Washington, DC, July 1974. Two years have passed since President
Nixon's historic visit to China, and on the White House lawn a
Chinese troupe is performing wushu for the (soon to be ex-)
president. Among the Chinese performers is an 11-year-old from
Beijing named Li Lianjie, who stages a two-man fight for Nixon's
pleasure. That boy will later be known as Jet Li.
Like Nixon's career at that moment in 1974, Jet Li's film career
is near a turning point – or is it? The publicity campaign for
Fearless, which came out in early 2006, trumpeted that it
would be Li's last martial arts outing. In person, however, Li is
less certain. "I have retired from traditional martial arts
movies," he says. "I will still make action movies though."
At 43, Li seems about to leave behind the tradition that he
helped create. His attitude towards wushu, which has shaped his
life and much of his filmic repertoire for the past three and a
half decades, has changed.
"It was when I reached my 30s that I started to think about ways
to improve lives – my own and those around me," he says. "I want to
show that violence is not the only solution to problems."
Buddhism has had a strong influence on Li in recent years, and
affected the way he sees his career. "In the past, my understanding
of martial arts came from the secular, [the sense] that different
countries and cultures have different points of view. Since I
converted to Buddhism, I have learnt that all views regarding the
external world come from within, not from outside. To let go of the
self is to let go of the bias in our worldview," he says.
This insight deeply influences Li's most recent film
Fearless, which he starred in and produced. "My character
in Fearless is close to my experiences in real life," says
Li. "China's economy has been growing fast and peoples' lives are
much better than in the past. Yet despite this, a quarter of a
million people committed suicide in 2003. Fearless was a simple
step toward encouraging young people to see clearly through the
illusion of life, to discover what is truly important to oneself."
For now Li is concentrating his efforts on charity work. In
January, the Red Cross Society of China appointed him a
"philanthropic ambassador," recognizing his efforts to raise
awareness of mental health issues among young people. He has also
established his own charity, the ONE Foundation for victims of
natural disasters.
Li's newfound altruism has not interrupted his acting career.
His next film, Rogue, features Li as an assassin who has
ignited a bloody crime war between rival Asian mobs. Jason Statham
(Transporter) plays an FBI agent determined to bring down Li after
his partner is murdered. Filmed in Vancouver, Rogue is currently in
post-production.
Li is also working with Jackie Chan on a modern-day
interpretation of the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West.
The collaboration is currently in the developmental stages, with Li
playing the monk Tang Seng and Chan playing the monkey Sun Wukong,
and both stars sharing the title of executive producer.
With the pending Jackie Chan collaboration, Li's retirement from
martial arts movies remains to be seen. Regardless, from that
historic day on the White House lawn to his recent move back to
China, the audience's love affair with Jet Li is easily understood:
he and his audience have grown up together and Li's own story
continues to develop and flourish. "I've been making movies for 26
years," says Li, "but after all this time, my desire to learn and
to do the best I can never wavers. Every new film is a new
challenge and I try the best I can to make the movies my fans want
to see."
(That's Beijing October 25, 2006)
