Kungfu film star Jackie Chan exposed his parents' life experiences for the first time on a TV show, Xinmin Evening News reported today.

 

 

Chan said he always thought he was an only child, until one day his father told him that he has two sisters and two brothers.

 

Chan said his parents were very poor and both lost their spouses during the war before they met each other.

 

His mother used to deliver opium and his father was a customs police officer. One day, his mother was caught at customs while transporting opium, but his father set her free after seeing her carrying two children. Later, they fell in love.

 

At that time, his mother had two daughters and his father had two sons.

 

His father said Chan's real name is Fang Shilong, which is written on their family certificates. But his father changed their surname to "Chan" because he didn't want to reveal their real surname while they were fleeing the poor situation.

 

Jackie Chan is the talented actor's stage name.

 

Chan said he was about 6 years old when his parents went to Australia to earn money. So he fell into some bad habits without his parents' care, like fighting, selling drugs, racing and theft.

 

"When I was 16, my father said he could not longer instruct me because I had already grown up, but he made me promise him three things: not to enter the underworld, not to take drugs and not to gamble," Chan said, "I promised him even though I was doing those things at that time."

 

A few years later, when Chan found out what had happened to two men he used to hang around with, one was dead and the other got life imprisonment, he realized his father's words were right all along.

 

(China Daily September 14, 2006)