I just had an embarrassing ride with my parents when they rearranged the basement this past weekend and stumbled upon my middle school…er….artworks? Collages? One of them being of this little monk kid! Do you guys remember his adorable face? He’s known as my little hubby 10+ years ago because everyone assumed he was younger, seeing how we watched his kung fu movies when he was a peanut in the industry. Meet Ashton Chen Xiao Long, known for his roles alongside a lot of big stars as the righteous Shaolin kiddo.

Ashton first burst into the tv scene in Shaolin Popey 1 in 1993 with Jimmy Lin and Ng Man-Tat and thus began his career as a child star in a numerous films and tv dramas the following years. Unlike actors nowadays without a sense about Kung Fu, Ashton started his martial arts training at the age of two at a Shaolin Temple. His stage name Shi Xiao Long is given by his Abbot Shifu. You can watch the movie below.

Shaolin Popey 2: Messy Temple (1994) with Dicky Cheung and Adam Cheng.

In 1997, he was in Dragon from Shaolin with Vivian Hsu and Yuen Biao.

He was also in all three seasons of Young Justice Bao as Zhan Zhao with Zhou Jie, Li Bing Bing, Fan Bing Bing, Lu Yi, and Deng Chao.

My favorite drama of his is still Young Hero Huang Fei Hong in 2002. I fell for him hard. Lol. First potential as a full-grown leading man right here!

His recent drama Invincible Iron Bridge Three (无敌铁桥三) aired a couple of months back and he portrayed Leung Kwan, known as one of the great masters of Hong Fist and part of the top martial artists known as Ten Tigers of Guangdong. Not to mention, one of his friends in Huang Fei Hong (Lol). Compared to the idol actors with lanky body nowadays, Ashton offers a solid, athletic body with real martial art skills. He may not be your conventional handsome man, but he’s a gem in the martial arts world. To be honest, when the movie version of Huang Fei Hong was first announced, I anticipated his name to be thrown around. How awesome would it be to see him reprise his childhood role as an adult? But it ultimately went to Eddie Peng who worked really hard for months. Sigh~ Missed opportunity.

Here he is with his Brother-OTP in movies: Steven Hao.

I read one of his old interviews and found out that at the time, he didn’t want to be in idol dramas and wanted to be known as a real martial arts actor. But it looks like that has changed because he doesn’t seem to be appreciated at all in the past few years. WHY, CHINA? WHY?!

His latest modern drama is Love the Courier (Love Express) with Du Chun and Yan Di. The story follows a bunch of men who work as bicycling couriers. Our hero (Du Chun) is described as good and honest, sunny and optimistic. He meets a match in Yao Di, who’s equally pleasant with a streak of mischievousness. However, the slow burning of romance allows for the appearance of Du Chun’s best friend (Ashton Chen), who falls heads over heels for the lady and begins to pursue her passionately. What would happen to their friendship and bromance?

China, wake up! Use your talents! When I read the news of a possible Bruce Lee and Ip Man drama a while back, I was totally rooting for this boy, but then Korean actor Kim Bum (who I also adore) is confirmed by his agency last week to take on the role of …Bruce Lee, and I’m like…what? WHAT. Fans are gonna support him but the mass public isn’t so easy to please. Bruce Lee is probably flipping in his coffin!

Souce: Compiled