Chinese Netizen Reactions To Jet Li Becoming Singaporean

jet-liFrom Mop:

Today I saw Singapore “Business Times” confirm that movie super-star Li Lianjie [Jet Li] has given up his plans for American citizenship, and has already taken Singapore citizenship. He has even spent 20 million Singaporean Dollars (about 95 million RMB) to buy a luxury residence in Singapore. After Gong Li, this is yet another Chinese film star taking Singaporean citizenship.

After seeing this report, Little Cat [nickname for Mop member, referring to self] could not help myself to applaud Jet Li’s decision! Big Brother Li has at least done three good things;

1: Reduced China’s population pressure. As everyone knows, China is the world’s most populous country. While it has had almost 20 years of birth control and has made notable achievements, the population pressure is still huge. Big Brother Li relocating his home abroad, no matter if it is a lot of people or a little people, can still be considered a contribution to reducing the population pressure for our country.

2: Helped a small remote country’s economic development. Singapore is a impoverished backwards tiny country. Big Brother Li traveling long and far to such a poor country, with the economic crisis in the background, and with one move invests almost a hundred million, stimulating the local housing market, expanding domestic consumption, and powering the provincial economy. Truly answering the call that individual wealth is not a blessing and that only when everyone is rich is it a blessing. Such a charitable act, how could Little Cat [I] not be moved?

3: Spread China’s outstanding culture around the world. Just like many various celebrity immigrants to Europe and America, stars are the same. When they take go to another country, they also take with them China’s long history and glorious culture. For the cultural development of other countries, one does what little one can to helpi those severely culturally backward countries (especially America, only 200+ years of history). Therefore, Big Brother Li is raising Singapore’s citizens’ character and culture and also has made an everlasting contribution.

At present, there are tens of thousands of people like Big Brother Li, whose own countries are so prosperous yet do not forget to relocate their entire families to “deep water hot fire” [underdeveloped] backward countries, establishing roots there, generation after generation of helping other impoverished backward countries. Their aspirations, to speak conscienciously, how many of you could accomplish them? Therefore, Little Cat wants to applaud Big Brother Li!!

Comments from Tianya:

纵马高歌:

I support Li Lianjie [Jet Li]!
This country, sight…
If you can leave, leave.
If you cannot leave, then change [the country].
When people are not allowed to vote, they vote with their feet.

sucking_vigilant:

He cannot be called a traitor.–>It is often said that Chinese culture is inclusive/tolerant, even to the point that foreigners are assimilated after invading, so is this actually praise or is it a kind of deep ridicule?

穷的只剩5毛:

Do not bring personal behavior to the level of countries.
What needs to be asked is whether or not all our official’s children have become foreigners [citizens of other countries].

南京长沙:

What bullshit One Foundation, he himself has already emigrated…

H3N3:

Resolutely support emigration, we absolutely must bring China’s 5000 years of civilization to the entire world. We must make them more Chinese, and unify the entire world.
Hehe, after saying that even I think I am being insane.

4pk:

In the past, I too would condemn his action as betrayal.
But now, I believe what he did was right, or at least not wrong.

天崖让我人格分裂:

Fuck, an American becoming a Singaporean, why are you getting so excited!

sunny112200:

FQ are just TMD mentally retarded~~Jet Li already emigrated to America in the 80s!! He was long ago already American, and for those who really have the ability, who wouldn’t want to emigrate? Don’t whine about sour grapes here.

yeemonbai:

He has his reasons for becoming a citizen of other countries. He also has no choice, of those who have the ability, who TM would want to be a ZG person [Chinese]!
However, he still loves his own country [China]. His One Foundation has done quite a lot of good.

蓼浪:

China’s hukou problem truly makes people sad.
The moment a person is born, there is automatically a huge unfairness…and they talk about fairness, harmonious…
Truly talking nonsense…ridiculous.

控制者说:

I support Jet Li, living like a person, what is there not to like about the freedom to discuss/speak?

