Charles Chan
Encyclopedia
Charles Chan and Lee-Lee Chan (1916–2002) were the parents of actor/director Jackie Chan
and the grandparents of actor/singer/composer, Jaycee Chan
. Due to being the father of Jackie Chan, Charles has made cameos in some of Chan's films such as Police Story 2
and also starred in his own film once made by a company trying to advertise it as a Jackie Chan film.
: Chan Chi-Peng, Pinyin
: Chén Zhìpíng) was born in 1914 in Shandong
, China
as Fong Dao-Long (or Fong Dou-Loong) (Chinese: 房道龍, Mandarin: Fáng Dàolóng).
Charles moved to Anhui
province when he was nine, then later moved to Wuhu and then Nanjing
(Nanking), China. He lived in Nanjing until he was 15.
His father, Fang Zhengwen (Mandarin Pinyin), taught him martial arts at a very young age, and when he was 16, he learned the Xiahong boxing style from Master Zhang in Shanghai
finishing when he was 19. Master Zhang's wife was primarily responsible for training Charles in this style of martial arts and according to Charles, she was exceptionally agile and could kick very high even though her feet were bound
.
According to the film documentary, the reason he was sent to Shanghai was because Charles did not finish primary school. His father claimed he was too unruly in class and that he should learn a trade through an apprenticeship
. He was sent to his father's friend in Shanghai and became an apprentice at a drapery factory and finished his apprenticeship at the age of 20.
at the age of 20. His grandfather was a good friend of Chinese National Revolutionary Army
General Ku Chu-tung (Gu Zhutong
, Chinese: 顧祝同) and after displaying his martial arts skills, Charles became General Gu's orderly which was similar to being a personal guard according to Charles. General Gu later became Chief of Staff to General Chiang Kai-Shek
.
General Gu had many armed guards and Charles was also given a rifle of his own. He lost his job as an orderly when he accidentally pulled the trigger of his automatic rifle which startled him causing him to drop it. The rifle continued to fire rounds as it spun on the ground.
Charles returned home and eventually found employment on a Mitsubishi
cargo ship in Wuhan
.
, said that he and the other six workers in his group, upon witnessing another execution, became like zombies.
broke out in July 1937. Soon, under the pretext of creating a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
", the Japanese Imperial Army launched an all-out invasion of South-East Asia, but their primary target was always China .
Through political connections, a relative of Charles pleaded with the Japanese authorities to release him from prison. Of the seven workers, only five came out alive, among them was Charles. Deciding to quit his job on the cargo ship, Charles returned to General Gu, who was Dai Li
's boss, to ask for help. This time, General Gu got Charles a job in the Intelligence Bureau of the Administration Office as a Secret Agent of the First War Zone. According to Charles, the Nationalist Government was corrupt and currency became less and less usable as even the price of a stick of fried bread sky-rocketed into extremely unreasonable prices.
Charles then led his entire unit of 38 men to the headquarters in Shanghai where they all intended to formally hand in their resignations. However, being the leader of this unit made him the target of two assassination attempts, one of which occurred on the way to the headquarters in Shanghai. While descending down some stairs, someone shouted that he had too much power and shot him. The bullet went through the upper calf of his leg. Later, after Dai Li was assassinated, someone shot Charles from behind and this time the bullet took off a piece of his scalp near the crown of his head. Charles expressed that he believes it was Communists who tried to kill him as he was a Nationalist.
In the meantime, the Japanese Army were taking the coastal cities of China with overwhelming force causing the Chinese population to continually move further and further inland. Charles fled to Anhui
, but it was too devastated from the Japanese air raids for him to stay. Both of his parents and his sister were killed in these air raids. He then fled to Chongqing
(Chungking), but returned three or four months later. Living alone among the ruins in Anhui, he met his first wife and they had two sons, Fang Shide (房仕德) and Fang Shisheng (房仕勝). Eventually, they moved to Wuhu.
When the older son, Shide, was seven, and the younger son, Shisheng, was two, Charles' wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer
and was bed-ridden for three years while in constant pain. Opium, when it could be smuggled undetected by authorities, was often used as a pain-killer, but Charles did not know how to prepare it and hired someone for this task. This caused him to eventually go bankrupt
. His first wife died of her illness in 1947.
