Hong Kong’s loved and loathed ageing action star Jackie Chan has waded into the “Umbrella” debate – no prizes for guessing which side he’s on.
The 60-year-old movie star, who’s upset Hongkongers before by suggesting that rights to protest in the territory should be limited, took to Weibo yesterday to call on all involved in the Occupy movement to “work together, return to reason, face the future, love the country, love our Hong Kong.”
He also said he’s “anxious” over reports of economic losses of HKD350 billion, and quoted a song he recorded in 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China: “Can there be a prosperous home without a powerful country?”
According to the SCMP, Chan was praised in China – where media reports and online conversations about the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement have been heavily censored – for “daring to speak out”.
However, unsurprisingly, Hongkongers have not been quite so awed. Anti-Beijing publication Apple Daily joined netizens in drawing a connection between Chan’s comments and the recent arrest of his son on drug possession charges.
According to Taiwan’s Liberty Times, one Weibo user asked “How much was your son’s sentence commuted for this?”, before the comment was mysteriously deleted.
Photo: Onyrogr via Flickr
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