Jackie Chan co-authors the autobiography, Jackie Chan: Grown Old Before Grown Up with Zhu Mo. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong martial artist and movie star, released a second autobiography on April 7, his 61st birthday.
The book, Jackie Chan: Grown Old Before Grown Up, sees Chan taking a look back at his 40 years in the movie business and sharing personal stories about family and friends.
His first English autobiography, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, was published in 1999 and recounts his career development for a Western audience, who first discovered Chan in 1998, when he starred in his first Hollywood blockbuster－Rush Hour.
The new book in Chinese reads more like a heart-to-heart talk with Chan's friends.
"When Chan Kong-sang (Chan's birth name) became Jackie Chan is not important anymore," says Chan in a promotional video for the new book.
"What's important is that I've turned from a hot-blooded youngster to a man witnessing the bittersweetness of life, peacefully."
Besides revealing the stories behind the many death-defying stunts he carried out in his movies, Chan recounts many of his early romances. The ambiguous relationship with the late Taiwan pop singer Teresa Teng around 1980 is probably one of the bittersweet memories that Chan savors the most.
It was during the shooting of The Big Brawl in the United States in 1979, that Chan first met Teng. At the time, Teng was experiencing a career low and had moved to California. Chan, though popular in Asia, was also lesser-known in Hollywood.
They got to know each other by chance, and later went out together frequently. "It was the happiest time that I spent during my first stay in the US. We studied English together, went for walks on the beach and dined in Chinese restaurants in China Town," recalls Chan in the book. "Those days were a lot of fun, but I don't known if that could be called a relationship."
