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ENTERTAINMENT
Meet
Donnie Yen
D
onnie Yen was born in Guangzhou,
China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was
a kung fu master and his father, Kylster
Yen, a newspaper editor and amateur musician.
When Donnie was just two years old,
the family moved to Hong Kong and then,
when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim Mark became a
pioneer for Chinese martial arts in America,
and it was only natural that her only
son was trained from early childhood in
the same skills. At the same time, Donnie
was influenced by his parents’ love of music
and reached a high level of proficiency
as a pianist. All these interests would have
a manifest influence on Yen’s later life.
Early Life
Donnie Yen was born in Guangzhou,
China. His mother, Bow-sim Mark, was a
kung fu master and his father, Kylster Yen,
a newspaper editor and amateur musician.
When Donnie was just two years old,
the family moved to Hong Kong and then,
when he was 11, to Boston, Massachusetts.
There, Master Bow-sim Mark became a pioneer
for Chinese martial arts in America, and it
was only natural that her only son was trained
from early childhood in the same skills. At the
same time, Donnie was influenced by his parents’
love of music and reached a high level
of proficiency as a pianist. All these interests
would have a manifest influence on Yen’s later
life. In his teens, Donnie defined his own persona
by rebelling against his ptarents edicts. Beyond
the limitations of his mother’s school, Yen
began training in various different fighting arts,
including Japanese karate, Korean taekwondo
and western boxing. Donnie also took up hiphop
and break-dancing. At the same time, he
began spending his nights in Boston’s notorious
Combat Zone. Given that he was by now
a serious practitioner of modern Wu Shu, his
parents decided to send him to Beijing to train at
the Chinese capital’s famed Wu Shu academy.
It was when Yen returned to Hong Kong en
route back to Boston that he met the famed
martial arts movie director Yuen Wooping.
At the same time, he
began spending his nights in
Boston’s notorious C Zone.
Acting Career
Donnie Yen exploded
onto the Hong Kong
movie scene when
he was cast in
the lead role of
director Yuen
Woo-ping’s
‘Drunken Tai
Chi’. His
debut
film
immediately
established
him as a
viable leading
man, and
Yen has remained a
major figure in Chinese
action cinema to this day.
Yen skills as a street dancer
were to the fore in his second
starring role, ‘Mismatched
Couples’, in which he showed
off his breakdance moves, as
well as his general athleticism.
This slapstick romantic comedy
was produced by Hong
10 Journey’s End - HONG KONG EDITION - June 2017