Yuen Biao, real name Ha Ling-Tsan, was born in Tsing San Dou, Hong Kong, on the 26th of July, 1957. He is the fifth child to the family and has 7 brothers and sisters(!) His father at that time owned a small knitting factory runned totally by his family where his three other sisiters would be working together with his parents. The fatory was right next to his house.
Little Ling-Jun wasn't at all interested in studying. He would rather run around, imitate kung-fu moves and copy some actors he saw in opera shows. When he entered a kindergarten, he was just like Jackie Chan, having lots of fights with his friends.....Ling-Jun simply didn't suit an ordinary school.
His father was a Chinese Opera lover. He used to listen to some records of Chinese opera while little Ling-Jun sat on his laps. Although his other brothers and sisters weren't interested in Chinese opera, Ling-Jun became fascinated to it and would soon astart to immitate the dance. And so for this reason, his parents decided to put him into the Peking Opera School under a ten year contract, the other half of the reason being that they didn't have to pay any fee.

Biao explains about the opera school ;
"It was very tough. Very. We'd wake up at five in the morning and train till ten. Then we'd have breakfast but it was terribly simple. After that, we'd be trained to the bones all through the day. In the evenings, we'd go out to perform opera shows. I remember I got smacked so many times, I always had bruises on my bum."

Biao was only five years old when he joined the school. This worked out in a good way, because he soon became the cute idol among the girls that were also there. Sammo Hung, the big brother, and Jackie Chan were already at the school then.
After three months at the school, Biao was asked if he wanted to stay for longer. This was a ritual. Every new student would be asked if he/she wanted to stay and keep on training after the first three months. Some would immediately leave the school because of the harsh training, but Biao was more or less determined. He decided to stay.
After about another three months, Biao suffered a terrible cold. He explains that his head was aching, joints were all in pain, and had actually fainted during his training. The next moment he realized, he says that he saw the master's stick. Brandishing his stick, the master would say, "I don't care if you catch a cold or not, but don't you dare give your cold to the other students!" Hearing that, Biao soon lost consciousness again..... It was midnight when he woke up. One of the bigger sisters, Yuen Hong, was taking care of him with dedication. She had bags under her eyes which implied that she had looked after Biao's condition without sleep. Yuen Biao says that she had saved his life....
As we all know, Biao was chosen a member of the Seven Little Fortunes along with Hung and Chan and he became the youngest member of the group. This is actually where he got the nickname "Young Brother" from. In addition, it was this moment that little Ling-Jun received the stage name "Yuen Biao" which still remains today as the name he uses in showbusiness.
This was how it all started. Sammo as the big brother would sometime be pompous and bully his younger mates, while Chan would cover up little Biao. Other times, Sammo would be nice and take care of the young ones. The relationship is portrayed in detail in "I am Jackie Chan" and we see how much close they were together. It is nice to hear that their strong bond still exists between them even now.

"I'm 8 years junior to Sammo and 4 to Jackie. Since when we were kids, we grew up together, studied together, worked together, so they mean more than brothers to me. Like, we are one of a kind. I Know what they are thinking just by looking at there expressions." Biao has said.

About a year after he graduated the school, he started visiting the studio where Sammo worked as an assistant choreographer. He got some minor stunt works and this is said to be his first real experience in the movie business. Biao worked in many movies as an extra during this period, and has even worked with Bruce Lee in movies such as Fist of Fury(1971) and Enter the Dragon(1973).

It wasn't for long. In the year 1973, just before the opening day of Enter the Dragon, Bruce Lee passed away. He was only 32. Bruce was a big phenomenon. He was the one who had shone light to the kung-fu movies, all over the world. But, it was over. His death sent kung-fu movies right down hill and it became extremely hard to make a living being a kung-fu star in Hong Kong. So Biao went over to the States. He heard that Sifu, or master Yu Jim Yuen, was going to close down the opera school and would go over to America to do some performance shows, and so Biao went with him. Along with the other graduates from school, Biao traveled around America, performing opera shows and kung-fu demonstrations. Unfortunately, this didn't work out. The performance troup dissolved and Biao once again was out in the dark. He didn't return to Hong Kong straight back. Instead, he stayed in Los Angles and worked in a supermarket where he was hired to catch shoplifters.
A twist in his ordinary life came when Yuen Hong visited him. Hong was visiting the troupe members on behalf of Sifu who was sick. She asked if Biao wanted to see if they can find a better job in New York where her parents were staying. Since he didn't have any reason to stay, he decided to go. In New York, Biao made a living by making cassette tapes and doing ironing jobs. He said he was relieved to find a Chinese community there which enabled him to find friends.
After about a year in New York, he received some good news from his dad that kung-fu movies were starting to get the go again in Hong Kong, and so Biao, once again with a little hope in the movie business, returned to his home country.

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