Mega-Star of Kungfu
One of the world's most popular action movie stars alongside the
likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, 53, is a hero for a generation on
the Chinese mainland who grew up watching his films.
Born to the family of a cook and a housekeeper in Hong Kong,
Chan's father was his first kungfu teacher. He believed that
learning kungfu would help build his boy's character, and teaching
him patience, strength and courage. When Chan was seven years old
his father took a job in Australia. The parents left Chan behind in
Hong Kong and enrolled him in the China Drama Academy where Chan
lived for the next 10 years training in martial arts, dance,
acrobatics, singing and comedy.
In Chan's biography, he looked back on this period of his life
with considerable affection despite the extraordinary hardships,
including regular beatings and near-starvation. In the academy, he
not only learned the skills of his profession but also built a
network of friends, which would sustain his film career for
decades.
Starting as a stuntman and an extra in the Hong Kong film
industry in his teenage years, Chan has earned the respect of his
fans by committing himself wholeheartedly to creating the most
death-defying stunts possible. His daring feats have secured him a
place in movie audiences' hearts and at the box office.
Since Chan was appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador by UN
Children's Fund and Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS in
2004, he has spent a lot of his spare time on charity work.
Best Wuxia Author
Louis Leung-yung Cha, known to the most by his penname Jin Yong, is
the top writer in wuxia, literally translated as martial arts and
chivalry, a genre particular to Chinese culture. It is a unique
blend of the martial arts philosophy of xia, a chivalrous man or
woman, developed down the centuries, and the country's long history
in wushu.
Cha's fiction has a widespread following in Chinese-speaking
areas, including the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and
Southeast Asia. His 15 novels and short fictions-composed between
1955 and 1972-made him the best-selling Chinese author alive. Over
300 million copies of his works have been sold worldwide; more than
1 billion if one includes bootleg copies.
All of his novels have since been adapted into films, TV series
and radio series in Hong Kong, Taiwan and on the Chinese mainland.
The important characters in his novels are so well known to the
public that they can be alluded to with ease between all three
regions. In addition, the study of his work has created an
independent branch of study called Jinology.
A native of Zhejiang Province in east China, Cha is the second
of seven children from an illustrious family of scholars; his
grandfather achieved remarkable success at the imperial
examination. Cha was an avid reader of literature from an early
age, especially of wuxia fiction, which provided him with a strong
background for the ample dose of cultural and historical context in
his future fictions.
Stock Market Iron Lady
Laura Cha was appointed by the Central Government as vice
chairwoman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) in
early 2001 and served in the post until 2004. She was the first
person outside the mainland to join the Chinese Government at the
vice-ministerial rank.
Her efforts were focused on improving the corporate governance
of Chinese listed companies and the process of public issuance of
shares in China. She is currently the vice chairwoman of the
International Advisory Council of the CSRC.
Before joining CSRC, Laura Cha spent 10 years with Hong Kong's
capital markets regulator, the Securities and Futures Commission,
and was appointed deputy chairwoman in 1998.
On her appointment, her public service experience in regulating
Hong Kong's capital market was highly valued, and helped her to
rein in the emerging market on the Chinese mainland.
Cha believes that China's economic reforms and expansion into
new markets will dramatically improve China's capital markets while
at the same time aligning them with international standards. She
has cited several driving forces for capital market development in
China: a new economic growth model, the rapid growth of the private
sector, the pressing need for pension reform, remarkable investor
demand and China's entry into the WTO in 2001.
During her extended term, she has embarked on initiatives
including regulating the behavior of controlling shareholders,
setting up an independent director's system, strengthening
information dissemination, promulgating a code of corporate
governance for listed companies in China and facilitating reforms
of the legal and accounting systems.
