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.
"There are probably a lot of reasons for this disparity in reaction..."
ReplyDeleteI think for me, the most obvious thing is that Gong Li was a National People's Congress member for a time -- ditto Zhang Yimou, more than incidentally -- whereas Jet Li never was.
http://china.org.cn/english/2003lh/index25.htm
You are right--a lot of the comments at the time cited Gong Li's membership in the CPPCC. That she was still a member and was being considered for re-appointmemt when she announced her emigration showed a lack of respect for institutions of the Chinese government and Party.
ReplyDeleteAs on old fashioned post-modernist I tend to see many (most) issues like this through the prisms of race, class or gender--all three whenever possible ;-> and would continue to assert that part of the huge difference in reaction is based on more than her CPPCC membership.
Hi ewaffle --
ReplyDelete"As on old fashioned post-modernist..."
Teeheehee at that somewhat oxymoronic notion! ;D
"...I tend to see many (most) issues like this through the prisms of race, class or gender--all three whenever possible"
I think it would be remiss not to do so. But the problem is which to prioritise as well as to remember that sometimes there really are other, more pertinent factors in play.
More than incidentally, I brought up the Gong Li vs Jet Li subject with a Mainland Chinese colleague/friend today. Her answer: the reason for the differentiation is that Jet Li was considered "lost"/gone from the Mainland years/decades earlier -- first, to Hong Kong (where he made all those movies, including those in which he excelled as a Cantonese -- vs Chinese per se -- hero in the form of Wong Fei Hung), then to the US before heading to Singapore. Whereas Gong Li was seen as out and out (Mainland) Chinese -- and yes, not least because she was a member of the CPPCC. Hence the shock upon her "betrayal" of renouncing her Chinese citizenship to become something else (i.e., Singaporean).
"But the problem is which to prioritise as well as to remember that sometimes there really are other, more pertinent factors in play."
ReplyDeleteHmm--You mean that facts may get in the way of my theories? I will have to give that some thought. :-)
The odd thing here is that in Chinese tradition, the wife always moves to her husband's place of residence, and is no longer considered to belong to her original home, so Gong Li is just doing what Chinese women have been expected to do for millennia.
ReplyDelete