In fact, Li, his co-star in the Peter Chan movie The Warlords, is 'a master of the pen and the sword', he said.

Earlier reports from Sina.com and Oriental Daily said Li was illiterate after he was found unable to read Chinese characters while shooting a scene in the movie.

Lau was also said to be coaching him to read Chinese. But Lau said the story was due to a misunderstanding, Apple Daily reported.

'If Jet is illiterate, I am also illiterate,' he said while in Changchun city in China for a concert.

'We both discussed the movie dialogue on the set. What capabilities do I have to be his teacher? I am the one who needs help in pronunciation. It is Jet who had to teach me how to pronounce. I never taught him.'

He said the misunderstanding arose because of a joke Chan made on the movie set.

Lau said the movie's dialogue has a lot of difficult ancient Chinese terms. When he and his co-stars messed up the dialogue, Chan would jokingly scold them, saying they were illiterate.

Calling Li a 'No. 1 Scholar' who's a 'master of the pen and sword', Lau said the China actor is not only proficient in Mandarin and English but is also learned.

'It might be true that he practised martial arts when he was young and studied little, but he has never stopped learning by himself,' he added.