Jackie Chan’s ridiculous comment that Chinese people can’t handle freedom (自由) is catching a big response over the Internet from non-movie stars who happen to believe the Chinese deserve human rights like everyone else.
On April 18, Chan told Chinese Communist leaders meeting in Hainan:
“I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we are not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”
Chan went farther, describing conditions in democratic Taiwan and relatively free Hong Kong as “chaotic.”
Here’s a sample of the reaction:
The Useless Tree: ‘It all about the Maos.’
“He is taking an image - China is so ‘chaotic’ that individual Chinese persons cannot be trusted with meaningful political participation - that, ironically, the founders of the Chinese Communist Party rejected in their early days of revolutionary struggle, and he is investing it with a certain celebrity legitimacy. … This, of course, serves the interests of current CCP power holders. It is what they want to hear; it is what they want Chinese people to believe. …
“This utterance, then, might just be his effort to make amends with the censors and create better opportunities for his next film. It’s all about the Maos. (This is my attempt to coin a Chinese version of the American slang phrase, ‘It’s all about the Benjamins’; Mao Zedong appears on PRC currency...).”
Canadian Content Forums: Too much freedom in China can lead to ‘chaos,’ says Jackie Chan.
“Jackie Chan presumably has lots of freedom and I won’t take him seriously until he gives it up.”
Foreign Policy: Does Jackie Chan really hate freedom?
“Chan’s not in a position to criticize a decision by the Chinese government, but the over-the-top comments seem like they could be a subtle dig at the Chinese authorities for being so uptight about his movie. Then again, I could be giving the guy too much credit.”
Beyond Hollywood: Jackie Chan Says Freedom is For Chumps, Not Chinese Folk.
Shanghaiist: Reactions to Jackie Chan's views of freedom in China.
“Given that Chan’s most recent movie, ‘Shinjuku Incident,’ was banned in China for being too violent, Chan may have used his Boao speech as an opportunity to curry favor with the Chinese government. …
“But even if Chan thinks he needs to win over the Chinese government to screen his movies, it’s the Chinese people who will be watching them and we don’t think this latest of political misstatements can be good for Jackie Chan’s reputation.”
China Law Blog: Jackie Chan Is A Know-Nothing Self-Loathing Racist.
“I was going to write a blog post criticizing Chan for his comments and noting how the same thing has been said about other countries that are now democracies (the United States, Japan, West Germany, Italy, Spain and South Korea immediately come to mind). Then I decided I am not the right person to write such a post, so I didn’t.”
Global voices: Jackie Chan: Chinese need control.
When compared with western media's reports, it seems that local people are less surprised by the news, as Joanna replied in the comment section of China Law Blog:
“What Chan said is something I was told thousands of times since I was born….
“Yes, people should be controlled (by what? to what extent?), or they’ll just do what they want — but the government should be controlled also, or it’ll just do what it wants too.”
Uncle Ray’s Corner: On Jackie Chan.
“Numerous human right activists and protesters were put into prison. I want to ask Jackie Chan, are they so wrong that they need to be ‘controlled’ by the government?”
“異見人士胡佳因發表了兩篇文章，便被法院裁定為"顛覆國家政權"罪判監3年。還有無數在國內因遇上不公的事去上訪，又或維權人士，都一一被關進監牢。我想問問成龍，這些人是否都做錯了事，所以需要被政府"管一下"呢？”
Hollywire: Students in China Speak Out on Jackie Chan’s Freedom Remarks.
“I agree with Jackie Chan’s opinion. The population of China is too large. If everyone has freedom, they’ll do whatever they want and our lives will be a mess. Civilization or society will be in a degraded state.”
-Li Long Fei, 21
Sanmenxia, China“I think his words are too extreme. Freedom and control must exist together. Without some kind of control, pure freedom is only theoretical. But without freedom, control can only make everything worse.”
-Wang Pan Pan, 22
Han Gu Guan, China“I think the Chinese need freedom. In the old times, all the people were controlled. They were too eager to have freedom and it caused wars. Then the peace was broken.”
-Guo Yan, 20
Nan Yang, China“I think it’s good for the Chinese to have freedom. China has been controlled for a long time, so the Chinese don’t have comfortable freedom now. It only needs time, Chinese can study to use the freedom.”
-Ji Yan Wu, 21
Luoyang, China
Volconvo: Jackie Chan: Chinese people need to be controlled.
“I think in Jackie’s case he’s OK with it because it doesn’t really affect him. I’m fairly sure the average Chinese person is not living, or having the influence, that Jackie has.”
What is interesting is that even members of the Chinese Communist Party seemed shocked by Jackie Chan’s words. The kung-fu movie star expected that belittling democracy and liberty would win him favor with the dictatorship by appealing to old Communist dogmas. He was mistaken.
The Communists know as well as anyone else that they long ago abandoned the ideologies of Marx and Stalin. If capitalism represents monopolies, high profits and loose safety regulations, China today is far more capitalist than the West. China might just as well end the political Stalinism, too. The Communists know they now have nothing left to justify blocking Chinese democracy. Their sons and daughters remind them all the time. Sure, China’s young people believe there has to be the self-control of democratically decided laws, but most know full well that freedom can exist alongside order.
Yet here was this moral midget, Jackie Chan, telling the Communist leaders that oppression is a good thing.
History starstruck. Imagine the family discussions over dinner in Beijing last week. I’ll bet neither the dictators nor the democrats had anything too good to say about Jack Chan. The trouble is, history is decided too often by a pliable, apolitical minority, the starstruck personality worshipers who will accept anything, even real chains, for a pretender’s fake smile.
Frank Warner
woowee! Good stuff, Frank. I especially like your cartoon. It's good to see the spectrum of responses. It's pretty abstract, a fairly safe conversation, but it's a good thing for the Chinese people to be talking and thinking about.
Posted by: jj mollo | April 26, 2009 at 10:54 PM