The post below discusses the reaction of Chinese internet users to Gong Li officially emigrating from China and becoming a citizen of Singapore. One of her compatriots, Jet Li, followed the same path recently. Like Gong Li he hadn't really lived in China for years and his moving to Singapore was termed a family matter. In Gong Li's case she had married a citizen of the island nation at the tip of the Malay peninsula. For Jet Li it was the education of his daughter who had started school there.
In this case there wasn't such blanket condemnation from the "netizens"--in an article here there is a lively although quickly tiresome discussion among those with an internet connection and an opinion concerning Jet Li which is only notable by the difference between it and the attacks on Gong Li as a traitor to her country.
CRIEnglish has this story which simply recounts what the writer knew about the subject and the Global Times covers it here, going so far as to say that "No matter which citizenship Li chose, he is still a Chinese in many people’s eyes and deserves our respect for his contribution to China and its people" giving him the kind of respect of which Gong Li clearly wasn't worthy.
There are probably a lot of reasons for this disparity in reaction--Jet Li almost always played heros, including some of the most heroic heros ever put on film while Gong Li did not, for example--but the most obvious one to this not well informed outsider is gender. Jet Li is doing the right thing for his family by turning his back on China while Gong Li is selling out her birthright by joining her husband in his country of birth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment