A renowned Chinese actor's recent visit to the Yasukuni Shrine has sparked heated discussion in the society. Though he declared that he went there for fact collecting for his new film, critics still confused the word "visit" with the phrase "pay tribute to". The discussion is going on.
Jiang Wen, the actor, is working on his new film "Guizi Comes" recently, a film about the Japanese soldiers, or Guizi, in China in past wartime. As he was born in a time later than the war period, he said he wanted to go to the place where Japanese enshrine their dead soldiers to find some feelings or facts. His trip to the Yasukuni Shrine was only part of his fact collecting process. He declared that it was a visit, not a tribute.
However, as the August is about to come, there is more alert in the society on the matter of visiting the shrine, those who blamed Jiang Wen for his visiting argued.
Japanese leaders always pay tribute to their ancestors in the shrine in August. As the soldiers who died in the wars were also kept in the shrine, Japanese leaders' visit to the ancestors at the same time also means their tribute to the war crimes. Japanese leaders always use the word of "visit" instead of "tribute", but their "visiting" deed had already incurred heavy criticism in all Asian nations. Japanese soldiers invaded, killed and raped local women in wars, and they were regarded as demons in most Asian countries.
Critics suggested that Jiang could find facts through other methods, because a celebrity's action could exert active or negative influences, sometimes even on behalf of his or her country.
However, Jiang's supporters contend that some journalists will also go to guts for fact finding. Can we say they are doing wrong when they are collecting their experiences for their reports in the gansters' ring?
Film, the same as the news, should also be based on facts and facts can only be collected from real person's experience.
Jiang Wen has won several film awards and long been acclaimed for his genuine depict of many roles in the films.
(eastday.com July 08, 2002)
