Gong Li's little proposal

Gong Li, the famous Chinese actress, can melt hearts on the silver screen. But she’s getting darts as a politician.

Last year, Gong Li was heavily criticized for failing to show up at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the main national advisory body, which holds its annual session at this time of year.

Gong Li is one of 3,000 members, after all. How the Miami Vice star got posted to the body is beyond me. But she’s supposed to at least show up for the session, which meets in tandem with the National People’s Congress, and the two are known in Chinese as the Lianghui.

Before you yawn, read what happened this year. She issued a proposal! She titled it, “To Protect the Environment, Start With Oneself.”

Problem is, this particular proposal received vicious ridicule. Someone using the pseudonym Huapingzi, or vase, which is the Chinese equivalent of “air head,”  posted an essay that was passed all around the internet and printed in the New Express News.

“Gong Li submitted a primary school composition for this year’s Lianghua,” it began.

“Auntie Gong Li is pretty good at correcting her mistakes. After she was criticized vehemently for being absent at last year's Lianghui, she diligently participates in politics and talks about it this year. She even has a new proposal to submit, which should really win some applause. However, this (proposal) is too naive to be praised. It sounds like an essay written by a primary school student or an activity announcement. How can it be taken as a political proposal?”

The essayist goes on to ask whether his countrymen “really need people like her to participate in politics and make proposals?”

So now the government has come to Gong Li’s defense. The state Xinhua news agency published a commentary March 12 that dismissed questions of whether her proposal “is naïve or sophisticated. It is a good proposal as long as it reflects the people’s voice.”

It goes on: “Gong Li expressed her environmental concern from her own experience and areas familiar to her, taking on the big subject of environmental protection from a small starting point and calling for everybody to take action.”

Think they’ll tap her for a Cabinet post?

Comments

[frar]

How DARE Gong Li. Trying To make a difference!!
The Chinese media sucks. They are always on her beautiful case about something.

[China Law Blog]

I am shocked. The actors and actresses here in America, people like Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, and Jane Fonda, for example, are just oozing with political sophistication.

[Chris (Eyes East)]

I'm actually kinda curious to read it. I mean, can it be any less interesting than the rest of what's coming out of the CPPCC. At least she's not trying to take on Starbucks.

[Du Yisa]

Gong Li the actress is given an offer she can't refuse. Her name is added to the cast of this political theatre, but the star disregards attendance. She is attacked afterwords, because the offer achieved the opposite of its intended result: her failure to attend exposes the irrelevance of this performance instead of granting it legitimacy. A show with no content needs a star to win public interest. When that star is absent, what remains to be seen? Surely a famous actress is well aware of this.

After Gong Li is berated for not treating the CPPCC as something serious, she changes her ways and makes a proposal - the only activity at the conference worth serious consideration by the public. Then she is attacked because her proposal isn't political. What does this mean? Once again, her participation achieved the opposite of its intended result: her proposal disregards the theatre whereby proposals are formulated, submitted, and supposedly considered before being dismissed, which everyone knows to be a foregone conclusion. Her proposal is worded directly to the public, which is precisely the only way in which it could possibly be anything other than merely theatrical.

Based only on these events, it seems to me Gong Li is truly a brilliant actress, and that the amateurs in the CCP should have known better than to try and play with a professional. They wanted to co-opt the power of an icon, and neglected the power of a person.

I see few movies and watch little TV, but this performance leaves me breathless. If only China had more professionals like Gong Li! Her performance has shown that we are not doomed to be a captive audience, no matter what demands may be placed on us.

[Pandapassport]

That's interesting.
I mean, I knew she was doing her best to promote the "twin peaks," but I'm glad she's trying to make a difference environmentally.

Too bad that she can't seem to win in this case --- whether she chooses to skip it or join in.

[teracatta12]

Twin Peaks???

I HOPE you are Joking