Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chinese cinematography

China may be momentarily poisoning our bodies, but at the same time, it is providing enough soul food to help us get through with its movies and actors, famous to the western cultures.
In the seventies, Bruce Lee started the trend of Asian martial arts in American cinematography. In the present, many more popular actors, producers, or directors of Chinese and Hong Kong origin are well known to the audience of commercial movies. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are my most favorite, perhaps because of their characters’ innocence and moral principles.

Jackie Chan: Born in Hong Kong in 1954, this actor and producer provides us with uncountable hours of fun, amusement and showcasing of martial art skills. In the movies Rush Hour 1-4, he plays a Chinese chief inspector who is a temporary partner to American detective (Chris Tucker), and while trying to solve important international cases, many times they and up in various funny and embarrassing situations.
Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights are comedy movies set in 18 hundreds America’s Wild West. Jackie Chan, a Chinese imperial guard pairs up with a train robber (Owen Wilson). Together, they experience a lot of misadventures in humorous way.

Jet Li: Born in China in 1963, he is the second most famous Asian actor and martial art champion. Jet Li’s western career started with his movie Romeo must die, a modern Romeo and Juliet action drama. He plays the main character who investigates the death of his brother between the Chinese and American mafias.
Popular martial art movies that followed were Kiss of the Dragon, The one, The hero, and Fearless.

Recalls on Products Made in China

During the past months, many of us became aware of the increased list of problematic Chinese products. Before the poisoned pet food, I did not even realize the high volume of imports from China. If I set aside the questions why would Chinese want to poison American pets and whether it was a terrorist conspiracy or just a really slacked off job on Chinese part, the main point is: Why would USA buy food from China? It is well known that American society throws away more food portions than the average Chinese citizen can afford to eat. Why would the government allow food and medicine imports from country whose health record is infamous for the origin of annual flu, bird flu, SARS, and virtually every new potentially problematic disease? Further, China is the world leader in generating pollution and destroying the eco system with poisoning drinking water sources. The following examples illustrate how China continues to demonstrate their lack of health regulations and poor quality control:

1. Pet food containing rat poison caused some animals to die of liver failure.

2. Diethylene glycol (DEG) contaminated dental products can cause damage to kidneys, liver and the nervous system. The list of contaminated tooth pastes can be found on the FDA web site:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/toothpaste.html#products

3. Chinese made tires sold between 2002- 2006 are missing a required safety feature that prevents them from separating, increasing the likelihood of road accidents.

4. Children’s toys, costume jewelry, children’s gardening tools and other similar products are covered in led paint, which can cause reduced IQ, kidney failure, damage to reproductive organs, and basically affects every organ in the body. In the US, it was banned in the late 70’s.

5. Some very recent products recalled: fake Halloween teeth with excessive amounts of lead paint, toy figures, and children’s beads.