“I slept on the streets, broke my bones, and they called me a fool… but I never stopped trying.”
When I was born, my parents didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. They nicknamed me “Chan Kong-sang”—born in Hong Kong. What they didn’t know was that my life would become a movie… and not always a comedy.
My parents were so poor, they almost sold me as a baby. At age 7, I was sent to a Chinese opera school that felt more like a prison than a classroom. There were no beds—just hard floors. Discipline came in the form of sticks.
I spent more than ten years locked away, training 19 hours a day. I learned to sing, act, and do acrobatics, but above all, I learned to endure pain. I broke my nose, fingers, ankle… once, I fell off a building and nearly died. But I never said “I can’t.” While everyone dreamed of being a star, I just wanted to survive by doing what I loved. Every fall became a chance to prove I was stronger than yesterday.
When I finally started acting, everyone said I was just a cheap Bruce Lee knockoff. They mocked me for being short, for my funny face, for mixing comedy with martial arts. But that was me. That was Jackie Chan.
I worked as a stuntman for almost nothing, risking my life while others took home the awards. Hollywood slammed the door in my face more than ten times… but I kept smiling. Because every time I fell, I’d get up with a somersault!
“If you ever fall so hard you don’t know how to keep going… remember: bones heal, but giving up leaves scars you can’t see.”
– Jackie Chan
