He became a household name after the success of the 1997 film Made in Hong Kong, which earned many local and international awards.

[1] His family was poor and Chan worked in an electronics factory while finishing Forms 1 to 3 at night school.

He began his career as an assistant director to David Lai Dai-Wai in the film Mid-Night Girls.

In 1994 he collected a total of 500,000 HKD and film-materials left over by other productions to begin directing his award-winning Made in Hong Kong.

[2] Chan's films often focus on the "raw, often bleak, view of life of Hong Kong's working class.