As the Communists and Nationalists clashed, the Chinese Civil War
broke out and the Communists eventually won. In the meantime, due to Charles having been a former Secret Agent for the Nationalists, his life was in danger and he felt he had no other choice but to leave his two young sons behind and flee Wuhu. Charles left without telling them good-bye or where he was going. After dodging Communists, he ended up in Shanghai
at the age of 29. According to his two sons, when they woke up the next morning, their father was simply gone. Without parents, a policeman found them and the two sons were taken care of secretly by Charles' friends. These friends feared that if they were discovered to be helping the sons of a former Nationalist Secret Agent, they could be arrested by the Communists. Charles expressed that from that day until the day he met them again in 1985, he worried about his sons and wondered if they were still alive.
. Family members, including his grandson Jaycee Chan
were at his bedside. His son Jackie was unable to be there due to filming commitments, but he was with his father during the Chinese New Year
period and said on his website that he knew that might be the last time he saw his father.
Charles Chan was interred next to his wife in the Gungahlin
Cemetery in Canberra
on March 8, 2008. Jackie Chan
, the US ambassador Robert McCallum and former ACT chief minister
s Kate Carnell
and Gary Humphries
were in attendance.
Without her husband's income, Lee-Lee's mother-in-law wanted her to be sold to a store owner to have money for her daughters. Despite her arguments and refusal to be sold, it was already in the process of being arranged, so in desperation, she took her daughters to her mother's house to live. Soon afterwards, Wuhan was invaded by Japanese soldiers who, according to Yulan, would rape any woman they caught.
Lee-Lee left Wuhan not only for the fear of being raped, but for lack of money, went to Shanghai at the age of 29 and at the train station, she told her daughters that she would be back. According to Guilan, she told this lie so that they would not feel sad. Yulan, at 12 years old, had to work in a child labor factory to help her grandmother to care for herself and her sister.
Lee-Lee turned to gambling, successfully. She won so many times, that all over Shanghai, she was known as "Big Sister" and was treated with utmost respect. However, her luck eventually changed and she resorted to pawning all of her jewelry and clothes. Meanwhile she and Charles had become great friends, and when he found out about her pawning her belongings, he got them all back for her. He also belonged to a street gang called the "Shandong Gang". Lee-Lee never gambled again, but her friendship with Charles grew stronger.
By studying English, Lee-Lee found employment as a maid in a foreigner's home and worked extremely hard.
, Australia
aged around 85 and was buried in the Gungahlin
Cemetery.
was founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong
. Many Nationalists fled to Taiwan
or Hong Kong
. Charles, in order to further hide from the Communists, changed his name from Fang Daolong to Chan Zhiping, the surname Chan was much more common and was also Lee-Lee's surname, and he joined the exodus to Hong Kong. Lee-Lee arrived in Hong Kong a couple of years later in 1951.
A friend of Charles found him employment at the French Consulate in Hong Kong
. Charles did not know how to cook at that time, and became an odd job man; doing things from cleaning to gardening. After a while of physical labor with little pay, he asked to be taught how to cook. Charles became a chef at the French Embassy which earned him a higher salary. Charles and Lee Lee had since found each other in Hong Kong and on April 7, 1954, they had a son named, Kong-sang Chan (which means, "born in Hong Kong" Chan), better known as Jackie Chan.
The family of three lived in the servants quarters of the French Embassy. Lee-Lee had found employment there as a maid. According to countless sources, Jackie was a mischievous child who did not like school. At the age of 7, he was enrolled for the maximum 10 years at the China Drama Academy
under the cruel Dickensian head teacher, Master Yu Jim-Yuen
where he learned the skills of Chinese Opera
such as martial arts, acrobatics, singing and dancing with very little emphasis on academics.
The 1960s were still financially challenging in Hong Kong and when Charles had the opportunity to leave there with Charles Greene, the Marshall of the French Embassy, to become a chef at the US Embassy in Australia, he did not hesitate to take the new position. After he had earned enough money for an airline ticket for Lee-Lee, he sent for her which meant that after she joined him Australia and also found employment at the US Embassy as a maid, Jackie was left in the care of Master Yu Jim-Yuen.
