How are famous Chinese Kung-fu stars made?

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Hong Kong action films like those starring Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee are so popular around the world; they are known as among the best of Chinese cinema.

“In Africa, even the people who know nothing about China know about Chinese Kung-fu,” said Trix Ingado, An African journalist of KTN news, suggesting that is the power of the representation of Chinese Kung-fu.

The film industry in Hong Kong should take the credit for such a great success in spreading the charm of Chinese Kung-fu. But Sam Ho, a Chinese-American curator, and film researcher offered a perspective little known and thought about by the audience, not everyone good at the Chinese Kung-fu can be a Kung-fu star, it is Chinese values and Chinese habits that can cultivate a Kung-fu star.

“Jackie Chan was not trained to be a fighter, he was trained to be an opera player, that's why Jackie Chan is such a great star, because he was trained to move to music, he was trained to make fighting looks good,” Ho said.

He offered another example of another great Kung-fu star Bruce Lee, whose father was a Cantonese opera star, so he grew up while acting.

Besides opera, Bruce Lee's love for dance and music also honed his talent for animated larger-than-life Kung-fu scenes. Bruce Lee was a one time champion of the Latin dance, cha-cha, in Hong Kong.

So what really sets apart Hong Kong flicks is how filmmakers managed to blend the Western style of storytelling with the Chinese values, as Mr. Ho concluded.

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