Jackie Chan: Chinese People Need To Be Controlled

BOAO, China — Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he's not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he's starting to think "we Chinese need to be controlled."

Chan's comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China's southern island province of Hainan.

The 55-year-old Hong Kong actor was participating in a panel at the annual Boao Forum when he was asked to discuss censorship and restrictions on filmmakers in China. He expanded his comments to include society.

"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."

The kung fu star has not been a vocal supporter of the pro-democracy movement in his hometown of Hong Kong. Since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, voters have not been allowed to directly elect their leader. Several massive street protests have been held to demand full democracy, but Beijing has repeatedly said Hong Kong isn't ready for it.

The theme at Saturday's panel discussion was "Tapping into Asia's Creative Industry Potential," and Chan had several opinions about innovation in China.

He said that early in his career, he lived in the shadow of the late martial arts star Bruce Lee. He said that during his first foray into Hollywood, he struggled to establish his own identity, so he returned to Hong Kong. After spending 15 years building his reputation in Asia, Chan finally got rediscovered by Hollywood, he said.

Chan said the problem with Chinese youth is that "they like other people's things. They don't like their own things." Young people need to spend more time developing their own style, he added.

The action hero complained that Chinese goods still have too many quality problems. He became emotional when discussing contaminated milk powder that sickened tens of thousands of Chinese babies in the past year.

Speaking fast with his voice rising, Chan said, "If I need to buy a TV, I'll definitely buy a Japanese TV. A Chinese TV might explode."

Comments

[longnow]

It takes a lot of nerve to say that. Only an international star can get
away with saying anything anti-China in a public forum. Too much
freedom? Chinese leaders agree. Without control too many leaders
would be killed, and we can't have that, or can we?

[Virginia Wai]

As a nation, the Chinese had NEVER experience the notion of democracy, as to philosophy and thoughts, these were set in stone since the time of Confucius, ;loyalty, obedience, are considered to be important, new thinking, a definitely no no, these were historically enforced by imprisonment or having one's head chop off.
After the communist revolution, the governing power ruled essentially the same way except during the power struggle of the cultural revolution, the government has replaced loyalty, obedience to the family to that of the party. In order to get on in life, one learnt to be toady, moral right and wrong has nothing to with real life.
For those who belonged to the under-cast, my parent's family for example, they have no access to party membership, not allowed to join the army, not allowed to further education and not allowed to travel outside the home village; they were kept as the serf for the country, one does not grow respect for a government that way.
Then came the sudden, economic liberalization where money is good, the more the better; with a lot of people getting rich not because they know any business but are in the position of signing permission etc.
May I suggest that the people in China deserve good governance, independence of institutions, real education, chance to learn obligations and rights of being citizen and chance to learn social morality and social responsibility; one day, democracy will come.

[stopgeorge]

Absolutely right!

And may I say again that Japan and Taiwan have already proven that Asian culture can, indeed, co-exist with democracy.

[Nanningyan]

As a Chinese person do you think that good governance is possible in China today? Their government seems open to new relationships in world trade and their handling of the milk scandal seem to indicate that they have some sense of responsibility.

[stopgeorge]

Handling of the Milk scandal?!! Are you freakin' kidding me?! They waited 3 months before doing anything about it. That is, after the Olympics.

What's more, their authoritarian and corrupt governance will not change if the international community continues to look the other way.

[Virginia Wai]

I like to hope that some day, there will be good governance; otherwise it is a very bleak future we are looking at.
I don't see the handling of the milk scandal as you do - the news from my end:
The problem was known for at least 3 months, but there seemed to be an unofficial policy of no bad news before the Olympic. In the mean time the New Zealand company that owned 46% of the company was being stone walled when its people tried to raise concern; the local government even threaten to take away their license. They turned to their own government and the concern was reported to the power in Beijing via the New Zealand ambassdor.
In the meantime, the newspapers and TVs in Hong Kong was reporting nothing else but the milk scandal (by the way, food scandals are nothing new but poisioning babies in a country where parents are only allowed one child is considered to be too much).
I think the Chinese was act out of no choice rather then doing it out of responsibility.
The result of the court case was no encouraging, the CEO etc got the sack and a few years in jail, the chairwoman got a fine as well but unless corruption is so endemic, there is no chance she can pay up. In the meantime, no mention of any officials who had been worse than unhelpful during the scandal.

