Jackie Chan: Chinese need control · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

“I'm mot sure if it's good to have freedom or not, I'm really confused now. If there is too much freedom, like the way Hong Kong is today, it is very chaotic; Taiwan is also chaotic. I'm gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled.” – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong and Hollywood's action movie star, spoke at a panel on “Tapping into Asia's Creative Industry potential” in Hainan, a southern province in China n 18 April 2009. (more from wtop)
China Law Blog considers Jackie Chan a racist for making such comment:
The title sums up my initial reaction to the news of Jackie Chan dissing the Chinese people by essentially saying they are too messed up to ever be able to handle democracy. 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.
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, but the unusual point this time is that he is a celebrity and he is from Hongkong –the freest area in China, but also the most colonial area in Chinese history (Maybe that's why it sounds somewhat racist to western ears).
He said: “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.”
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. How sad is that only the former half can be told, and can be said.
Btw, this part of Chan's speech wasn't reported by mainland China's media. He was again reported as a patriot, telling the young people to love China and to be proud of chinese culture, not the foreign countries’. The power just doesn't like anyone talking about anything related to politics.
In Hong Kong, many people are disapointed, Uncle Ray  said that Jackie Chan is heartless to talk like that:
今天讀報看到一篇關於四川地震的文章。當中提到中國政府到今天還未對有多少學生死亡有正式說法。一些父母自己去追查真相，卻被人關的關，鎖的鎖，恐嚇的恐嚇。文人劉曉波在去年發表了一些對國家期望和改革的言論，在沒審訊的情況下被政府二話不說的拿下，一直扣留下來沒說甚麼時候會釋放。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？
Those were the days wonders what's so chaotic about Hong Kong?
他說香港的「亂」，究竟，亂在那兒？亂在港人為悍衛自己民主、自由權益發聲？亂在港人為弱勢社群上街？亂在社民連在議會中用粗口罵對北京唯命是從的狗官？
把「自由」和「亂」拉上關係，這是怎樣的邏輯？今天香港，或許不是所謂人也認同要有民主普選，但包括左派在內，也不敢說香港不應有自由：由殖民地年代始，香港人也是沒有多少民主，但仍有法治、仍有自由，縱使民主發展步伐，港人未必有同一立場，但從未有港人反對，香港人應該有更多、更大的自由！正如，沒有人會說香港不應堅持法治一樣！
Diumanpark, a blogger from Hong Kong, has a different interpretation of Jackie Chan's talk. If Chinese need control, who should be controlling? and who should be under control? He mocks at Jackie Chan's logic:
所以，成龍大哥話中實有深意，只是遭無知的傳媒誤解。「中國人需要管」，意思至少有兩個，其一，就是由中國人用制度去管中國人，即全中國立即推行民主普選，嚴格推行法治，開放言論自由，由輿輪和傳媒加入去管中國人；其二，就是成龍大哥原來跟不少香港人一樣，懷念殖民地，希望中國成為殖民地，中國人還是由諸如美國、英國甚至日本等先進國家管一管，才能站起來。