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Jackie Chan
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Vivienne Chow
Vivienne Chow

Opinion | Why hypocritical Jackie Chan’s empty confessions deserve no sympathy

  • Yes, the actor had a painful childhood, but why has he visited on his own daughter the abandonment and trauma he experienced then?
  • Worst of all in Hongkongers’ eyes is his rejection of the city’s core values as he bends over backwards to embrace Beijing’s ‘patriotic’ agenda

Reading Time:3 minutes
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Jackie Chan’s worst offence, commentator Vivienne Chow writes, is his failure to acknowledge or support Etta Ng (left), the illegitimate daughter he fathered with actress Elaine Ng (right). He does not name either of them in his memoir Never Grow Up. Photo: courtesy of Weibo
Vivienne Chow

Jackie Chan might be the most famous Chinese person alive, playing the righteous action hero fighting villains in countless films that have put Hong Kong on the world map.

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But the actor’s changing political stances and his failure to stand up for the interests of the city that brought him fame and fortune make him a hypocrite in the eyes of many Hongkongers.

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Worst of all is Chan’s decision to feed children he doesn’t know, through his donations to Unicef, instead of providing for his estranged daughter Etta Ng Chok-lam. He has forced her to inherit the abandonment and trauma he experienced during his own childhood, which he outlines in his latest memoir, Never Grow Up .

Chan makes many honest confessions in the memoir – which was first published in Chinese in 2015 – and describes a quite painful childhood: he was removed from formal education at a young age and sent to the China Drama Academy, a boarding school where he faced strict discipline and physical punishment.

Jackie Chan arrives at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, to which he was appointed in 2013. Photo: Simon Song
Jackie Chan arrives at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing for a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, to which he was appointed in 2013. Photo: Simon Song
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He also admits many failings, such as excessive drinking and drink driving, visiting prostitutes and gambling, as well as physically abusing the son he had with his wife, Taiwanese actress Joan Lin Feng-jiao.

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