A native of Huizhou, Guangdong Province, Chang I was born on 24th February 1945 as Zhang Bo-Shen. Before joining Shaw Brothers in 1967, he had been a Beijing Opera student in Taiwan for 8 years. He began his career as leading actor in The Thundering Sword. Most of his works were martial arts films. Despite his departure from Shaw Brothers in 1971, he has been kept busy playing in martial arts or kung fu films made in Hong Kong, Taiwan and other regions. He has also acted in numerous television dramas in the 1980s and 1990s, until he retired to Canada recently [Celestial Pictures 2006]