The appeal of Hong Kong is obvious, not to say it’s not mysterious, to anyone who’s ever set foot here. It’s a spectacularly interesting place, and the word most used to describe it, perhaps, is cosmopolitan. It’s at the forefront of so many things on a global scale. Finance, literature, film, visual art, theatre, and dance are just some of the things that the city is known for. It has a power that attracts artists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers from all over Asia, and the rest of the world, too. One of its most remarkable characteristics, in fact, is the truly global sensibility that exists here.

This sensibility is perhaps no better expressed in the work, and the art, of Jackie Chan . He was born here in 1954, and has one of the most eventful biographies of any movie star who ever lived. Starting from the very beginning, at birth, his mother required a surgeon, because he weighed 12 pounds. A very large and powerful beginning for a large and powerful figure on the silver screen.

From the ages of 10 to 17, he was a student at the Chinese Drama Academy. This was a very disciplined place, where boys were trained to work in the very honored tradition of the Peking Opera. By the time he graduated, however, the popularity of the Opera had dropped off to where he had to look for work in other areas. Without sufficient academic training, he had to use his strength, and worked as a stunt man in films, and in construction in Australia, until he was discovered by a Hong Kong director.

This lead to a succession of film roles, which catapulted him into fame as a very charming, funny, and extremely proficient martial arts expert. The rest of this is, of course, a history of box office success, but he never stopped being his true self. A lot of his work outside of film is devoted to charity. He started two foundations, one to help young people in Hong Kong to get scholarships, and the other to help the poor and the elderly in China’s remote regions. He’s also recently been very encouraging to his new co-star, Jaden Smith , who plans to return to Hong Kong to continue studying Kung Fu under Jackie’s teachers. A night at a Hong Kong hotel is a night in the place that formed Chan, making a celebrity who is also one of the world’s true heroes.