I should probably be asking this on the movies or acting board, but is it common among chinese MA movie actors

Question

.... to double as pop stars?

or is this just jackie chan following in the footsteps of leonard nimoy and he is just making a fool of himself?

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20071024/119326728000.html

I stand corrected. jackie chan seems to be the way american actors should be like mickey rooney or or liz taylor or actors from decades ago who were multi talented. today it seems like they aren't even talented at what they "specialize" in.

Answer 1

The short answer: Yes

The Long answer:
In both China and Japan they will take famous people's faces and put it EVERYWHERE. Remember Hello Kitty? They do that with anyone who is famous, martial artists, singers, ect.

Unlike in North America their famous people tend to branch out MUCH more into other areas simply because they're already famous.

It's an asian thing.

Answer 2

Actually, Jackie Chan has been singing and performing onstage since he started in showbiz, he sings most of the chinese theme songs in all his movies. He trained at the Beijing Opera school as a child and was taught not only acrobatics, but singing and dancing as well. Most classical chinese opera actors do. As a matter of fact most asian stars are expected to do a little song and dance to show what a complete performer they are, especially while promoting a movie to the public. It's usually only in the west that performers tend to specialize in one field only.


Edit: Actually, Jackie's more in the mold of Gene Kelly or Charlie Chaplin, although he does say he is a great fan of Buster Keaton from whose films he gets inspirations for his stunt scenes.

Answer 3

Apparently he's been a singer and has released a few albums since the 1980s. His music happens to be quite popular in Hong Kong and throughout Asia.

I don't know about other Chinese actors.