Edison Chen

Biography

Edison Chen Koon-hei (Chinese: 陳冠希, born Chen Hing-wah on 7 October 1980) is a Canadian-born Hong Kong actor, singer, rapper, fashion designer and entrepreneur. In 1999, at the age of 19, Chen was scouted to shoot a credit card commercial with Leon Lai. He made his debut in the music industry in 2000 and starred in films such as Infernal Affairs (2002) and Initial D (2005). In 2008, he withdrew from the entertainment industry "indefinitely" following a sex photo scandal, but made a comeback in 2010.

== Early life == Along with his two older sisters, Chen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is of Chinese and one-eighth Portuguese descent. Chen's father is Edward Chen (陳澤民), a Hong Kong entertainment industry mogul famously known as "Ninth Brother" (九哥). He is of Shanghai ancestry on his father's side. He was a student at R.C. Palmer Secondary School in Richmond, British Columbia and also attended Hong Kong International School, where he was a classmate with Nicholas Tse. Chen's native language is English. He is also fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin, which he primarily records music in. He speaks conversational Japanese as a result of his early training to be a Hong Kong idol, and he knows some basic Khmer since he learnt it when portraying a Cambodian assassin in the 2006 Hong Kong movie Dog Bite Dog.

== Career ==

=== Film === In 1999, a talent scout approached Chen while he was clubbing with friends in Hong Kong and asked him to film a commercial. He was first featured in Leon Lai's Citibank commercial. In the same year, he also starred alongside Cecilia Cheung in a commemorative subway commercial. From then on, his career began with the Japanese film Dead or Alive 2: Birds. He made his Hong Kong film debut in the film Gen-Y Cops in 2000. He starred in many popular films including Infernal Affairs, Infernal Affairs II, Initial D, and Dog Bite Dog. Determined to expand his horizons to countries around the world, he also starred in the Japanese drama Under the Same Moon. In 2006, he made his American debut as a Hong Kong journalist in The Grudge 2. He was offered a small role in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift but he declined. His final film in Hong Kong as of 2013 is The Sniper, which was filmed before his photo scandal. He also filmed a cameo as a thug in The Dark Knight but because of the scandal, his role was reduced and was seen very briefly as a receptionist instead. Some reports states that he was originally cast to play Lau, a corrupted Chinese accountant, which was played by Chin Han. He made his comeback in an Asian-American film called Almost Perfect. On 28 October, during a fashion event in Beijing, Chen announced that he would be starring in Initial D 2. The filming of the movie was scheduled to begin in 2011 but it has been delayed indefinitely. In 2014, he made a brief comeback to the Hong Kong film industry in Golden Chickensss. After eight years of doing short roles, he is officially making a comeback to the entertainment business after he was spotted filming for Lou Ye's new project in Guangzhou in April 2016.

=== Music === In 2000, at the age of 20, Chen landed a record deal with Emperor Entertainment Group. It took him a number of successful album releases before he was given the opportunity to produce a hip hop album. His first hip-hop release was in February 2004, called Please Steal This Album backed by MC Yan and Singaporean musician Hanjin Chen. Several singles from the album topped local pop charts. Chen mentioned the difficulty of fitting in Hong Kong, where Cantopop dominates, but said that hip hop has a great potential. He is featured on M-Flo's album, Cosmicolor, on the track "LOVE ME, HATE THE GAME" with Chen, Thaitanium and Ryohei Yamamoto. After Chen's comeback in late 2009 he began work on his next album titled Confusion. The record includes a feature by well-known Taiwanese rapper MC HotDog, as well as famous singers Sammi Cheng and Jay Chou. Chen released two Cantonese hip-hop albums in collaboration with Hong Kong rappers MC Yan and Chef entitled 三角度 (3 Corners) and 三角度(二) (3 Corners II) in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

=== Fashion and business founder === Chen's foray into the fashion industry accompanied his rising success as a young pop icon. Chen, along with partners Kevin Poon and Billy Ip, became the founders of CLOT Inc., a clothing company geared toward youth culture, in 2003. The company has collaborated with many big clothing companies, such as Adidas, Nike, A Bathing Ape, Subcrew and Disney. CLOT operates multiple stores worldwide through its retail component JUICE STORE, including in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, mainland China and Taiwan.

=== Multimedia company === In February 2007, he invested $10 million HKD to open his own multi-media company, Clot Media Division, which plans to produce movies, commercials and music albums. In June 2007, he released a Mandarin album, Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself (讓我再次介紹我自己), with tracks produced by legendary hip-hop artist Kanye West, as well as producers Just Blaze and Clinton Sparks.

=== Community work === As early as 2001 Chen had appeared in Vancouver charity shows. He has also been a supporter for the gay and lesbian community in Hong Kong, including being voted as an icon in 2001. In 2007 he was invited by Be@rbrick toys for a charity event in Harbour City, Hong Kong. The charity proceeds were donated to "Hong Kong Blood Cancer Foundation".