How do people know what they want to be from a young age? With every day of the week, I had a different idea, from an astronaut or a detective to a pilot, designer or even a nun! Like most of my friends, I hadn’t a clue what destiny had in store for me, nor was I mature enough to plan for it – I just bounced around! I was overly active and had little sense of danger. I was at my worst after watching kung fu films with my dad, an avid fan of the genre. So, aged 10, I was enrolled in judo in the hope that it would channel my behaviour. It didn’t, but, by the time my parents realised this, I had caught the bug for active sports – I wanted to learn dance, gymnastics and further martial arts. I loved challenging myself with physical activities, and enjoyed performing my newfound skills for people.
In hindsight, I was setting myself up for what I’m doing now, working in a role that perfectly combines my love for martial arts and performing. But at the time, I still had little idea of what I wanted to do, so, when it came to enrolling in university, I chose a course along the lines of what my dad does as a profession: Information Technology. I also pursued a minor in dance, all the while keeping up with my martial arts by joining the university karate club.
On graduating, I still wasn’t sure what career I wanted to pursue, but knew that I loved to perform. I bought some time with a Masters Degree at NYU, and, two years later, knew with more certainty that my heart lay in entertainment. But I was lacking connections. My plan was: step one, win recognition in a beauty contest; step two, sign with an entertainment company; step three, become famous. Simple, right? Wrong!
To all those people out there aspiring to a career in entertainment, realise this: there is no formula, no system, no guarantee whatsoever on how to make it. I know this now, but at the time I only knew to work hard. I worked as an emcee, actor, singer, dancer, PR and even wrote and published a couple of books. I took any work I could find that would advance my standing in the industry. I got breaks, I got recognition, I got jobs that kept me going, but I never seemed to be able to “break out” in any way. My love of martial arts remained and I trained as often as I could, but that became less so as I added more work to my schedule.
So by now you may be thinking, “Why didn’t you push your martial arts skills with your acting?” Well, no one seemed to be wanting this skill. All the actresses who did play action roles in films or TV, in Hong Kong or China, didn’t really know martial arts. They were just doubled by stuntmen. The most popular, and well-paid, films were in the romance genre, and starred attractive young actresses, so that’s what I was aiming for instead.
This all changed after working with a certain director on a couple of projects. He discovered I had significant martial arts training and asked me why I wasn’t letting anyone know about this. He advised me to drop everything and concentrate on one thing and one thing only: becoming the best martial arts actress in the industry. This was totally counter intuitive for me. There was no work for martial arts actresses, and I was getting plenty of work doing a lot of everything else. But somehow, I trusted and followed his advice. I immediately upped my training, from an hour every other day, to about four to six hours a day, six days a week. I fought, I did forms, I did weapons, and then I fought some more. I quickly moved up the ranks, and made the Hong Kong Taekwondo team. After winning medals at international competitions, the sports press got wind of me and I began getting acting jobs that were action-related.
That’s when I noticed a shift. People in the action industry were noticing me, both in Hong Kong and abroad. A year after getting into the Hong Kong team and winning medals, I was invited to perform on TV, for which I showed off my nunchakus. The next day, the papers were calling me “the female Bruce Lee,” which scared the hell out of me! But the moniker stuck.
From there, I only wanted to get better. I was recruited by one of the top pro Thai boxing teams in Hong Kong and trained to fight for them. I fought, won some and lost some, but I was finally put into a televised fight for which I won my first championship belt in front of a large crowd with all the Hong Kong sports press present. That’s when I finally got my big Hollywood break on Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny. The rest is history.
And that director who years back gave me that crazy advice to give up everything to chase one dream? He’s now my teacher, trainer, cook, manager, cheerleader, lover, psychologist, punching bag, and, most importantly, husband.
Photography: Sheldon Schwartz @ Mad Minds HK
Hair: BRUNEBLONDE
Make-up: Faye Chow
Editor
JuJu Chan SzetoCredit
Lead image: Sheldon Schwartz @ Mad Minds HK
