Jackie Chan to visit Madagascar for martial arts tourney

Movie star Jackie Chan poses for pictures with Madagascar's rugby team during its 2006 visit to Hong Kong. The global icon is expected in Antananarivo in September.

Jackie Chan is expected in Madagascar for an upcoming martial arts competition.

The 5th edition of the kung fu wushu African Cup takes place in Antananarivo on September 5-10.

Six Shaolins from temples in China will also give shows at the competition, according to the Malagasy federation’s head, José Ramaherison aka Master Gao.

The global movie star Jackie Chan is a talented wushu fan.

The visit of Mr Chan, an idol to millions of boys around the world, is highly anticipated on the island. 

The practice of Shaolin martial art rooted first on Malagasy soil in the 1990s and has recruited thousands of fans since.

Madagascar has struggled to host the African Cup since 2009, according to Master Gao, a Chinese who teaches the martial discipline in the country.

The dream will finally become true this year, he said.

Officials from the Wushu African Confederation including its secretary general, Tarek Kiralla, are currently in the capital to follow-up on preparations for the tournament.

Jackie Chan Interview

Jackie Chan is one of the biggest Chinese film heroes of all time, and quite possibly one of the biggest movie stars on Earth. He joins Jian at the desk in Studio Q to talk about evolving from a stuntman to become a leading man, coming to America, and China's place on the world stage.

Jackie's Ex-house For Sale!

Jackie sold this house in 2005 for $6.3 million and today it is on the market again for a cool $9.5 million. Enjoy the pictures. Unless the interim owner changed the furnishings Jackie did sell the house with all its furnishings so this is quite possibly how it looked when Jackie owned it.

By Nick McCarthy Blues owner Carson Yeung was Jackie Chan's hairdresser, court told

Blues owner Carson Yeung used to cut Jackie Chan’s hair in the 1980s and donated millions of pounds to charities in mainland China, a court has heard.

Details of Yeung’s past and his links to movie stars have emerged at his £60 million money laundering trial in Hong Kong.

Joseph Ng Loi-ping, one of the soccer tycoon’s close friends, gave evidence for his defence.

He said Yeung had donated tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars to good causes in China, including more than £1 million to Tibet for the region’s development in 2009.

He also said the businessman had met with a high-ranking Communist Party official before the official retired last year.

He told the court that the 52-year-old had a passion for football and had planned to open up soccer training schools in mainland China after buying up Blues.

Loi-ping said he was a client at Yeung’s salon Vole at Hong Kong’s plush Peninsula Hotel, along with Hollywood movie legend Jackie Chan and Taiwanese star Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia.

He said that in 1989, he was paying Yeung HK$500 for a haircut, plus a HK$220 tip, around £60 in total.

Yeung is accused of laundering HK$721 million through the five accounts with Wing Lung Bank and HSBC.

He denies the charges. The alleged offences took place from January 2001 to December 2007.

Earlier in the trial, police financial investigator Johnny Kwan Sui-lun detailed the money flow of five of Yeung’s bank accounts under scrutiny.

He highlighted a period between 2004 and 2005 when a Macau casino operation SJM Holdings deposited 14 cheques into the accounts, amounting to around £5 million.

“When we saw a large amount of cash going in and out of the five accounts, with no accumulated deposits, we (at the time) had reasonable grounds to suspect,” Kwan said.

The case continues.

Wish La and Zy Happy 3rd Birthday

Send your birthday wishes to La and Zy at LaZy@jackiechan.com

Police Story 2013 updates

Ding Sheng (Director) tweeted on Weibo today that he is almost finished editing Police Story 2013. He added that editing is a lonely process and that it took him 4 months to edit Little Big Soldier and almost 3 months to edit The Underdog Knight 2 while Police Story 2013 has taken 5 months and now, 3 300 clips later, the film is finished in its current form. (I presume this is the Director's Cut).

China Popstar Competition Photos

Shandong Television released these behind the scenes photos of Jackie recording the first episode of the China Popstar Competition.