Brandon Chang
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brandon Chang (Chinese: 張卓楠; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhāng Zhúo Nán; born December 28, 1982 in Toronto, Canada) is a popular Chinese artist. By his late-teens, he became the apprentice of Michelle Yeoh (an internationally acclaimed superstar), and Anita Mui (a popular singer from Hong Kong who died in December 2003), before returning to Taiwan to pursue his entertainment career.
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[edit] Profile
| Brandon Chang 張卓楠 | |
|---|---|
 Michelle Yeoh and apprentice Brandon Chang at a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan |
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| Country | Taiwan, Hong Kong |
| Years active | 2002 - Present |
- Name: Brandon Chang
- Birthdate: December 28, 1982
- Family: Father, Mother, Brother, Sister
- Religion: Catholic
- Place of Birth: Canada
- Height: 176 cm
- Weight: 68 kg
[edit] Biography
Brandon Chang (Full Name: Wilfred Brandon Chang) was born on December 28, 1982 in Toronto, Canada. Growing up overseas, he was very talented in both sports and music. At an early age, his parents encouraged him to be active in sports (particularly in martial arts basketball and baseball), and in music, especially with the piano, which he began to take up lessons at the age of five. His focus gradually turned towards his taste for music after he was able to complete his piano studies by the age of 10, and thereafter started picking up other instruments, such as the guitar. Though he mainly spoke English with his siblings and friends, he also spoke Mandarin and Cantonese at home with his father, a Taiwanese, and his mother, a Hong Kong Chinese. At the age of 14, he moved to Hong Kong with his family, and by early-20's, he moved back to Taipei, Taiwan.
His career first started-off at the age of 16 when Brandon started off modelling in Hong Kong. His first casting landed him a commercial shoot with Nokia in Mont-Blanc, France. This was followed by several other shoots with fashionable brands such as Comme des Garçons and Calvin Klein, and in fashion magazines such as Men's Uno [1], and Amoeba Magazine. Within a short year after, Brandon was casted to star in one of Hong Kong's popular teen dramas, then known as RTHK's Y2K.
By 2001, Brandon signed under Media Asia Entertainment Group [2], the same company as Hong Kong's Jacky Chan and one of Asia's largest and most successful Chinese language film studios (producing popular films such as The Banquet (2006), Initial D (2005) and the Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002-2003)). It was then that Michelle Yeoh, an internationally acclaimed superstar for her roles in most recently Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000) and Hollywood's James Bond series Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), took notice of Brandon and his talents. Brandon's family soon became very close to Michelle, and with the approval of his parents, Michelle took Brandon as her first apprentice. Brandon started shooting his first film in the same year, The Touch (2002), staring Hollywood's Ben Chaplin and Richard Roxburgh, followed by Silver Hawk (2003) and Jiang Shi (2004). By 2002, one of Michelle's close friends, Anita Mui, a popular Hong Kong pop singer, took notice of Brandon's musical talents in addition to his acting. Shortly after Anita announced her intentions to take Brandon as one of her apprentices in the music industry, and with that, training went underway. A little over a year later (2003), Anita died from cervical cancer. Brandon returned to Taipei, Taiwan, shortly afterwards.
Since 2005, aside from appearing in television dramas, Brandon's quieter and humble lifestyle has left him more focused on his own work and training, no longer taking part in any major music or movie events.
