Just a bit of news that popped up over the weekend:
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.”
And of course the predictable backlash from Hong Kong and Taiwan:
“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?”
…
In democratically self-ruled Taiwan, which split from mainland China during a civil war in 1949, legislator Huang Wei-che said Chan himself “has enjoyed freedom and democracy and has reaped the economic benefits of capitalism. But he has yet to grasp the true meaning of freedom and democracy.”
My wife’s first reaction was to say that he’s an uneducated idiot prone to make shallow comments. Someone on QT3 commented that he’s actually illiterate and needs people to read his scripts to him, but I don’t know how true that it. Anyway it’s clear enough that he’s an airhead who only gets attention due to the gigantic soapbox he gets from his superstardom, but I still wish someone famous from the Chinese entertainment world would be brave enough to speak out on behalf of democracy and freedom.