After Jackie graduated from the China Drama Academy, Charles bought him an apartment in Hong Kong. According to Charles, it cost he and Lee-Lee all of their savings plus tips. When Jackie learned of this, his resentment towards his parents for leaving him behind in Hong Kong disappeared as he realized they were working so hard for their son and his future.
In 1985, through the help of a friend who worked at the Chinese Embassy in Australia, who was also from Shandong, China, Charles found his two sons in China. They were living in Wuhan in Anhui province. Their reunion took place in Guangzhou
, China and the sons cried upon seeing their father again and they said that they had suffered a lot. The older son, Shide, is a postman, and the younger son, Shisheng, works on a pig farm.
Charles visited his two sons and their families in Anhui as often as he was able to (at 89 years old in 2005) and he has re-established his position as the patriarch of the Fang family and provided money to renovate the ancestral hall there. He also updated the genealogy by adding Jackie's real name into the records as 房仕龍 (Fáng Shìlóng or Fong Si Lung). The entire Fang clan has been re-connected.
Jackie, at the time Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and his Lost Family was made, had still not met his half brothers, his father's sons, but he has met his half sisters, Lee-Lee's daughters as they would often visit their mother in Australia as did Jackie when his parents used to live there.
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
and the grandparents of actor/singer/composer, Jaycee Chan
Jaycee Chan
Jaycee Chan Jo-Ming is a Hong Kong actor and singer. In 2004, he released his first Mandarin CD album in Hong Kong. He is currently based in Taiwan to continue his music career.-Biography:...
. Due to being the father of Jackie Chan, Charles has made cameos in some of Chan's films such as Police Story 2
Police Story 2
Police Story 2 is a 1988 Hong Kong martial arts action comedy film directed by and starring Jackie Chan...
and also starred in his own film once made by a company trying to advertise it as a Jackie Chan film.
Early life
Charles Chan (陳志平) (CantoneseStandard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
: Chan Chi-Peng, Pinyin
Pinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: Chén Zhìpíng) was born in 1914 in Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
as Fong Dao-Long (or Fong Dou-Loong) (Chinese: 房道龍, Mandarin: Fáng Dàolóng).
Charles moved to Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
province when he was nine, then later moved to Wuhu and then Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
(Nanking), China. He lived in Nanjing until he was 15.
His father, Fang Zhengwen (Mandarin Pinyin), taught him martial arts at a very young age, and when he was 16, he learned the Xiahong boxing style from Master Zhang in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
finishing when he was 19. Master Zhang's wife was primarily responsible for training Charles in this style of martial arts and according to Charles, she was exceptionally agile and could kick very high even though her feet were bound
Foot binding
Foot binding was the custom of binding the feet of young girls painfully tight to prevent further growth. The practice probably originated among court dancers in the early Song dynasty, but spread to upper class families and eventually became common among all classes. The tiny narrow feet were...
.
According to the film documentary, the reason he was sent to Shanghai was because Charles did not finish primary school. His father claimed he was too unruly in class and that he should learn a trade through an apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
. He was sent to his father's friend in Shanghai and became an apprentice at a drapery factory and finished his apprenticeship at the age of 20.
Nationalist guard
According to Charles' father, he still needed discipline when Charles returned to NanjingNanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
at the age of 20. His grandfather was a good friend of Chinese National Revolutionary Army
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
General Ku Chu-tung (Gu Zhutong
Gu Zhutong
Gu Zhutong courtesy name: Moshan , was a Chinese military general and administrator of the Republic of China.-Early life and career:...
, Chinese: 顧祝同) and after displaying his martial arts skills, Charles became General Gu's orderly which was similar to being a personal guard according to Charles. General Gu later became Chief of Staff to General Chiang Kai-Shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
.
General Gu had many armed guards and Charles was also given a rifle of his own. He lost his job as an orderly when he accidentally pulled the trigger of his automatic rifle which startled him causing him to drop it. The rifle continued to fire rounds as it spun on the ground.