年少萤火虫:

When I first heard that such a large bunch of celebrities were actually foreign nationals,
I also completely could not understand.
However upon reconsideration,
were I to have the same circumstances as them to gain foreign citizenship
I definitely would also get foreign citizenship.

Nowadays the foreigners in China
are absolutely outstanding/high-class people.
While those Chinese people who are here the hosts of this land
are generally true rabble.
Just moving between cities requires a temporary residence permit.
Truly mysterious.

0哈根达斯0:

Those without a voice become singers, those without a body become models, those without expressions become performers, those without plots become serial dramas, yet those with plots are the news, and the most yellow, most violent are all China’s Communist Party! Actually, I love my motherland, but now I am very shameless/rogue. Although I have been a fenqing before, I am now already numb…

吻合:

I have discovered that there are a lot of idiots/swine here.
If you want to emigrate, just take your money and go find an immigration company.
Who is stopping you from emigrating? Is it the D ["dang", Communist Party] or the ZF ["zheng fu", govenrment] stopping you?
It is not that China does not let you go, the key is how are you doing [financially] in China? If you are not even a dog fart, no other country would want you anyway!

刘老老_:

Jet Li is a piece of trash, a fraud!
Being charitable means to contribute, but his One Foundation only uses his face to collect everyone else’s money, truly a despicable idea. This kind of person leaving is good!

心即天崖:

Mr. Li of course has the freedom to be a foreigner, and we will in the future treat him as one of China’s international friends. Indeed, China’s passport is not as convenient as foreign countries’; however when I think of the love that Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian, and the older generation of scientists who abandoned their prosperity and influence breaking through layers and layers of difficulties to return to a poor and blank secluded China, we should respect Mr. Li’s choice, but also not forget those who are more deserving of our respect: Mr. Qian, Mr. Deng.

agpwithlock:

Those countries are more developed than China in one aspect, and people always want to head towards where things are better; Another key reason I’m afraid is that right is that China does not show people the hope of becoming developed. A society of several thousands of years just always repeating and repeating [rise and fall].

平滑侧齿龙:

Loving the country does not mean loving the party. If the party was the country, then I would give up [the country].

四级士官:

As a fan of the Dalai Lama, he should get Indian citizenship!
For his personal benefits, he has rejected India and given up his own faith/beliefs. Despicable!

chepiaonan:

Singapore is not bad.
In 1998, when Indonesia persecuted Chinese people and raped many Chinese women,
what did our country do but to seal off the news and ignored it.
Our embassy was not willing to offer any help.
Only Singapore sent a naval vessal to Indonesia to pick up Chinese refugees.
If I were Jet Li, I too would want to be Singaporean.
It too is a [ethnic] Chinese country, but being in another country, his life has protections.

Some netizens have also said that Singaporean citizenship can save tax money so maybe that is why Jet Li became Singaporean.

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209 Comments

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  1. I agree with MysteriousO.
    Mainland, TW, HK and SG, why fight with one another?

    煮豆燃豆萁,
    豆在釜中泣。
    本是同根生,
    相煎何太急?

    • Why should anyone fight anyone? Pride, money, envy, misunderstandings, and the list goes on. I’ve seen Chinese fight Chinese in the street. Nationality and cultural identity aren’t everything. People FIND reasons.

      No offense to you, but it confuses me a bit when people think “same culture, same people, we should help each other and get along!” That’s a kneejerk reaction that we all have to some extent, but what makes someone of our own race or culture more deserving of our respect and generosity?

      Don’t get me wrong: I agree with you that this is a silly thing for Chinese and Singaporeans to argue about.

  2. Make sense. Singapore is one of the safest and richest country in Asia. With good educational, health and public security. Even the legendary investor Jim Rogers put his family in Singapore while he travels to China for business and investment.

