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After the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the Chinese government is pumping money into its burgeoning film industry. But does that make the new martial arts movie, Fearless, little more than a state propaganda tool? Its star Jet Li talks patriotism and kung fu with Fraser Newham.
24 THE LIST ' .‘
ollywood may he 8000 miles away from ('hina's Song Mountain. hut with eyery sweep of the ra/or the boy in the harher‘s chair takes one step closer. In a scene that might he straight otrt of l-‘rr/l Metal Jacket. great clumps of black hair tumble to the lloor as the harher gets
to work. shaying the hair down to the light fun of
an apprentice monk.
Not that ten-year-old Xiao Tong has come to the Shaolin Monastery to seek enlightenment. Rather. like the thousands of other young (‘hinese — and a hunch of martial arts-mad westerners e who pour in annually. he is there to learn kung ill from the
masters. a well known route to movie stardom: if
only he can catch the eye of one of the discreet hand of casting directors said to he floating around town. 'Jackie (‘han is good and I enjoy his lilms.‘ says the shayen-headed Xiao Tong. ‘hut I want to light like Jet Li. He loyes his country — he's the real thing.‘
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The real thing he is: for while Jackie ('han grew up in Australia and British llong Kong. Jet Li was born in Beijing in 1903. attending the capital‘s Martial Arts Academy l‘rom the age of nine. and winning his lirst National ('hampionship two years later. In the mid l‘)70s he eyen seryed his country as a ‘kung l'u diplomat‘. [X'rl‘orming high kicks for the benefit ol' Richard Nixon on the White House lawn.
‘l was the first martial artist in ('hina to make moyies.~ Li explains. 'liyen alter 26 years. the (‘hinese atrdience still loyes Jet l.i.‘ Indeed. the 42 year old actor remains the only star til at Ix'I/ru/ Weapon moyie to he classified a ‘national treasure' hy ('hina's ('ommunist rulers. an accolade more commonly associated with terracotta warriors or Great Walls.
Li‘s emergence as a star in the West came later in life. coinciding with the rise ol'C'hinese cinema as a mainstream genre in America and beyond.