Jet Li

Jet Li Lianjie (also known by his courtesy name Yangzhong) was born on 26 April 1963 and works as a martial artist, actor, and philanthropist. His career has lasted over four decades, and he is widely considered one of China’s greatest film stars and one of cinema’s top martial artists. In Asia, his work is credited with bringing new life to Hong Kong kung fu films and to the Shaolin Temple itself.

Li trained in wushu at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School and competed with the Beijing Wushu Team, winning multiple national championships from 1974 to 1979. After retiring from competition in 1979, he made his acting debut in the Hong Kong film *Shaolin Temple* (1982), which became a major success and led to two sequels in 1984 and 1986. He became a leading action star through the *Once Upon a Time in China* series (1991–1993), where he played the folk hero Wong Fei-hung. Other notable Asian films include *Born to Defence* (1988), his directorial debut; *Swordsman II* (1992); *Fong Sai-yuk* (1993); *Fist of Legend* (1994); *High Risk* (1995); *Black Mask* (1996); and *Hitman* (1998).

Li made his Hollywood debut playing a villain in *Lethal Weapon 4* (1998) and later starred in his first Hollywood lead role in *Romeo Must Die* (2000). He appeared in international films produced by Luc Besson, such as *Kiss of the Dragon* (2001) and *Unleashed* (2005). He returned to Asia for *Hero* (2002), *Fearless* (2006), and *The Warlords* (2007). In 2008, he starred in *The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor* and *The Forbidden Kingdom*, the latter marking his first collaboration with Jackie Chan. From 2010 to 2014, he appeared in the first three films of *The Expendables* series.

As a philanthropist, Li founded One Foundation in 2007, which in 2011 became China’s first registered private charitable fundraising organization. He also co-founded Taiji Zen, an online program offering meditation and tai chi instruction. Forbes named him China’s richest star in 2004, and he ranked on the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list multiple times: 10th in 2004, 3rd in 2008, 6th in 2009, 24th in 2010, 8th in 2011, 22nd in 2012, and 41st in 2013. In 2010, *Time* magazine included him among the 100 most influential people.

**Early life and martial arts career**

Li was born in Beijing, the youngest of two boys and two girls. His ancestral home is Shenyang, Liaoning. When he was two, his father died, and the family lived in poverty. At age eight, his talent for wushu was noticed during a summer course at the Beijing Sports and Exercise School (now Beijing Sport University). Coaches Li Junfeng and Wu Bin gave him extra attention, with Wu Bin even buying food for Li’s family to improve his protein intake.

At eleven, Li joined the 1974 China national wushu team, which traveled to the United States during the Ping-pong diplomacy era. The group performed in Hawaii, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., as well as in Mexico City and Hong Kong. When the team performed for President Richard Nixon, Nixon asked Li to be his personal bodyguard. Li replied, “I don’t want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!” Later that November, the Beijing Wushu Team was formed, and Li became a member. He won the national all-around championship four times between 1975 and 1979.

Li is a master of several wushu styles, especially changquan and fanziquan. He also studied baguazhang, taijiquan, xingyiquan, zuiquan (drunken fist), yingzhaoquan (eagle claw), and tanglangquan (praying mantis fist). He practiced weapons including gunshu, daoshu, jianshu, and sanjiegun (three-section staff). He retired from competitive wushu at 18 due to a knee injury but served as an assistant coach for the Beijing Wushu team for a few years. His martial arts skills later brought him domestic and international fame. In 2023, he was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Fame.

**Acting career**

His success in sports led to a film career, first in mainland China and then Hong Kong. He got the screen name “Jet Li” in 1982 in the Philippines, when a publicity company found his real name hard to pronounce. They compared his career to an aircraft that “takes off” quickly, so they used “Jet Li” on movie posters. The name stuck, partly because teammates had already called him “Jet” as a young student due to his speed and grace in training.

His film debut, *Shaolin Temple* (1982), broke box office records in China, grossing a significant sum from an estimated large number of ticket sales. The sequel *Kids From Shaolin* sold an estimated many tickets, becoming the highest-grossing film in China in 1984. Some of his most famous Chinese films include the *Shaolin Temple* series (three films), credited with sparking the revival of the real Shaolin Temple; the *Once Upon a Time in China* series, about folk hero Wong Fei-hung; *Fist of Legend*, a remake of Bruce Lee’s *Fist of Fury* (1972); and the *Fong Sai-yuk* films, about another folk hero. In *High Risk* (1995), Li plays a captain whose wife is murdered by crime lords; he teams up with a sell-out actor played by Jacky Cheung and fights through a high-rise building.