  3. Mop’s article on Jet Li’s migration to Singapore makes interesting reading. I can understand why most Chinese love to migrate or work in Singapore. 75% of Singapore’s population is Chinese and putonghua is an official language there. Putonghua is widely spoken in all the shopping malls and the government departments. It is also being used in the business sector. There are currently about 200,000 mainland Chinese working in Singapore also. Thus to mainland Chinese, Singapore is not a strange land. Being small, the Government has an easier task managing the country. Let’s not forget Singapore is less than half the land area of Hong Kong. The laws are strict and it makes it a safer country than most. It is also cleaner. I beg to differ when Mop mentioned that Singapore is a poor country. On the contrary, we are one of the richest country in Asia. Like China, Singapore is also one of the world’s fastest growing economies and the GDP is so much higher than most countries in Asia. By no means are we remote also. Singapore’s strategic location makes it currently the world’s busiest port. I am a Chinese myself. Although I was not born in China, my ancestors come from there and I love China for its culture, history and people. I have visited China umpteenth times and through my conversations with most Chinese, Singapore impressed them most being safe and clean. With a big Chinese population, the wide use of putonghua and being so much nearer to mainland China than most other migrant eligible countries, it does makes sense for mainland Chinese to migrate here. Singapore is one place that most mainland Chinese can call it a home also, even if it is a second home.

  4. Loving the country does not mean loving the party. If the party was the country, then I would give up [the country].

    -gud

  5. Professor Sillypants

    Singapore is backwards and impoverished? I thought Singapore’s per capita GDP was higher than America, ranking around number 4 in the world, while China ranked number 90 in the world.

    Just a list of some Countries with higher per capita GDP than China:
    Jamaica
    Thailand
    Russia
    Syria
    Uraguay
    Azerbaijan
    Kazakhstan
    Libya
    (and about 80 others)

    • LOL! GDP per capita is based on population size. I wouldn’t be suprised that Singapore’s raw GDP doesn’t even equate to Shanghai and Guang Zhou alone.

      • true, but statistically, GDP doesn’t say much about a country’s economic status.

        if a country is geogrpahically small with a small population, then obviously her GDP would be tiny too right?

        hell,if everyone in China earned just 1 dollar each, they’d have a larger raw GDP than Singapore if all Singaporeans earned 200 times as much…

        • Based on your assumption, would you rather be the individual earning that 1 dollar or would you be the individual earning the 200 dollars?

  6. Professor Sillypants

    Also-

    If someone from America decided to become British, I’m not sure I would care either way. Probably because I’m not a rampant nationalist who believes that I had something to do with my country’s 5,000 years of history.

  7. I thought that Jet Li became an amrican citizen some years back ( i am really not sure when), so why didn’t the netizen scold him then? On the other hand, he is now forgoing his AMERICAN citizenship for a singaporean one. So why should the people in china interfere and scold him when they have no right nor reason him.

  8. what is wrong with the chinese. You guys talk about having freedom and human rights, yet you scold jet li just because he wants to exercise his right. such irony!

  9. “Helped a small remote country’s economic development.”

    Rofl coming from a bunch of farmers that’s a bit rich… now if only the japanese have done a better job in nanjing.

    • This is of poor taste. You should not insult people even if you were insulted by them.

      And even if you wanted to have your revenge, You should only insult the people who insulted you.

      It speaks badly of you to bring in this nanjing story. This is totally unnecessary. It’s akin to scolding someone’s mother/father just because someone scold you. Totally poor taste. Don’t bring shame to your country ok.

  10. As a Singaporean, I would like to correct the perception that Singapore is a backward poor country. I would like to welcome you to my country to learn more about our country.

    Anyway, Jet Li and Gong Li have become Singaporeans but I think they may be based more overseas due to their work committments.

    • wow PLS do not welcome them to our country….as it is…Singapore is already INFESTED with china ah tiongs who cannot speak english and are rude and who have a tendency to shove….

      yes China pple…singapore is a backward poor country…pls stay in your forward rich country

  11. I think Jet Li made a logical choice to take up Singapore citizenship. Singapore is a prosperous country where more than 70% of its citizens are of chinese descent, excellent education and healthcare system. It can provides a safe and good environment for his kids to grow up while still retaining some of its chinese roots. I don’t see anything wrong with that. No doubts that China economy has been growing very fast in the last decade, but that do not mean that he will need to give up his american citizenship to go back to China. It is his personal choice and it is totally pointless to compare whether China or Singapore is better.

