From growing up impoverished in a village in Huizhou, in east-central Guangdong province, to sending his son to an elite international school in Shanghai, the life of actor and singer Jordan Chan Siu-chun has been a roller coaster defined by extreme reinvention.
Today, at 58, he has crafted a new image as a stellar husband and father, living in mainland China with a wife 16 years his junior and their two sons, aged 12 and five.
It is a stark contrast to his decades in Hong Kong show business, when he was the industry’s ultimate wild card. Here is a man convicted of molestation as a teen, embroiled in relationship rumours with A-list celebrities, and later, entangled in the political crossfire between Hong Kong and Beijing.
To understand his evolution, one must look at the poverty that forged him.
Chan was the eldest of four children born to a Hakka farming family. His mother worked as a street food hawker, but the family struggled to survive. The situation was so dire that, at age 10, Chan suggested they give his youngest brother away.