[occasion]

The question needs to be asked is "who controls?" Self-control based on a democratically elected government or controlled by a bunch of dictators; and related, controlled based on what? Controlling forced by the will/thought/taste of dictators, or otherwise? If Chen's opinion is drawn from mainland China's current political system, then what he really means is that Chinese people, as whole, are a bunch of the inferior, therefore, they don't deserve to be treated equally and not entitled to their personal liberty, and fulfillment of their potentiality. What an insult to the Chinese people?!

[Nanningyan]

I think that what he was saying is that he would not like to see mainland China follow in the footsteps of Hong Kong or Makow (sp). Running a country with 1.3 billion people seems a daunting task and with little or no responsibility there will be chaos as there has been in Hong Kong. Your question about who controls is a good one and in all of history there are few, if any, long term leaders who have continued to advocate for their people.

[Virginia Wai]

I beg to disagree, India's population is not much smaller and it has a democracy, ok, it may not be perfect but people have a vote and therefore a voice.
I am actually in Hong Kong at the moment, I do not see the chaos you mentioned; what has changed is that people are gloomier because of the economic downturn; people are learning to use their vote and learning to use their collective voice. If the power that be does not like it, then they may have to get used to it.
I shall give you a simple illustraton of people power - the condo complex where my parent live, at the moment stands in splendid isolation above the surrounding buildings; However, there are development plan drawn up for more condo, some of these will be as close as 6 feet away from existing towers and they will be 50 floors high. The end result will be n sun and no air for the people living in the existing condos.
There has been a very active committee of residents who are fighting this and they may even get the planning permission changed.
This may be called 'NIMBY" some place else, but in Hong Kong, this is a serious challenge to the combine power of the government and developers.

[special muppet]

The company of a friend of mine moved its manufacturing operation to China. He told me that on the old production line, the company had taken care to give the people on the assembly line various tasks to do, to increase mobility, to improve workers' health and to try to make the work as interesting as possible.

My friend visited the Chinese plant and was pretty shocked at how things had changed. He saw one guy whose job was to tighten a screw, that's all. Tightening the same screw, hundreds of times a day, day after day.

Sorry folks, but I'm not a fan of Chinese Communism.

[SarahSarah]

Sheeple of the world unite and shear your wool!

[stopgeorge]

It is Chan's circular reasoning that makes me laugh. And I've encountered this with a number of Chinese co-workers.

If you go beyond what Chan asserts -- that is, why does the population NEED to be controlled? Then, inevitably, you'll get an answer like, "Because they are not educated, etc.".

Then you ask these authoritarian supporters, "Why -- if education is so important a requisite for this lack of control -- why does the government censor the truth all of the time? Isn't it important that the people understand the truth in order to become more educated?"

The circular reply is -- "Because they can't handle the truth."

So you see, this is not so much an issue about "controlling chaos". It is an issue about maintaining the class structure in Chinese society.

My co-worker's heads usually explode when you point out this circular reasoning, btw.

[Foohog]

Several years ago President Clinton basically engaged in a debate at a press conference with the Premier of China over this very issue. A news report on it can be read here-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/china/stories/tiananmen062798.htm
Watching that press conference reminded me that we have about one-third the population of China and a fraction of their historical perspective.
Our civil war cost a little over a million casualties or 3% of the population with about 600 thousand soldiers killed. At that same time the Chinese were in the midst of a civil war, a number of other political rebellions and several natural disasters all of which came to about 18% of their population killed over two decades: from 410 million in 1850 to 350 million in 1873. In fact, if you read Chinese history you won't need Jackie Chan to explain how several thousand years of war, disaster and anarchy might affect his attitude on personal liberty.
I don't defend their way of doing things- I think the Chinese government is a barbaric government and I would wish far greater freedom on the Chinese people. But calling Jackie Chan a racist and leaping up on our big white horse of moral superiority completely ignores his own perspective on his own cultural history which is a bad habit I wish more of we Americans would lose.

[MountPanic]

It's not so hard to imagine that someone who didn't grow up with an American sense of entitlement might see the conflict between "freedom" and responsible citizenship and question the effective balance of their relationship.

[JuniorBug]

He didn't say "responsible citizenshi­p." He said "control," and in a Communist society, that means something well beyond "responsible citizenshi­p." You're extrapolating.

