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Taichung mayor says Jackie Chan welcome to visit

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said yesterday that Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan (成龍) would be more than welcome to visit Taichung for a film festival a day after city councilors said the star should be barred from attending.

“Politics and entertainment should not be mixed,” Hu said.

Hu’s comments came after Chan became the focus of a rowdy debate on Monday when a joint committee of the Taichung City Council reviewed an addition to the budget for the Golden Horse film festival.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors Hsiao Chieh (蕭杰), Chen Fu-wen (陳福文) and Wang Yue-bin (王岳彬) and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Ting Cheng-chia (丁振嘉) asked that the city not invite the star to the 45th Golden Horse Festival and award ceremony.

“Jackie Chan still owes Taiwanese an apology,” Hsiao said, referring to the actor-director’s description of the shooting of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the eve of the 2004 presidential election as “a big joke,” which Hsiao said was tantamount to “humiliating all Taiwanese people.”

“If Jackie Chan comes, I will pelt him with eggs,” Hsiao said.

In response, director of the Taichung City Government’s Department of Information Chen Yun-feng (陳永豐) said the Chan incident was “a thing of the past” and urged city councilors to look ahead, adding that directors from Hong Kong, Macau and China would be invited to attend the gala.

As Taiwan is expecting the arrival of more Chinese tourists next month, he said the film festival would also help promote the city.

The city has obtained the right to host this year’s Golden Horse Awards, which will be held on Dec. 6.

The festival’s executive committee estimated that hosting the event would cost about NT$60 million (US$2 million), with NT$15 million coming from the Government Information Office, NT$20 million from the city government and the balance from the executive committee.

Other councilors said the Taichung City Government should not spend money on the project, but rather should ask for more subsidies from the central government or solicit funds from private sponsors.

Several councilors said that as Taichung hosted the festival four years ago, it should let another city or county sponsor the event because it would not do much to promote Taichung.

The joint committee passed a resolution asking the city to request more funding from the central government.

It said that if the city managed to obtain more funding, the additional NT$20 million budget would not be needed. Conversely, if no new funding was forthcoming, the NT$20 million budget would then be passed.

In an addendum to the resolution, some council members asked that the Golden Horse Awards executive committee not invite Chan to the festival, but a majority of members present said they disagreed with the proposal.
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