Charles returned home and eventually found employment on a Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi
The Mitsubishi Group , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese multinational conglomerate company that consists of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
cargo ship in Wuhan
Wuhan
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People's Republic of China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies at the east of the Jianghan Plain, and the intersection of the middle reaches of the Yangtze and Han rivers...
.
Mitsubishi
Of the seven general maintenance workers in his group, he became the leader. This group of seven also openly traded merchandise without official permits. Linen was especially very expensive in Nanjing, so they bought the linen in Wuhu and shipped it to Nanjing. Once the linen was in Nanjing, it was traded for salt. According to Charles, when Japanese workers arrived in Nanjing to seek employment, they felt they were not given any benefits and accused Charles and his group of smuggling and they were arrested by Japanese authorities. Upon the fourth day of their imprisonment, he and his group had their hands tied behind their backs and were taken to witness an execution. What they saw caused them to literally faint, lose their appetites and experience restless sleep. One week later, they were taken again to witness another execution. Charles, while recalling this horrific experience in the film documentary, Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and his Lost FamilyTraces of a Dragon
Traces of a Dragon is a 2003 documentary film directed by Mabel Cheung. The film explores the touching and history-filled background of Jackie Chan as we have never seen him before.-Overview:...
, said that he and the other six workers in his group, upon witnessing another execution, became like zombies.
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese WarSecond Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
broke out in July 1937. Soon, under the pretext of creating a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
", the Japanese Imperial Army launched an all-out invasion of South-East Asia, but their primary target was always China .
Through political connections, a relative of Charles pleaded with the Japanese authorities to release him from prison. Of the seven workers, only five came out alive, among them was Charles. Deciding to quit his job on the cargo ship, Charles returned to General Gu, who was Dai Li
Dai Li
Major General Dai Li was born Dai Chunfeng with the courtesy name of Yunong in Baoan, Jiangshan, Zhejiang, China. He studied at the Whampoa Military Academy, where Chiang served as Chief Commandant, and later became head of Chiang's Military Intelligence Service.-Early life:At age four, his...
's boss, to ask for help. This time, General Gu got Charles a job in the Intelligence Bureau of the Administration Office as a Secret Agent of the First War Zone. According to Charles, the Nationalist Government was corrupt and currency became less and less usable as even the price of a stick of fried bread sky-rocketed into extremely unreasonable prices.
Charles then led his entire unit of 38 men to the headquarters in Shanghai where they all intended to formally hand in their resignations. However, being the leader of this unit made him the target of two assassination attempts, one of which occurred on the way to the headquarters in Shanghai. While descending down some stairs, someone shouted that he had too much power and shot him. The bullet went through the upper calf of his leg. Later, after Dai Li was assassinated, someone shot Charles from behind and this time the bullet took off a piece of his scalp near the crown of his head. Charles expressed that he believes it was Communists who tried to kill him as he was a Nationalist.
In the meantime, the Japanese Army were taking the coastal cities of China with overwhelming force causing the Chinese population to continually move further and further inland. Charles fled to Anhui
Anhui
Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...
, but it was too devastated from the Japanese air raids for him to stay. Both of his parents and his sister were killed in these air raids. He then fled to Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
(Chungking), but returned three or four months later. Living alone among the ruins in Anhui, he met his first wife and they had two sons, Fang Shide (房仕德) and Fang Shisheng (房仕勝). Eventually, they moved to Wuhu.
When the older son, Shide, was seven, and the younger son, Shisheng, was two, Charles' wife was diagnosed with cervical cancer
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
and was bed-ridden for three years while in constant pain. Opium, when it could be smuggled undetected by authorities, was often used as a pain-killer, but Charles did not know how to prepare it and hired someone for this task. This caused him to eventually go bankrupt
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. His first wife died of her illness in 1947.