[MountPanic]

He's also not saying anything about Communist style oppression. I'm interpreting "control" based on what else he's saying, about people with "freedom" becoming chaotic and carried away versus the need to keep peace via the (necessary level of) exerted "control."

I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him. I think -- absent arch opinions -- finding that balance is an interesting discussion worth having. I respect the fact that he seems to be grappling with it himself rather than parroting a conditioned response.

[BDAinVA]

I guess as long as Chan is free to do what he wants its okay. Classic Republican thinking. I've got mine and to hell with everyone else.

[FrankenPC]

This just occurred to me. Did Jackie contract the Juaquin virus that's going around?

[Ryoki]

Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, who's next? Steven Segal promoting that Nebraska rise up and become a monarchy with Jean-Claude Van Damme as king? Look guys the movies were fun and all but you need to chill out and get a hobby. Remember; you only played heros. You know, pretend. Just relax, take the pills like the doctor said and rest. You have to sign some 8x10s for your fans at the MegaMovie-­TV-SportCo­mic Con in Newark tommorow.

[HC4BO]

It's his English ...

Sometime it is difficult to understand "the words that are coming out of his mouth ..."

Then again it may be something in the water ...

[Nanningyan]

perhaps if you spoke Mandarin or Cantonese it would be easier for you to understand. Or any other language for that matter.

[factotem]

Nann, You just scored a zero on pop cultural awareness. That line is probably the most well known quote of Jackie Chan's career, yelled at him by ChrisTucker, in the movie Rush Hour.

[Nanningyan]

There is a lot of difference between doing what we want and acting responsibly. If large population countries like China and the United States allow people to do what they want pretty soon the need to act responsibly disappears.
I lived in Nanning China for a year and I love the Chinese people. They are very industrious, friendly and courteous. In the United States where we enjoy many freedoms that China does not we are not so friendly, industrious and certainly not courteous. So who has it right? you tell me.

All the while I was there I never felt like I lacked any freedoms.

[stopgeorge]

I always laugh at Americans always using the U.S. as the model for freedom and democracy, I must say.

Stop using this strawman, please.

Never felt like you lacked any freedoms, did you? Let me ask you something -- did you protest against the government about anything in a meaningful way?

Methinks not.

[Nanningyan]

there are certainly issues with censorship but I wrote a blog every two weeks or so and nothing was said about that and no limitation were put on me.
And you must explain how you see what i said as a strawman argument as a model for anything. I simply stated that there is a difference in freedoms and that our freedoms are often also our problems. Pornography is freedom of speech but child pornography is illegal. In China Pornography is illegal period. Different lines drawn by different cultures.
My guess is that you are a person who has never set foot outside the US. You do not go to another persons house and complain about its upkeep.

[Virginia Wai]

I am Chinese, and I like to point oout that in the US you have the kind of freedom that cannot be even dream off elsewhere.
Your new President is a case in point, a mixed race Chinese with no apparent political backing being elected to be president of China!!??
Going on street demonstrations without having your future career ruined and may be that of your entire family also.
Going to work at your factory and finding it closed and you had not been paid for the last 3 months.
Being sick but cannot afford health care, not even in the emergency room as you need to pay there too.
And, finally, this may sober a lot of people up - a woman died in a hosptial, the hospital will not release the body for funeral until the medical bills are paid but her husband has no money; he has tried to get the hospital to accept a part payment scheme. The guy earns between $600-900 yuan a month, he has 3 kids to feed, he thinks he can pay the hospital $5,000 yuan a year - this will take over 100 year to clear the bill; he has promised that his children and grandchildren will honour the paying of the bill. The hospital authority is considering this and is asking for a guarantor.
The US may not be perfect but a lot of countries will like to have some of the freedom that its citizen take for granted.

[Pyfagorus]

In the West the saying is, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." In the East the saying is, "The nail that sticks up gets hammered down." They're only sayings, of course.

[breakingpoint]

very good!

Unfortunately, the wheel has to squeak long and hard in the US because of the magical silent din of sweaty wads of Congressional cash from corporate powers.

and speaking of the nail, what ever happen to tank man?

[skippy20008]

Sounds like Jackie's taken a few too many to the head. I guess those fights on fiilm were real.