Action film star Jackie Chan said Monday that his comments suggesting that Chinese people need to be controlled and that too much freedom can lead to chaos were taken out of context, the South China Morning Post reported. Chan set off a roiling controversy across the Chinese-speaking world over the weekend when he told an audience at the Boao Forum for Asia that “I don’t know whether it is better to have freedom or to have no freedom. With too much freedom … it can get very chaotic, could end up like in Taiwan.” Chan was responding to a question regarding controls on filmmaking on the mainland. A group of 20 mainland scholars have since issued an open letter attacking Chan for his remarks. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has come under pressure to remove Chan from his role as the city’s tourism ambassador, and University of Hong Kong students have said Chan is “ill-fitted to represent Hong Kong in the future.”
Categories