TAIPEI - Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan on Wednesday made his first visit to Taiwan since he accused the island’s president of staging an election-eve shooting four years ago.
The actor had avoided the island since calling the shooting, which slightly wounded incumbent candidate Mr Chen Shui-bian in March 2004, ‘the biggest joke in the world’.
The remark damaged Chan’s reputation with Mr Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party, which favours formal Taiwanese independence, a stance clearly at odds with Chan’s own identification with Greater China - Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland.
Scores of protesters shouted ‘Jackie Chan, get out’ as the actor, having arrived aboard a private jet, was escorted by bodyguards and local police out of the airport near Taipei. But his supporters also yelled, ‘Welcome, Jackie Chan.’
A woman told CTI TV at the airport: ‘Jackie Chan insulted Taiwanese people and denied the value of our democracy.’
Chan maintained a smile as he made his way through a crowd of photographers.
Speaking to reporters a month after Mr Chen left office and Mr Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Nationalists was sworn in, he acknowledged that he was nervous before arriving in Taipei.
‘I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what clothes to wear. So in the end, I just decided to be natural.’
In Taiwan to promote his charity work on behalf of one of the island’s youth soccer teams, he said he was not concerned that some Taiwanese did not welcome his visit.
‘This is normal everywhere,’ he said. ‘It’s normal in Germany and the United States. I really don’t care about it.’
Jackie Chan arrives to mixed emotions
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan is back in Taiwan again four years after angering then President Chen Shui-bian’s supporters with his controversial remark about an assassination attempt targeting the head of state.
Chan was greeted by a protest by opposition supporters and a welcome by fans at the same time at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday as he arrived aboard a private plane.
“Get out, Jackie Chan,” the protesters chanted as they were blocked by police.
“Welcome, Jackie Chan,” the fans countered.
Chan is here for a charity event to raise funds for needy children.
He angered Chen’s supporters four years ago by describing the March 19 pre-election shooting — in which the ex-president was injured — as a “big joke.”
He did not set foot on Taiwan again until yesterday.
Government Information Office Minister Vanessa Yea-ping Shih said Taiwan should always give a warm welcome to those who come to take part in charity activities.
She described Taiwan as a “lovely society with friendly people who accept different opinions.”
Asked whether Chan will be invited to attend the Golden Horse Film Festival this year, Shih said art and politics are two different matters that should not be mixed.
She said it is up to the festival organizer to decide whether an invitation will be extended to the movie star.
But in Taichung City, the host of this year’s film festival, councilors from Chen’s Democratic Progressive Party have demanded that Chan not be invited.
They said that Chan “owes Taiwan an apology” for his “big joke” comment, which DPP Councilor Hsiao Chieh described as a “humiliation to all of Taiwan’s people.”
Chan agreed to help promote the charity campaign in Taiwan because it was similar to the “One-Dollar Fund” program he launched to offer care for children, according to the organizer, the TVBS Caring for Taiwan Foundation.
It said Chan wants to help Taiwan children after learning that some 50,000 of them live in households incapable of paying their education costs.
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