| Having appeared in more than 50 films and won numerous Hong Kong Film Awards， Stephen Chow （Zhou Xingchi） was chosen as an “Asian Hero“ by Time Magazine．
The actor was born in Hong Kong in June 1962． In his childhood， he was fascinated（使入迷） by Bruce Lee（李小龙）， much like other children his age．
Stephen Chow was nine years old in 1971 when Bruce Lee’s triumphant（成功的） Hong Kong film “The Big Boss” debuted（首次上映）．
It was a huge hit and he began to study martial（武术的） arts． It is said that his friends sometimes had to call him “small dragon．”
In 1982， after graduating from high school， Chow auditioned（参加试演） for Hong Kong’s TVB （television station） acting school， but didn’t make the cut．
However， he was able to take night classes and， the next year， was chosen to be master of ceremonies of the children’s programme “430”．
He was not fond of children， which made it difficult for him， but his performance went over well and he stayed on the show for five years．
For several years after that， he worked on a variety of programmes， and moved into drama — becoming even more popular．
In 1988， Chow played one of the leads in the movie “Final Justice （Pili Xianfeng）”， winning Best Supporting Actor at the Taiwan Academy Awards． It was his first film．
He had his first starring role in 1990 in a Chow Yun?Fat（周润发） spoof? “All for the Winner （Du Sheng）” and started excelling（突出） in the comedy genre．
Chow became the number one Hong Kong film actor of the 1990s， earning more than Jackie Chan by as much as two times． He made 29 films from 1990 to 1993．
Chow’s style at the time of “All for the Winner” was called “Makes No Sense （Wulitou）”．
This style established his popularity in the 1990s as a comic actor．
Chow has also shown an interest in other aspects of film production．
He challenged the first director of his James Bond spoof “From Beijing with Love （Guochan 007）”（1994）． He became more concerned with the production side of movie?making with the “Journey to the West （Dahua Xiyou）”． And， he directed and starred in “Shaolin Soccer （Shaolin Zuqiu）”， which was successful both in China and in the USA．
Chow is one of the last Hong Kong stars that haven’t been bought out by Hollywood． |
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