In order to promote nationalism and celebrate the 60th anniversary of PRC, CCTV [1] invited internationally well-known movie star Jackie Chan [2] to comment on military parade. In the interview, Jackie Chan kept stressing that China is awesome and great and that it is the only country which won't sell their passport, etc… but with quite a few Freudian slips that surprised the CCTV hosts.
A Taiwan TV news report has reproduced the CCTV interview in which you can see Jackie Chan acted out his excitement. The clip is now at youtube:
ESWN translated [3] the TV interview:
Chan: Our generation is so lucky because of what we run into. China has never been better in the last 5,000 years. Great unity … everything is good. Even the heavens are helping us. The call went out: “Everybody stand up and sing the national anthem!” You hear that … (making the sound of music) … Wow, it was unbearable. The tears. Really.
(note: the reference to “the heavens” is about how the weather in Beijing turned good in the morning of October 1st. The television host was embarrassed and had to inform him that more than 400 rockets were fired to disperse an incoming bank of clouds.)
(the voice over said that Jackie Chan was sitting in the first row of the audience at the Tiananmen parade)
Chan: The impulse. I saw our Chairman Hu come down. I really wanted to rush over to shake his hand. But I know that even before I can stretch my hand out, there would already be “Bang Bang Bang.”
TV hostess: There won't be.
(the voice over said that Jackie Chan then switched over to condemn the wave of immigration out of Hong Kong before the colony was returned to China. In so doing, he glossed over the fact that his wife lives in the United States and his son was born there and therefore an American citizen.)
Chan: You see, at the time I cursed them out. I said that those of you who leave are not Chinese. Now every one of them is back. They came back on their own. Chinese nationality is the most difficult to obtain around the world. You go anywhere else and you can buy citizenship with money. In China, you cannot even get it with money. This is why us China is awesome.
Many, who read Jackie Chan's interview as it is, were outraged. Charles Mok [4] said in his facebook status on Oct 6 that he would boycott Jackie Chan's movie from now on. His comments were echoed by many others, such as:
Shame on him PK Jackie Chan
Shame of Hong Kong>< bastard Jackie Chan is a super medal of Chinese people!!
Jackie Chan is a Facist PK!
However, when one reads into the interview closely, one can see that he has spoken some truths, such as the fact that he would be “Bang bang bang” (shot) if he rushed to shake hand with Chairman Hu. In the youtube, the discussion pointed towards different directions:
merkabah [5] read into the meaning of “Bang bang bang”
好一句蹦、蹦、蹦暗諷中共六四當年就在該處屠殺無辜學生，成龍大 哥果然是不為五斗米折腰的中華民族真心英雄！
yuhon09 [6] agreed that Jackie Chan tried to assassinate the CCP by his praise/lie:
“捧殺中共”
Kelvinc8 [7] said:
Jacky is funny, haha. Can't blame him, he's a joke. Anyway, he is right, I'm from HK living oversea, how can I be 中國人 (Trans: Mainland Chinese)? I don't have their passport. I'm 華人 (Trans: Hua Ren or Chinese) , 唐人 (Trans: Tang people), 東方人 (Trans: Oriental) but not 中國人 (Trans: Mainland Chinese). Just like Taiwanese, they have their own nation, how can they be 中國人 (Trans: Mainland Chinese). But of cause they are 華人 (Trans: Hua Ren). There is a difference between nationality and race, for crying out loud.
hin1972 [8] commented on the idea of unity brought forward by Jackie:
什麼大團結,極權統治下叫大團結!
白色恐怖下既大團結!人民敢發一言嗎?
中共只係比奏始皇做得更好!懂得思想改造而已!
Unity under the white terror! dare people make a sound?
CCP is better than the Ching emperor as it knows how to reform a person's mind!
telecake [9] and bblkwok [10] discussed about Jackie Chan's nationality and education background:
telecake : Please keep in mind that he doesn't even have a basic high school education. And I believe he holds an American passport? I feel embarrassed for him in every which of ways.
bblkwok : he has not even had elementary school education, and I think he has Aust passport, while his wife and son hold US one.
stiafro [11] commented that he had taken too much drug:
Too many stunts… hit too many times in the head.. now you are fucked in the head.
http://www.youtube.com/user/futubh>futubh made fun of his Chinese name by saying that the dragon has turned into a Chamaeleo [12].
浮誇偽人
成 了變色 龍
白痴冇得救小丑
蠢
Turn into a chamaeleo
An idiotic clown
Stupid
Earlier this year, Jackie Chan made another outraging comment on “Chinese need control” [13] which was interpreted by some as being racist. So what's your reading of Jackie Chan's comments this time?