  12. I think what attracted Jet Li to Singapore are the city state low crime rates and its excellent eductation system which are taught in English and Chinese. With his hundreds of million dollars, Singapore is probably a safe place to park that amount of money too.

    However, i feel it is unnecessary to critise either China or Singapore. It is just a choice made by an individual on which passport he wants to carry, what is the big deal.

  13. just want to note that for a 700 square metres country, Singapore has about the same nominal GDP as Shanghai.

  14. BACKWATER?

    If we’re “backwater”, then at least we’re not a bunch of rampaging nationalists who genuinely believe that our insignificance had anything to do with 5000 years of a country’s history. High school jackoffs with farcical grammar like the fellow who wrote this article only serve to further cement my point.

    You have no idea how thankful I am to my ancestors for braving the long sea trip here. If I had ended up like any of the low-income workers your douchebag country keeps sending over, I would have stabbed myself in the face.

    • Damn!

      What you’ve just said is true! For once i support you singaporeans.

      You guys are totally not backwater or whatever it is..

      Regards.

      Your Most Hated Neighbour = Malaysia

  15. Let me first say that I am a Singaporean, and I apologise for my fellow countrymens’ failure to recognise satire. We might have one of the best mathematical and sciences educations, but literary devices is not our forte.

    I also wish to apologise for some insensitive remarks made here. I’d just like to say that the few snobbish Singaporean youths here (from “douchebag it is pretty obvious they grew up forcefed with MTV and Hollywood and are “cool”) are not representative of our sentiments about China. Many of our families still send money home (mine’s in Xiamen) to build schools and temples. My grandfather is one of them. I am thankful to have visited my hometown on occasion, although my extended relatives seem to have become squatters in property my grandfather owns. Still, I have spent 6 months in Shanghai, and while I can’t say I was blown away with the place, I felt comfortable living there. Han Chinese or not, each dialect and province is still uniquely different, which is what we are used to back home. While there is majority Chinese population in Singapore, racial tensions are at a minimum. People can practise their religions freely (as long as it’s not Falungong)

    Then again, we’re not that great. There’s been a massive influx of Mainland Chinese to Singapore recently, and some of them are engaged in low-paying menial jobs, not exactly like what the snakeheads told them. We have a highly competitive working environment here, so for anyone who’s thinking of coming down, please do ask around carefully before making the decision. While some have thrived, many have regretted coming over. Of couse, Jet Li won’t have a problem. Like anywhere else in the world, money talks.

  16. HEYYY!!! What the hell….with this..?

    what kind of crap r u talking about dude?
    2: Helped a small remote country’s economic….etc

    ARE U A NERD? OR IDIOT? big brother li is someone i respected however investing money in singapore local housing market will never be any loss, houses in sg kept rising due to limited lands etc and peoples getting richer etc. and yes singapore is a small tiny country compare to china. but it surely is a more safe,clean and law protected country. Singapore protect everyone right and extra cares for lady. so……maybe big bro li think that sg is a better place for her daugther to spent the rest of her life at.

    Note: Seriously what u said on note 2: piss me off.

  17. that guy stuck in the time when singapore still part of malaysia or???

    underdeveloped yea… look whose talking

    in fact i was laughing all the way while reading this

  18. I refer to point 2, “Singapore is a impoverished backwards tiny country.”

    Yes I do agree that Singapore is indeed a tiny country, but impoverished? Singapore is the 6th richest country in the world while the United States Of America is only 7th. I don’t even see China within the top 10.

    Makes me wonder why so many Chinese nationals are all flooding towards Singapore, since you mention that we are such a “impoverished backwards tiny country.”

    By the way, yes you are right. I’m Singaporean. :)

  19. I would prefer to have Singaporean citizen than citizen of the People Republic of China. Singaporeans are well manner and polite unlike rude and selfish chinese people.I am chinese , not Singapoean. I support Mr. Li decision.