As the Communists and Nationalists clashed, the Chinese Civil War
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was a civil war fought between the Kuomintang , the governing party of the Republic of China, and the Communist Party of China , for the control of China which eventually led to China's division into two Chinas, Republic of China and People's Republic of...
broke out and the Communists eventually won. In the meantime, due to Charles having been a former Secret Agent for the Nationalists, his life was in danger and he felt he had no other choice but to leave his two young sons behind and flee Wuhu. Charles left without telling them good-bye or where he was going. After dodging Communists, he ended up in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
at the age of 29. According to his two sons, when they woke up the next morning, their father was simply gone. Without parents, a policeman found them and the two sons were taken care of secretly by Charles' friends. These friends feared that if they were discovered to be helping the sons of a former Nationalist Secret Agent, they could be arrested by the Communists. Charles expressed that from that day until the day he met them again in 1985, he worried about his sons and wondered if they were still alive.
Death
Charles Chan died at the age of 93 on February 25, 2008 in Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Family members, including his grandson Jaycee Chan
Jaycee Chan
Jaycee Chan Jo-Ming is a Hong Kong actor and singer. In 2004, he released his first Mandarin CD album in Hong Kong. He is currently based in Taiwan to continue his music career.-Biography:...
were at his bedside. His son Jackie was unable to be there due to filming commitments, but he was with his father during the Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year – often called Chinese Lunar New Year although it actually is lunisolar – is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is an all East and South-East-Asia celebration...
period and said on his website that he knew that might be the last time he saw his father.
Charles Chan was interred next to his wife in the Gungahlin
Gungahlin
Gungahlin is a name of a district and the northernmost town centre of Canberra, Australia. Gungahlin is situated 10 km north of Canberra's city centre and is one of five satellites of Canberra including Woden, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Belconnen. Currently Gungahlin comprises 11 suburbs,...
Cemetery in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
on March 8, 2008. Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan, SBS, MBE is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, director, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts...
, the US ambassador Robert McCallum and former ACT chief minister
Chief Minister
A Chief Minister is the elected head of government of a sub-national state, provinces of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, notably a state of India, a territory of Australia or a British Overseas Territory that has attained self-government...
s Kate Carnell
Kate Carnell
Anne Katherine Carnell AO was the third Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving from 1995 to 2000. She is currently Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.-Pharmacy career:...
and Gary Humphries
Gary Humphries
Gary John Joseph Humphries has been a member of the Australian Senate representing the Australian Capital Territory for the Liberal Party of Australia since 2003...
were in attendance.
Early life
Lee-Lee Chan (陳莉莉), born as 陳月榮 (Chén Yuèróng), also known as Lily Chan, was born circa 1916. Lee-Lee's parents owned a grocery store and her first husband worked as a shoe-maker, then later worked at a railroad station. Her first husband was killed from bombs from Japanese air raids in Wuhan and at the age of 28, she was left to single-handedly raise her two daughters, Yulan (who was 12 years old when her father died) and Guilan (four at the time).Without her husband's income, Lee-Lee's mother-in-law wanted her to be sold to a store owner to have money for her daughters. Despite her arguments and refusal to be sold, it was already in the process of being arranged, so in desperation, she took her daughters to her mother's house to live. Soon afterwards, Wuhan was invaded by Japanese soldiers who, according to Yulan, would rape any woman they caught.
Lee-Lee left Wuhan not only for the fear of being raped, but for lack of money, went to Shanghai at the age of 29 and at the train station, she told her daughters that she would be back. According to Guilan, she told this lie so that they would not feel sad. Yulan, at 12 years old, had to work in a child labor factory to help her grandmother to care for herself and her sister.
Shanghai
While in Shanghai, Lee-Lee heard that trafficking opium was lucrative, so she took a risk and bought some opium. That day, the port was under inspection and the officer in charge of inspecting every passenger was Charles who found the opium Lee-Lee was concealing. He confiscated it and was about to arrest her however, he took pity on her when he noticed the blue flower in her hair. According to the autobiography,I Am Jackie Chan; My Life in Action, during the war in China, a white flower in one's hair signified that one had lost their parents, a blue flower meant that they lost their children and/or husband. Charles asked Lee-Lee about her situation and on hearing it, he let her go, returning the opium back to her.Lee-Lee turned to gambling, successfully. She won so many times, that all over Shanghai, she was known as "Big Sister" and was treated with utmost respect. However, her luck eventually changed and she resorted to pawning all of her jewelry and clothes. Meanwhile she and Charles had become great friends, and when he found out about her pawning her belongings, he got them all back for her. He also belonged to a street gang called the "Shandong Gang". Lee-Lee never gambled again, but her friendship with Charles grew stronger.
