Where this was said
The Jackie Chan Curse: Endorsed Brands, Bankrupt Companies, and a Tennis Jinx
At 46:20 · chapter starts 38:40
Jackie Chan became a massive star in China in the 1980s and a household name in the West with Rumble in the Bronx in 1995. His enormous fame made him a natural pitchman for dozens of Chinese brands — and many of those brands met unfortunate ends. The Sannier Frozen Dumpling Company discovered staph in its products. A VCD company's CEO went to jail for fraud. An endorsed air conditioner unit exploded. Fen Wang Cola fizzled out entirely. A children's learning computer — the Subor Learning Machine — flopped. Josh and Chuck are fair-minded enough to note that Chan endorsed so many products that statistical failure is expected — but the curse narrative leaped from boardrooms to tennis courts at the 2025 Australian Open, where finalists Aryna Sabalenka, Alexander Zverev, and Jelena Ostapenko all lost their matches after meeting and shaking Chan's hand [1] "Jackie Chan has endorsed so many products in China that statistically, some had to fail — but the pattern is striking. A frozen dumpling co…" 41:20 .
Jackie Chan has endorsed so many products in China that statistically, some had to fail — but the pattern is striking. A frozen dumpling company collapsed after a staph outbreak, a VCD company's CEO went to jail for fraud, an air conditioner unit exploded, and at the 2025 Australian Open, three finalists lost after shaking Chan's hand.
Despite widespread belief that DVD stands for 'Digital Video Disc,' it actually stands for 'Digital Versatile Disc.'
At the 2025 Australian Open, three finalists — Sabalenka, Zverev, and Ostapenko — all lost their matches after meeting and shaking hands with Jackie Chan.
