The Real Side of Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan's memoir is very honest

I have yet to read Jackie Chan's explosive memoir, Never Grow Up, but I don't want to.

He sounds like an absolute pig.

Part of it stems from not growing up with his family -- his father emigrated to Australia where he worked as a cook for the American Embassy. Chan wasn't a good student and so his parents took him out of the school system, and at the age of six sent to the China Drama Academy where he boarded and trained for 10 years in martial arts and acrobatics.

He reveals how much of a b***** he was to women

There the students had to train 18 hours a day from 5am, doing stretching, acrobatics, weapons training, acting and martial arts. In a 2008 interview, Chan recalled, "It was really arduous, we hardly had enough to eat, enough clothes to keep warm, training was extremely tiring, and Master could cane us anytime!"

As a result Chan didn't have much experience socializing with others, and in Never Grow Up he reveals his various relationships with women including prostitutes, but he treated them terribly. The best known story is how he cheated on his wife, Taiwanese actress Joan Lin by fooling around with beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi-lei and it resulted in the birth of his daughter Etta Ng.

She recently declared she is lesbian and married her Canadian girlfriend last week. Both biological parents did not congratulate her, nor does Chan mention her in his book.

He also recounts going on a date with singer Teresa Teng at a French restaurant. She daintily held a spoon while she ate her soup, while he picked up the bowl and slurped it down...

Chan with his Taiwanese wife actress Joan Lin

Aside from not being gentlemanly, Chan wasn't much of a good father in the beginning. One time he and Lin were having an argument and he picked up his toddler son Jaycee with one hand and threw him across the room, landing on the sofa. Chan recalls Lin being "terrified".

She said: "He's just a child. Why did you do that?" He apologized and said it would never happen again.

This lack of education may explain Chan's insecurities and his pursuit of wealth and fame. In the book he boasts about how much cash he carried around and always paid for his entourage's meals. He would also walk into stores and buy expensive watches to show off his wealth.

It's the usual story of nouveau riche people, and Chan let his wealth get to his head.

He writes that as a stuntman, "We all knew that if something went wrong we wouldn't live to see the sun rise the next day. We had a short term mentality which means recklessly spending our money."

He had an affair with Elaine Ng who gave birth to Etta (left)

In another part of the book Chan writes about being drunk all the time and crashed his Porsche in the morning and his Mercedes-Benz later that evening.

It's interesting the multimillionaire 64-year-old is being so frank about everything -- why did he do that or he was following someone's advice to come clean? It's a lot of information for the public to take in, a lot of it undesirable.

Chan lost his integrity several years ago when he began spouting pro-Beijing views that left a sour taste.

In 2009 during a panel discussion at the Boao Forum for Asia, Chan question whether or not freedom was a good thing. "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."

A few years later in 2012 he also criticized Hong Kong people for protesting too much.

Who is going to buy his book? Not people in Hong Kong that's for sure!

Jumping Good Fun

Jump has toured around the world, no translation needed

Just came back from watching a really fun show called Jump that combines martial arts with physical comedy.

It was performed at the Jockey Club auditorium in Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom and practically all the seats were filled. It's a relatively intimate space which is good for a show like this.

As the audience members were filing in, one of the cast members, an old man, shuffled around and gave candies to children, taunting some of them. Then he got a guy to piggy back him up onto the stage, which set the tone of the show...

An "old man" hands out candies to kids

There's no need to know Korean -- they spoke a mixture of Korean, English, Cantonese and Mandarin but everyone knew what was going on from the humour that was mostly physical. As a result kids were laughing all the way through the 90-minute show.

The basic storyline is about a family of top martial artists who are trained by the grandfather. There's the straight-man father, the rough-and-tumble mother, pretty daughter, drunk uncle and potential son-in-law.

A series of antics allow them to show off their skills and it's quickly evident they know their stuff. Then the grandfather introduces a suitor to his granddaughter and he isn't quite what he seems.

Then during the night two bumbling robbers enter the house and little do they know who the occupants of the home are...

There's fun sound effects to go with the fight scenes and particularly hilarious were the slow motion ones near the beginning of the show. Later on strobe lighting was also used to create a different kind of slow-motion sequence.

Each of the performers owned their own characters by creating their own moves to add a bit of personality, particularly the uncle, the suitor and one of the robbers with crazy hair.

Energetic music with a strong beat encouraged the audience to clap along and by the end they did a series of jumps, flips, and even handstands that were amazing.

He insists on everyone letting him pass by...

The concept for Jump began in 1999 and started as Crazy Family in 2001. Then the performers began to seriously train in acrobatics with a former coach of the Korean Women's National Gymnastics team.

Their first performance was in Japan in 2002 and soon afterwards the show was renamed Jump. Since 2005 it has toured around the world with over 10,000 performances seen by over 4 million people.

It's a pity the Chinese with its long acrobatic history, could not come up with a show like this. It's right up their alley, being the home of martial arts. There's Cirque de Soleil and now Jump. What about China combining all its talents into a money-making show like this? And even better -- a soft power initiative?

Jump has been here since June 18 and runs until Monday. This is the second time the show has come to Hong Kong and hopefully they will come back again soon. Good family fun, if not some hot bods to watch!

Jump

Jockey Club Auditorium, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hung Hom

June 18-23