Happy Birthday Jet Li, he turns 51 today! Born on this day in 1963 in Beijing, China, his real name is Li Lianjie. He’s very accomplished, not only is he a Chinese film actor, he’s also a film producer, martial artist, wushu champion and philanthropist.
After a few years of intensive training he won his first national championship for the Beijing Wushu Team. He retired at 19 and went on to make his debut film, Shaolin Temple (1982), which won him great acclaim in China.
In fact he’s starred in a lot of critically acclaimed martial arts films, most notably the Once Upon A Time In China series, in which he portrayed folk hero Wong Fei-hung.
His Hollywood film debut was as a villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), and believe it or not remains one of his most successful films garnering over $130m at the box office. His first leading role came after this in the Joel Silver produced Romeo Must Die (2000)
He’s since starred in lots of action films, including Hero, Fist of Legend, Kiss of the Dragon, Unleashed, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Expendables movies, Fearless.
Taiji Zen
Taiji Zen is a lifestyle company founded by Jet Li and Jack Ma with the mission of spreading “Health and Happiness for All” through a balance of physical wellness and mental fitness – the Taiji Zen lifestyle. Taiji Zen combines the martial art of Taijiquan (aka T’ai Chi Chuan) with mindfulness based practices such as meditation. It packages these art forms into several different classes and online programs. (taken from the website)
Here’s a couple of YouTube tributes we found:
