Jackie Chan is a legendary martial artist and well-known Hollywood actor. He is popular for doing deadly stunts and having a knack for physical comedy. The actor came into the limelight with the films like Rush Hour, Drunken Master, Karate Kid, and The Spy Next Door, among others. He is one of the most loved and popular action stars of all time.
The action hero opened up on the lives of his parents and how they met in a documentary on his family life.
Jackie Chan’s father Charles
Charles Chan and Lee-lee Chan were the parents of the global action star Jackie Chan. Chan’s father was a martial art expert and owing to his skills, he became Chinese National Revolutionary Army General Gu’s orderly. Due to a small mishappening with a rifle, he was removed from the post and re-employed as a leader of a Mitsubishi cargo ship in Wuhan.
However, Charles and his group were accused of smuggling and were arrested by Japanese authorities. When The Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army launched an all-out invasion of South-East Asia. Somehow, using political connections Charles was released from Japanese imprisonment. He quit his dock job and approached General Gu for work. He got a job in the Intelligence Bureau of the Administration Office as a Secret Agent of the First War Zone. He also became the target of two assassination attempts because he was a Nationalist, but luckily his life was saved. Japanese Army was harming the coastal cities of China at the time, which led to the demise of his parents and sister in the air raid.
He married his first wife and had two sons, Fang Shide and Fang Shisheng. However, his wife passed away due to cancer. When the Chinese Civil War broke out, he thought his sons’ lives were in danger as he was a former spy, so he left them one day suddenly. The kids were rescued by the police. One of Charles’s friends took care of them.
Charles Chan passed away at 93 in 2008 in Hong Kong. All his family members, including his grandson Jaycee Chan, were at his bedside when he died.
Jackie Chan’s mother Lily Chan
Lily Chan, was born circa 1916, and her parents owned a grocery store. Her first husband worked as a shoemaker and later found work at a railroad station. He was killed due to bombs from air raids in Wuhan. At 28, she was left alone to raise her two daughters, Yulan and Guilan. Lily Chan went to Shanghai to earn some money, where she got into the business of opium smuggling.
One time she bought some opium, but there was a sudden checking of passengers at the port. The officer in charge was Jackie Chan’s father Charles. He caught her with opium and confiscated it. He was going to arrest her, but he felt pity when he saw a blue flower in her hair.
As per the autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan; My Life in Action, during the war times in China, a white flower in one’s hair signified that they lost their parents, and a blue flower meant they lost their children and/or husband. Charles asked her about the truth and lets her go along with the opium.
Lily Chan started gambling and won so many times. She became a famous Big Sister and was treated with high respect. At the time she and Charles had become great friends, and he also got back her belongings, when he found out that she was pawning her belongings.
Charles and Lily Chan’s marriage and family
In 1949, Jackie Chan’s father Charles fled to Hong Kong and Lily Chan arrived in Hong Kong a couple of years later in 1951. A friend of Charles’s helped him get employment at the French Consulate in Hong Kong. Earlier he did odd jobs but learned to cook and became a chef at the French Embassy.
Charles and Lee Lee rekindled in Hong Kong and got married in 1954. They had a son on 7 April 1954, Kong-sang Chan, famously known as Jackie Chan. The family lived in the servant quarters of the French Embassy, and Lily Chan worked as a maid. Young child Jackie Chan received martial art training from Master Yu Jim-Yuen. Later Charles got an opportunity to work as a chef at the US Embassy in Australia hence, he left his family in Hong Kong and went there. Later he also called his wife and placed Chan in the care of Master Yu Jim-Yuen. After Jackie Chan graduated from China Drama Academy, Charles used all his savings to buy an apartment for Jackie Chan in Hong Kong.
In 1985, with the help of a friend from the Chinese Embassy in Australia, Charles found his two lost sons in China. Jackie Chan also connected with his half-brothers and half-sisters later.
Lily Chan passed away in 2002, and Charles passed away in 2008.
Source- Cinema Blend
