Rising son
BEING BORN INTO a showbiz family can be a blessing. And it can be a curse. While a famous father or mother can help open the door to success, history is also littered with sad tales of sons and daughters who have fallen by the wayside as they seek to measure up to their famous forebears.
For showbiz parents, one of the many tricky problems they face is how to shield their children from the constant glare of the public eye. And the bigger the star, the more the public want to pry.
In Asia, they don't come any bigger than Jackie Chan. The martial arts and movie legend achieved superstar status in the 1970s thanks to the likes of Drunken Master (1978) - and his star has never waned. Imagine, then, the interest generated in 1982, when Chan fathered a son to his then-mistress, the Taiwanese actress Lin Feng-jiao. Everyone wanted the pictures, everyone wanted the news.
But the years have passed and that boy has for the most part escaped the spotlight. One rare public appearance with both parents was at the funeral of former Golden Harvest boss Leonard Ho Koon-cheung in 1997. But year in year out, the life of Jaycee Fong Cho-ming (as he now likes to be known) has remained a mystery. That is, until now.
Over the past month Fong and Asia's press pack have been openly courting. The 21-year-old's face has started to pop up on the social pages, he's doing interviews and, in the past two weeks, his image has appeared in the middle of the poster for The Huadu Chronicles: Blade of the Rose (aka The Twins Effect II), the follow-up film to last year's hugely successful vampire romp starring Twins and a cast of Hong Kong's other young lovelies. And he is soon to release his first CD as a recording artist; the first track lifted - a guitar-based mellow track titled Bin Jou Bin Chong (Singing Along the Way) - is already getting airplay and good reviews.
The press have been lining up to welcome Chan the younger into the official ranks of celebrity. And so it seems fitting that when we meet Fong it is in the plush surrounds of the Emperor Entertainment Group's conference room, high up in Wan Chai with commanding views of The Peak; for this is the building from which a thousand young hopefuls have seen their careers launched.