Sunday, April 19, 2009

Jackie Chan on the Chinese People

Jackie Chan has said the Chinese People need to be controlled:
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," Chan said. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic."

Chan added: "I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we're not being controlled, we'll just do what we want."

Reaction has been mixed, with his audience going wild:
Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China's southern island province of Hainan.

Either they are thinking "better applaud or our wonderful government will have us tortured" or "oooh, he means us! We get to control the Chinese people". If its the latter, it'd be deliciously ironic. Chan's argument is a decidedly colonialist one. Unless mainland China's communist government is outsourcing all of its leadership positions to people deemed by the aging action star as able to rule the Chinese people, his statement is a bit of a conundrum.


Reaction from Hong Kong
has been cutting:
"He's insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people aren't pets," Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Leung Kwok-hung told The Associated Press. "Chinese society needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law."

Another lawmaker, Albert Ho, called the comments "racist," adding: "People around the world are running their own countries. Why can't Chinese do the same?"


I hope Jackie Chan issues an apology, this was a remarkably bone headed thing to say, and I've lost respect for the actor as a person.

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