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Jackie Chan is an internationally recognized actor. He has one of the most impressive careers in terms of the number of movies he starred in. He is almost universally loved around the world because he used to portray the capable but clumsy type that has to fight his way out of a predicament, usually with hilarious and spectacular results. The man is a perfectionist and over the years he has developed his own style of shooting a movie that has yet to be matched by his contemporaries. He is known for using dozens, sometimes hundreds of takes for the intricate and often funny scenes that have cemented his reputation. He doesn’t accept anything less than perfect synchronization in the complex fight choreographies that are the hallmark of his movies. This is mostly unheard of in the west because of the “time is money” mentality that pushes directors to finish a movie as fast as possible. After he became popular, Jackie was sometimes allowed months to film certain scenes.
Another thing that makes him popular is his unique ability to combine comedy with action and make them inseparable. All in all, Jackie Chan is a world renown actor and has a likeable movie persona, that has catapulted him into fame. Almost everybody likes him, right? Wrong! He is actually disliked by many of his countrymen (especially in Hong Kong) and when your countrymen are Chinese, then we are talking big numbers here.
“Who could hate Jackie Chan”, some would ask, “the guy is awesome!” Well, while I agree that his movies are a delight for fans, in China (mostly his hometown, Hong Kong) he is known as a “five pence”, someone who gets paid to make the government look good on the internet. Chan has been known to side with the communist government and spread their propaganda. Some of his statements over the years are downright ridiculous and clearly show his allegiance to the aforementioned political regime:
"I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not. 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,"..."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," stated Jackie at a regional conference called the Boao Forum for Asia. While the comment was positively received by the chinese business leaders present to the event, it sparked outrage among the pro democracy supporters. Among others, he also claimed that the air pollution in Beijing doesn’t exist. The city is famous (or infamous) for its pollution.
There are more, less sensational comments made by Chan over the years but his constant association to the communist government and the praise he publicly offers them has built a negative aura around him that he just can’t seem (or want) to shake off. The problem is that the man and the character are two very different dimensions of the same individual that at first glance, seem incompatible. It is this discrepancy that smears the positive and nullifies the good in the persona. Well, you see things this way if you are a pro democracy chinese person. Otherwise, the rest of the world will confuse Jackie Chan with his movie characters, mistakenly believing that he is a lovable, clumsy fool. His private life has also been discussed and critiqued but I consider that to be the man’s private business so I will not touch the subject any further.
Chan has his good points when it comes to public appearances. He is an animal conservationist, he supports children's charities and he supports LGBTQ rights. Also, he knows how to present himself in the western public eye and makes dignified appearances, further strengthening the audience’s belief that he is an honorable kung fu master. Who is Jackie Chan and do his political views matter to you? Does it affect you that he is pro communism, spreading the good word about social equality and talking about communist problems that are obvious for everybody else as if they weren’t even there.
You don’t want to tarnish the memory of the bright-eyed kid learning a special kind of kung fu from an old master with bad teeth. Nobody wants to hear bad things about their heroes but they are humans as well and actors will act on-screen while being human beings off-screen. Human beings are flawed and Chan is no exception. While he may look like he belongs “to the people” so to speak, the man is a millionaire, a public figure, someone who can reach to the masses, so being approached by the communists is a clever political move on the part of chinese officials. What you think about the man is your business, I just shed some light on the overwhelmingly positive persona that is and always will be one of my personal favourites, Jackie Chan.

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