Jackie Chan a caminho da Coreia do Norte?

Flak flies over Chan's vision of freedom

Paggie Leung, Vivienne Chow and Raymond Li
South China Morning Post
April 21, 2009

Action star Jackie Chan was under fire from all parts of the Chinese-speaking world yesterday over remarks in which he suggested that Chinese need "control" and that too much freedom can lead to "chaos".

In Hong Kong, the Tourism Board came under pressure to remove him as the city's tourism ambassador, while University of Hong Kong students condemned him as "ill-fitted to represent Hong Kong in future".

On the mainland, 20 scholars issued an open letter attacking Chan for his remarks at the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan at the weekend, labelling him a "black sheep" and accusing him of turning his back on a system that helped catapult him to where he is now.

In Taiwan, where respondents to a newspaper poll branded Chan's remarks "nonsense", the Democratic Progressive Party urged the Taipei city government to remove him as one of the ambassadors of the Summer Deaflympics in Taipei.

The row broke after Chan said, in response to questions about controls on filmmaking on the mainland: "I don't know whether it is better to have freedom or to have no freedom. With too much freedom ... it can get very chaotic, could end up like in Taiwan." Chan yesterday said only that his remarks at the forum had been taken out of context and the meaning had been twisted.

Thousands have formed discussion groups on the Facebook network, condemning his remarks. One, which has accumulated more than 1,200 members in two days, urged Chan to go to North Korea if he did not like excessive freedom.

By last night the Tourism Board had received 17 complaints - including one from Canada - from people calling for Chan to be dumped as tourism ambassador. Board chairman James Tien Pei-chun said it would need to study the appointment terms before deciding whether it could do so. Chan was appointed to the role during a courtesy campaign in 1995 to promote the city.

The University of Hong Kong Students Union issued a statement strongly condemning Chan's remarks and demanding an immediate apology. "We find it most ironic that Mr Chan was speaking about creative filmmaking in Hong Kong, which hangs on the very spirit of the freedoms we now enjoy," it said.

One of the mainland scholars, Chen Yongmiao, said: "As an international superstar with enormous following on the mainland, we fear that what he said could lead to further confusion over the notion of freedom. To us, Hong Kong is still a free island sitting in between a free world and an authoritarian system, so we want to protect such status."