Jackie Chan

Have you ever become a Martial Arts actor? Did you practice the art of Kung Fu for many years? Have you ever attended an Academy for ten harsh years? Jackie Chan has. He was born in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong on April 7,1954. Jackie Chan is someone who isn’t afraid to do what’s right. He is a person who is responsible and very well mannered. Thanks to his father Charles Chan, Jackie had to wake early every morning to practice the art of Kung Fu with his father. His father thought Kung Fu would teach Jackie to be well mannered, have self-discipline, patience and courage.

Jackie’s name was originally Chan Kong-Sang. He got the name Jackie from a man named Jack. The man had trouble pronouncing the name Chan Kong-Sang, so he just called him “Little Jack”. Then later Jackie. The name stuck so everyone calls him “Jackie”. Jackie’s parents were poor but luckily they had good jobs at the French embassy in Hong Kong. Jackie’s father later became a head cook in the American embassy in Australia. Charles could not take Jackie with him so he enrolled Jackie at the China Drama Academy at age seven. The academy was harsh. They only gave him enough food and water to survive. They were beaten if they disobeyed or messed up. Jackie had to live his next ten years there because he had nowhere else to go. After ten years of harsh treatment Jackie graduated from the China Drama Academy at age seventeen.

Later he teamed up with other opera students in a performance called The Seven Little Fortunes. Because opera wasn’t so popular then, he and the group had to find their own work. That was hard because the academy they attended didn’t teach them how to read or write. The only work they were able to get was unskilled labor or stunt work. Jackie took the stunt man work and earned a reputation of being fearless because he would try anything.

Jackie Chan is a person who won’t give up. When he made movies for Lo Wei, they ended up not so successful. Because Jackie doesn’t give up so easily he started to think about putting humor and his own stunts in the martial arts movies. As of a result of doing that, the movies Snake in Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master were very successful. Later in 1985 Jackie went back to the United States to act in a movie called The Protector. That movie didn’t work out so well. Ten years later Jackie returned to make the movies Rumble in the Bronx, Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, and Rush Hour 2.

Jackie also does charity work. He has a charity called Build a School for a Dollar. You tape a dollar bill to a drawing you make and send it to Jackie. This program helps build new schools in places where they are needed. There is the charity for Medical Funding in Mainland China. This program is for the children who have cleft lips, cleft palates, and other facial deformities. Jackie likes to help those in dire need of help. When Jackie was young he needed help and someone was kind enough to help him. The charity work he does is the passing of the kindness he got as a child.

Jackie is important to me because he inspired me to do things a bit different in life. Sometimes you can’t always do things by the rulebook. Like Jackie Chan, I like to add humor and satisfaction to the things I do. I learned Jackie’s real name and where he was born. I found out how and where he learned Kung Fu. From reading about his life I learned that if you try, you would succeed in life. The only way to get what you want is you have to earn it by working hard. I’m sure that’s what Jackie did to become an American star. What have you learned about Jackie Chan?