07 January 2005
By CBC Arts

HONG KONG - Jet Li described on Friday how he survived the Dec. 26 tsunami in South Asia for the crowd at a charity concert in Hong Kong.

Li, the star of such martial-arts pictures as Hero and The One, was vacationing at a resort in the Maldives when the massive wave hit.

Walking on the beach, he grabbed his two daughters and the family's maid when he saw the wall of water rolling toward shore.

"The waves came really quickly and formed swirls," he said, adding by the time he had taken three steps the water was up to his waist.

A speedboat on the pavement

"When I looked back, everything I saw minutes ago was gone. Everything was surrounded by the ocean. The houses collapsed. I continued to run but the water was already up to my mouth," he said.

Li said he was then faced with the most difficult choice of his life.

"I thought if the water rose another foot, what should I do? I was carrying my daughters and pulling my maid, do I let go or persist?" he said.

"I chose to go forward."

Li managed to fight his way through the roiling swells back to his hotel, where the guests donned life jackets for fear of additional waves.

The tsunami left at least 82 people dead in the Maldives. Earlier reports said only that Li had suffered minor injuries.

Li has donated the equivalent of about $158,000 to the victims of the disaster, and he said he hopes that people will continue to give money to the relief effort in the coming months.

He also said Dec. 26 was a defining moment in his life, one that served to bolster his courage.

"Some things I dared not do in the past, I am ready to do them now."