Showing results by narrator "Daxing Zhang"

Everyone knows Jackie Chan. Whether it’s from Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, The Karate Kid, or Kung Fu Panda, Jackie is admired by generations of moviegoers for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and mind-bending stunts. In Never Grow Up, the global superstar reflects on his early life, including his childhood years at the China Drama Academy (in which he was enrolled at the age of six), his big breaks (and setbacks) in Hong Kong and Hollywood, his numerous brushes with death (both on and off film sets), and his life as a husband and father.

I Am Jackie Chan is the fascinating, harrowing, ultimately triumphant story of his life: How the rebellious son of refugees in tumultuous 1950s Hong Kong became the disciplined disciple of a Chinese Opera Master. How the "paradise" that young Jackie so eagerly embraced proved to be, in reality, a ruthlessly competitive place. How the dying art of Chinese opera led Jackie to the movie business-and how he made the leap from stunt man to superstar.

Growing up in rural China during Mao's Cultural Revolution, Da Chen was part Horatio Alger, part Holden Caulfeld, befriending both a gang of young thugs, as well as an elegant, older Chinese woman who teaches him English - and opens the door to a new life. Chen's remarkable story of triumph is filled with the universal qualities that distinguish the very best memoirs as it masterfully recounts the concerns of childhood that transcend both time and place.