Everyone knows Jackie Chan as a Hollywood icon and an international superstar, but did you know that Jackie’s parents have an interesting story, too?
Charles and Lee-Lee Chan had already had two children each and lost a partner, before they met each other. Charles, who also used the name Fang Shilong, was a spy in China, before fear of the communist government forced him to Hong-Kong. Jackie has spoke about this in the past, saying,
“My father was spy hiding in Hong Kong and hiding in Australia at the American embassy for so many years.”Before
His mother had an equally interesting early life, as uncovered in the documentary, “Traces of the Dragon: Jackie Chan and His Lost Family”::
“The fact that his mother was an opium smuggler, a gambler and a big sister in the underworld was a big shock to Jackie and also to us,” documentarist, Mabel Cheung, said. “Everybody in Hong Kong knew that his mother was like a common housewife, very kind, very gentle.”
When Cheung pressed Charles for comment on this, he became defensive, “He got very angry. He said, ‘If you know everything, why didn’t you ask me? You can find out from somebody else.’ Jackie had to intercede. He said, ‘I invited these guys to come. You’ve got to talk more.’
“We had to befriend him, sing karaokes with him, dance a little bit, before he was willing to talk again. And of course he was reluctant to tell us about his wife as an opium smuggler.”
The documentary also traces what happened to Chan’s four half-siblings, who grew up without their parents.
Sources:
Enter the parents | Movies | The Guardian
Jackie Chan discovered parents had craziest lives once he found out who they were (ladbible.com)
