Jackie Chan is arguably the biggest movie star from the East. A pioneer in stunt work and action films, Chan’s fame and success rival that of the biggest A-listers in Hollywood. A self-made film star, the Rush Hour alum has over 4 decades of work under his belt. Suffice to say, he has done it all.
In a media interaction, Chan once revealed that his motivation for work has changed. It’s no longer fun or financial incentives that drive him, rather it’s the propagation of Chinese culture and art. After Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan is China’s biggest cultural icon in the West. As such, Chan is in a unique position to share Chinese culture with the wider world and the Shaolin star takes his duties seriously.
Representation Matters to Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan has played his part in representing the Chinese culture. However, the legendary actor does not feel that it’s enough and wants to do more to introduce his culture to the world and enlighten people about it. In his quest to do so, Chan became focused on choosing scripts that will help him bring the Chinese culture to the outside world.
Talking to South China Morning Post, Chan stated,
“When I film now, it’s not about what’s just fun or amusing. I think about if the film can bring Chinese culture, or my own culture and reflections, to the outside world … it’s as simple as that.”
In fact, Chan is ready to do films that have an extremely low budget if that means he’ll get to bring his culture to light. The actor simply feels that it is his duty to do so.
“It’s something that I feel I have a duty to do. For example, projects like Kung Fu Panda; even if the budget is super low, I’ll still do it. Why? I want these films to be a big success, to sell well at the box office. Through those films I bring our Chinese culture to the globe.”
It’s truly commendable that the actor is taking a step toward enlightening people about the beautiful Chinese culture. There’s a reason why Chan has achieved legendary status in the film industry, after all!
Jackie Chan on the Importance of Promoting Chinese Culture through Cinema
Via China Daily, Chan spoke in Beijing back in 2018 about how cinema can help promote Chinese culture overseas. He stated that Kung Fu and Pandas are part of the cultural elements of the country, it was Hollywood that took the step of combining the two on the screen.
“We have rich cultural elements that can be developed into popular movies. We have Kung Fu and we have panda. But we didn’t make Kung Fu Panda. Hollywood did.”
Chan, as we all know, voiced the character of Master Monkey from The Furious Five in Kung Fo Panda.
Furthermore, Chan elaborated on how cinema can help foreigners understand the country’s incredible culture with much ease.
“The films will eventually help foreigners to better understand a changing China and they’ll be more willing to visit the country.”
The Ride On actor is absolutely right. A proper representation of culture in cinema can help erase the unfair and outdated stereotypes people might believe about a country, causing them to put the place on their travel bucket list.
Source: South China Morning Post
