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During the mid-'80s, there was an entire generation of kids who wanted to be Ke Huy Quan. After all, Quan starred in two massively successful films during that era which millions of youngsters couldn't get enough of, The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
When Quan starred in The Goonies as Richard "Data" Wang, he played a beloved and ingenious character with a flare for inventing incredible gadgets that mostly worked. Then, when Quan shared the screen with one of the most beloved film characters of all time, fans loved seeing his character, Short Round's relationship with Indiana Jones.
In a lot of ways, Quan seemed to be one of the luckiest kids in the world during that era in his life. However, most kids who adored Quan had no idea there was something tragic about Quan's rise to fame.
When Quan starred in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he was credited as Jonathan Ke Quan. In recent years, Quan has revealed the really sad reason why he adopted that name during his rise to fame.
Why Did Ke Huy Quan Go By Jonathan Ke Quan When He Was A Child Star?
When young moviegoers got their first chance to see Ke Huy Quan on the big screen as a kid, most of them were mesmerized by the child star. If that happened these days, those young fans would go online once the movie was over to learn more about Quan.
Of course, during Quan's heyday in the 'mid-'80s, the internet didn't exist in its current form and most people had no way to access it. For that reason, it wasn't until many, many years later that most fans of The Goonies learned why the kid who played Chunk gave up acting.
Similarly, it wasn't until decades later that many people who grew up watching Quan learned more about what his childhood was like. In 2022, Quan was interviewed by Vanity Fair which gave fans the chance to learn more about his amazing story.
Sadly, just like a lot of other people who emigrate from other countries, some aspects of Quan's life story are tragic.
A perfect example of a sad part of Quan's story is what happened to his family when he was a child as Quan explained to Vanity Fair. After having an extremely close bond with his siblings as a young child, his parents split the family up in 1978 as they fled Vietnam.
At that time, Quan's mother took three of his siblings while he went with his father to a "makeshift refugee camp in Hong Kong". At that time, Quan didn't understand why he had to give up almost everything he'd known until then including half of his family.
“I was so young. I didn’t understand why we gave up the place we called home to get on a boat in the middle of the night with 3,000 people.” Once the boat Quan traveled on arrived in Hong Kong, everyone was forced to stay onboard for more than a month.
Once Quan and his family were finally allowed onshore, they pulled up their roots once again to move it to America where they reunited with the rest of his family in 1979.
In an ideal world, everything would have been great once Quan and his family were together in America. However, as Quan explained to The Guardian in 2022, he wasn't accepted when he first arrived in The United States.
“We were refugees. Nobody wanted us … They would call us ‘fresh off the boat’. They would make fun of us when we were in school. You can imagine what that does to the mental state of a child."
Fortunately for Quan and his family, he explained that things turned around for them once he beat all the odds to become a child star.
"To go from that to starring in one of the biggest movies in 1984 gave me and my family hope, courage and a lot of freedom.” Quan also explained that the money he made as an actor allowed him to buy a home for his family.
Amazingly enough, however, even when Quan seemed on top of the world, he still couldn't be true to himself. The reason for that is as Quan explained to The Guardian, is that he felt forced into adopting the fake name Jonathan Ke Quan.
“I always felt like an outsider, especially when I was growing up. I had major identity issues. I wanted to assimilate. Also, I used to do a sitcom and before each taping, there would be an announcement of everybody’s names. Every week they would struggle with my name.”
How Did Ke Huy Quan Reclaim His Real Name?
After Ke Huy Quan starred in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it seemed like a no-brainer that his career would continue to take off. Amazingly enough, however, it turned out that Quan was only able to land a handful of roles in the years that followed.
As Quan explained to the Associated Press, he decided to give up acting after he auditioned for a character with no name who only had two lines. "I walk in the room and there were 30 other Asian actors fighting for this tiny breadcrumb. When I didn't even get that, I didn't see a future for myself anymore as an actor."
During Quan's interview with The Guardian, he explained that when the movie Crazy Rich Asians was released and became a hit, he decided to give acting another try.
"I noticed Asian actors were getting more opportunities, and I began to harbor this dream of getting back into acting, but it took a lot of courage to give voice to that dream. One day I decided: if I don't do this, I will regret it."
At the same time Quan started to relaunch his acting career, he made an even more meaningful decision to reclaim his real name. "When I got back into acting, I decided I was going to go back to my birth name – that was really important to me.”
Little could Quan have known that he would be celebrated all over the world under his real name after he starred in the Oscars-darling, Everything Everywhere All at Once.
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