By studying English, Lee-Lee found employment as a maid in a foreigner's home and worked extremely hard.
Death
Lee-Lee Chan died on February 28, 2002, in CanberraCanberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
aged around 85 and was buried in the Gungahlin
Gungahlin
Gungahlin is a name of a district and the northernmost town centre of Canberra, Australia. Gungahlin is situated 10 km north of Canberra's city centre and is one of five satellites of Canberra including Woden, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Belconnen. Currently Gungahlin comprises 11 suburbs,...
Cemetery.
Flight from China
The People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
was founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. Many Nationalists fled to Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
or Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Charles, in order to further hide from the Communists, changed his name from Fang Daolong to Chan Zhiping, the surname Chan was much more common and was also Lee-Lee's surname, and he joined the exodus to Hong Kong. Lee-Lee arrived in Hong Kong a couple of years later in 1951.
A friend of Charles found him employment at the French Consulate in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
. Charles did not know how to cook at that time, and became an odd job man; doing things from cleaning to gardening. After a while of physical labor with little pay, he asked to be taught how to cook. Charles became a chef at the French Embassy which earned him a higher salary. Charles and Lee Lee had since found each other in Hong Kong and on April 7, 1954, they had a son named, Kong-sang Chan (which means, "born in Hong Kong" Chan), better known as Jackie Chan.
The family of three lived in the servants quarters of the French Embassy. Lee-Lee had found employment there as a maid. According to countless sources, Jackie was a mischievous child who did not like school. At the age of 7, he was enrolled for the maximum 10 years at the China Drama Academy
Peking Opera School
The Peking Opera Schools were boarding schools located throughout Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, specialising in teaching Peking opera...
under the cruel Dickensian head teacher, Master Yu Jim-Yuen
Yu Jim Yuen
Yu Jim-yuen was the master of the China Drama Academy, one of the main Peking Opera Schools in Hong Kong from which Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Qiu, Yuen Wah, and Corey Yuen received their training...
where he learned the skills of Chinese Opera
Chinese opera
Chinese opera is a popular form of drama and musical theatre in China with roots going back as far as the third century CE...
such as martial arts, acrobatics, singing and dancing with very little emphasis on academics.
The 1960s were still financially challenging in Hong Kong and when Charles had the opportunity to leave there with Charles Greene, the Marshall of the French Embassy, to become a chef at the US Embassy in Australia, he did not hesitate to take the new position. After he had earned enough money for an airline ticket for Lee-Lee, he sent for her which meant that after she joined him Australia and also found employment at the US Embassy as a maid, Jackie was left in the care of Master Yu Jim-Yuen.
After Jackie graduated from the China Drama Academy, Charles bought him an apartment in Hong Kong. According to Charles, it cost he and Lee-Lee all of their savings plus tips. When Jackie learned of this, his resentment towards his parents for leaving him behind in Hong Kong disappeared as he realized they were working so hard for their son and his future.
In 1985, through the help of a friend who worked at the Chinese Embassy in Australia, who was also from Shandong, China, Charles found his two sons in China. They were living in Wuhan in Anhui province. Their reunion took place in Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
, China and the sons cried upon seeing their father again and they said that they had suffered a lot. The older son, Shide, is a postman, and the younger son, Shisheng, works on a pig farm.
Charles visited his two sons and their families in Anhui as often as he was able to (at 89 years old in 2005) and he has re-established his position as the patriarch of the Fang family and provided money to renovate the ancestral hall there. He also updated the genealogy by adding Jackie's real name into the records as 房仕龍 (Fáng Shìlóng or Fong Si Lung). The entire Fang clan has been re-connected.
Jackie, at the time Traces of a Dragon: Jackie Chan and his Lost Family was made, had still not met his half brothers, his father's sons, but he has met his half sisters, Lee-Lee's daughters as they would often visit their mother in Australia as did Jackie when his parents used to live there.