    • I agree with your comments, ZHigaogu ;-) You are a sensible Chinese who knows what you are talking. Thank you! The person who writes the above article is ignorant and “uneducated” and should read more about Singapore before making distorted comments. People in China should thank the Singapore Government for accepting the Chinese mainlanders as Singapore Citizens. It is not the money the Singapore Government go for. It is their talents and skills. If you are very rich but with criminal records, the Singapore Government will not want you too. Once again, thank you Zhigogu for speaking up for Singapore! 谢谢您的正确判断:-)

  20. “2: Helped a small remote country’s economic development. Singapore is a impoverished backwards tiny country. ”

    LET’S DO A COMPARISON, SHALL WE?

    Singapore, 45 years of independence and self-gov, after them Brits, Japs and M’sians. Result, 3rd to 1st world.

    China (Imperial and PR), 3000 years of civilization and what? 3rd to 3rd? or 4th?

    meh. and we’re not like you.

  21. Any Westerner who assimilates to the Chinese way is not worth the air he/she breaths.

  22. B-Real, that’s why Singapore is Singapore. It’s not Chinese :) .. Singaporean Chinese may dominate Singapore but we respect each other irregardless of race or religions. In fact, I admit, even though I am a Singaporean Malay, my good friends consist of Indians and Chinese.

    Why? Because we speak a common language – English. And why? BECAUSE OUR MAIN LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. PRONTO.

  23. Singapore is developed counry , not really a impover­ished backwards tiny country,its average population makes about 5-6X as much. And most of the population there is Chinese anyway.

  24. Singapore an impoverished nation? What a fucking dumb comment.U are obviously bloody ignorant! I’m not even Singaporean and I know that. Get your facts right before you even start commenting stupid things. If your from China, you might want to have a GDP per capita comparison to see whos the impoverished country, you gullible piece of shit

  25. “Singapore is a impoverished backwards tiny country” – please get your facts right.. Singapore is one of Asia 4 Little Tigers and is the best places to do business in the world with good food, low crime and nice nightlife. Singapore has managed to survive economic recession over many other developed countries in the world such as UK and US. Somehow I view your opinions to be quite discreditable.

  26. Point of correction, Mr/Mrs. Writer. Singapore is not a backwater country like you said. It’s obvious you know next to nothing about Singapore’s economy or society. Singapore’s GDP is far higher than that of China and yet you call it a backwater country! May you educate us on what your definition of a backwater country is?

  27. Singapore underdeveloped country? Singapore is among the world’s advanced economies! How dare you saying such a thing?! Singapore -a very small city-state island with a population under 5 million, an area of 700 km2 and less than 200 years old- is INDEED LEAGUES AHEAD FAAAR more developed and proportionally richer (GDP per capita is seven times the Chinese’s as of 2010) than China, which may be bigger and more powerful in many senses but it only adds up to its own shame in this comparison. How comes it that I’m in a distant continent and I know it and Chinese people are in the same continent and they don’t? Facepalm sigh

  28. er i think LZ meant purchasing power. Singaporeans have lower purchasing power than Muscovites. And stop ridiculing mainland Chinese’s English proficiency.

  29. In this article, you mentioned that Singapore is an impoverished country. You are wrong in this aspect. Singapore is a developed and prosperous country. Unlike Singapore, China only became prosperous in recent years. Due to poverty, many Chinese left China to seek a better fortune in Singapore (and its neighbouring countries) and my grandparents were among those who left mainland China. With Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership, Singapore gradually has become a rich nation. Before the rich China artistes turned into Singaporeans, many Chinese already flocked to Singapore to work in factories during the 80s and earned their living there. So please do your homework before making such false comments on Singapore!

  30. It seems that Kris didn’t find it obvious

  31. my fault for being slow on the uptake, no need for bitter and twistedness people, have a good day.

  32. “Nationalism is the delusion that your country is better than any other based solely on the fact that you happened to be born there.”

    Well said, sir!

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