Zhang Ziyi Puzzled By Olympic Protests: "I Don't See Why People Are So Negative"

HONG KONG — "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star Zhang Ziyi has told Vogue magazine that she is puzzled by the protests against China's human rights record before the Beijing Olympics.

Activists have criticized China's rule in Tibet and its alleged failure to do more to help stop mass killings in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Protests marred several international legs of the Olympic torch relay.

The actress served as a torch bearer for the Chinese leg of the relay.

"I don't see why people are so negative. The games are about friendship," Zhang was quoted as saying in the current issue of Vogue. "I'm Chinese and I'm proud of my country."

Zhang's manager didn't immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Zhang's film credits also include "Rush Hour 2," "House of Flying Daggers" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."

Comments

[frybread]

Zhang Ziyi's comments are shared by many wealthy and upper-middle class Chinese who have benefited from the system in that country while ignoring the less-fortunate who are imprisoned and crushed for their disatisfaction.

[jukesgrrl]

Hmmm. Sounds like the country I live in.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Do you, by chance, live in the Fascist States of America too?

[marleysghost]

We could start with the top of the list; the invasion of Tibet and the destruction of its culture. But since it is a pattern of behavior enjoyed by the US since before the forced march of the Cherokee Indians by President Andrew Jackson, we really have no moral ground upon which to stand when we point fingers at others.

[alsm9]

^Yep. There really isn't a nation on this planet that hasn't committed some sort of human rights crime. None of us have anything to be proud of really. With that said it doesn't mean we should ignore what the Chinese gov are doing. I commend people who speak against that gov, just as I commend people who speak against what the American government is doing. And if anyone in the States thinks "well at least we have free speach here", talk to the Dixie Chicks.

[timepants]

"Great men are rightly proud of their own personal greatness. Lesser men find pride in the accidents of their birth: being white, male, American or coming from the best state in the union. If the only thing you can take pride in is something you had no control over doesn't that say a lot about you?" - Martin Willett

[MrStill]

Knowing what we know now, The Dixie Chicks seem to have been right all along...

[phoquemyope]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Best thanks for this truly apt comparison which most Americans conveniently forget. Oh yeah, slavery too.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

Don't forget the Internment of Japanees-Americans during WWII.

[MrUnlimited]

I don't think most Americans forgot about that information...I think most Americans never knew that information to begin with. It's a pattern that can be observed in many countries: a pattern of highlighting the atrocities of other countries while minimizing/rarely mentioning your own.

That's why in the U.S. it's politically popular to extensively discuss the Holocaust while rarely talking about our treatment of American Indians in great detail. That's also why it was popular (during the 1950s, etc.) for the Soviet Union to criticize U.S. treatment of black Americans while rarely discussing the way in which it suppressed certain segments of its own population. It's one way of promoting nationalism. But I agree that the comparison was apt.

[brooklyncitizen]

Thi s really it. I've heard this from Chinese friends especially in light of Iraq and Afghanistan and impending war with Iran. The US has no moral ground.....at best before [Bush Crime Inc] there was an illusion of high ideals and freedom but now? fugghedaboutit.

[daddydamon]

The Chinese gov't is helping to preserve Tibetan culture. They spend billions every year in Tibet to preserve Buddhist temples in Tibet, Sichuan, and muslim structures in Xinjiang. READ A BOOK AMERICANS. Stop getting your information from television with an agenda. It's their job to make China look bad.

[anghiari]

If you live a privileged life under a regime that does not allow protest....duh! how could /would you understand what it means to have the freedom to protest. She loves her country because she has had all the privileges and none of the sanctions!

[littlepuffycloud]

Why is she any different from proud Americans who don't have a clue about some of the horrible things done in the name of our country? Our history books are full of lies and omissions and we have a media that covers up for a murderous government and president. Since we live in the biggest glass house on the planet, we should refrain from the boulders being hurled at this lovely Chinese lady.

[nerakami]

proud of the same country that just intimidated bar owners not to serve any blacks that go into their establishment....

that's a country I CHOOSE to stay away from.

[monty]

Are you talking about China or the South in America?

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

YES!

[monty]

It's what the Chinese Communist government told her to say. Either that or she's as stupid as she sounds.

[ibsteve2u]

lolllll...reminds me of that 20-odd% who have benefited so greatly from Republican greed and corrupt..."I do not understand why people are so negative...things are great for me!!!".

This gal is a natural for an anchor position with Fox...

[Hillrick]

Do you mean the "I've always been proud of my country" millionaire beer heiress crowd? Yeah they sure don't rock the boat but if they do they can afford the dental work.

[mediamarv]

Likes censorship, does she... what about her contemporaries who can no longer work in China... ??

[bazokbros]

Another Chinese talking shill. Of course she doesn't remember the thing about Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and attack of the Tibetan Monks. Most recently her government giving an edict not to serve black people in bars because they are undesirable.

Lot's of friendship Zhang Ziyi - aling.

[LadyFist]

Weird. I had some bosses that were Chinese Americans that thought the same thing. About serving Black people that is...

[egghumor]

I imagine she was "advised" to make such a statement. Isn't she the same actress who blasted celebrities for not knowing about the Sichuan earthquake only moments after it happened? I doubt she knows anything about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. She lives in a bubble, and has completely lost sight of the fact that all Chinese media is controlled, and that all negative news about China is never seen by her people. NO Chinese TV station is going to show anything about Darfur, Tibet (except stories that portray Tibetans as hoodlums) or anything about the rampant displacement of people to make way for the Olympics.

[LiberalBuzz]

Of course she is saying that...if she knows what's good for her.

[dicktracyson]

People are negative because there more than 2billion of your fellow citizens living in oppression and with assets less than .01 percent of what you have Ms. Zhiyi. Open your eyes and stop acting like a phreaking khunt.

[SouthFloridaDem]

Give her a break. She's young and grew up under the system. She doesn't know anything else. And she doesn't speak English, so even if she's traveling elsewhere in the world, she can't hear anything without a translator filter. It was the same for people in the old Soviet bloc.

[mexamerican]

c'mon, this is someone who is on the international stage, has traveled all over and has access to the truth. there are plenty of less privileged chinese who have never left china and who protest their govt's deeds much to their peril.

[emerywood]

Two billion people ?
The total population of China is around 1.3 billion and the majority of them nowadays are pretty happy and upbeat. Save you anger and foaming for GBW who thought the recent financial crisis was just because Wall Street " got drunk " ; no big deal !

[MagisterLudi]

Some people are nagative, not all. There are people who would like to sacrifice the WORLD'S Olympic Games on the alter of their narrow preoccupations.
But then again, the humorless, the inflexible are always going at it.
Remember the Munich Olympics massacre?
Palestinian terrorists were also preoccupied ... to the exclusion of the horrified world.

[JScott]

Get a clue. (Sadly she won't )


The chinese Brooke Hogan.

[MagisterLudi]

Here's a simply pre-requisite.
Walk over to the world map. If you cannot find Beijing, Tibet and Darfur on the map within 20 seconds ... consider moving to another thread. Don't embarrass yourself.

[ICanHasDemocracy]

why would a Hollywood brainwashed actress know anything about her homeland- in China she was treated as an asset for her martial/acting skills. A Chinese Marie Antoinette if you will-" let them eat rice cake"

[SouthFloridaDem]

Why would you know anything about growing up under a repressive system and not knowing anything else? Unable to speak or understand English or any other language, how would you learn anything else?