in Chan's movies are what packs them in. （photo courtesy of Golden Communications）
Upon accepting the Overseas Chinese Outstanding Youth Prize, Chan had the honor of being congratulated by R.O.C. President Lee Teng-hui. （photo by Huang Tzu-ming）
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