CPOP superstar Jackson Wang just got real candid and spoke his mind to his fans at a concert in London, and the internet is going nuts.
Yeah, he gave a seven minute speech. It was about celebrity chasing your goals, but the part that went viral was the part where he said,
My name is Jackson Wang. I'm proud of being from China, regardless of what the media says.
Yeah. All right, everybody. So we're about to play the clip.
But if you're a fan of Jackson Wang or interested to hear all the different perspectives and hear what we got to say about this, please hit that like button right now.
Let's run the clip. I'm sick of a lot of times when they hype up celebrities, hype up like artists too much.
Yo, what do we do? We sing. We dance. We do music. That's it.
Media talking about it's not.
Oh, man, as is with anything Chinese, there was such a range of reactions.
Some people agreed. Some people disagreed. Some people were in the middle.
And I will say this. Most of the talk and debate was from people that were kind of like part of the Chinese world, because Jackson Wang obviously mostly known amongst Chinese people.
Right. You're saying Billy Bob from Texas. He wasn't interested in what Jackson Wang had to say.
He wasn't watching this this this concert in London. It's possible that he was, but not that likely.
So let's get into the main responses. One of them that was against Jackson was like, hey, Jackson, with all the tattoos in the Hennessy, you couldn't do this in China with the freedom of speech.
So just think about that when you're having freedom of speech in London. Isn't that hypocritical?
And then someone was like, yeah, don't let the Western media make you ashamed of being Chinese.
It is a great civilization and we have a lot to be proud of. Some people were like, oh, my gosh, he's drinking on stage.
Is he an alcoholic? This reminds me of Kanye at the Grammys with the Taylor Swift thing.
And then someone else said, yeah, well, anybody can say anything good about their mother country if they're incentivized properly.
If I was a pop star, yeah, I'd probably be pretty positive, too.
Somebody said, hey, man, all countries have good parts and bad parts.
But the truth is, in the West, you're only allowed to say the bad parts about China.
You're not allowed to say anything good. All he said was like a little bit of good things.
That's it. And then someone said, now I can tell this is all about the money for Jackson, just like it was for Eileen Gu and LeBron James.
Anybody, any celebrity that doesn't say anything bad that doesn't stand up to China is doing it for the moolah.
Somebody said, hey, man, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Jackson, when you have to give him props for just standing up for what he said,
because it's clearly that his country of origin is like being vilified in the Western media.
So, yeah, I don't know. I'm just proud that he just stood up and actually said something.
Asians are always so weak and like Chinese are always so demure.
And then finally, someone was just like, I don't know. What do you say that was that bad, man?
Pretty much you just said, yeah, there's probably an anti China bias in the Western media.
If you visit China, it's not as bad as you think. It's pretty dope.
Yeah, honestly, I think this got blown out of proportion, maybe not blown out of proportion, I shouldn't say,
but just got so much media attention because of the way he said it.
If he would have used different language or he wasn't drinking the Henny on stage, I literally think people would just be like, oh, yeah,
he just made like a statement that kind of like I thought someone was going to make earlier.
But literally, he's like the first guy to make it in a while.
I mean, he's just representing a perspective that he has. Right.
There's a lot of different perspectives on the same issue. Like we said, there's a spectrum.
Some people are going to agree with him. Some people are going to be 50 50.
And some people are going to super disagree with him, obviously.
Yeah, I mean, he's like a westernized Chinese guy who's just feeling proud and doesn't want to say anything bad, obviously, for a number of reasons.
Right. But yeah, I mean, you know, quick story is back in.
We were in Seoul in 2017. We're visiting doing a Asia world tour.
And I was actually messaging with Jackson Wang. This is back when he was in.
We know him through a friend of a friend. Yeah, I met him through a friend of a friend.
I was talking to him to try to get him into a video at the time and talk about like his kind of pop career.
And we never really got to meet up and we never did the video.
But just chatting with him for those couple of days, I could tell he was a really authentic person.
Like he is. He is very westernized. Right. The way he talks is kind of like kind of a Canadian or Chinese American, bro.
A little bit. He's like, yeah, I like to play ball. He's just like he's just like, man.
But he was just always very authentic. And it's that similar voice that I heard on stage.
I feel like he's just like he was just like, man, I'm just sick of this, man.
And that's a very Western thing what he did. It's true that it's very American to step on stage and be like, nah, man, I'm tired of this.
Let me tell you how I feel. I'm going to have a Tupac moment, kind of, you know.
So I do think that it was cool to see whether or not you agree.
I mean, I guess to me, it's not really that big of a deal other than like the format that he gave it in.
And also, I think obviously some people were mentioning the shirt that he was wearing.
It just seemed like really crazy. It looked almost like a Final Fantasy character saying something like that.
But I would say this. It's like he's just representing a pretty moderate perspective that I guess is like just opposite of what the main perspective in the West right now.
It was kind of like a fiery moderate perspective. But I guess, David, what does this really come down to that we always talk about on the channel?
Like the main point that this really boils down to.
Like I said, man, whether you agree with him, disagree with him or you're 50-50 or you have another opinion that wasn't even on the chart, on the triangulation or whatever.
And like I said, most of this arguing on the Internet that took place after this clip went viral was from different sides of the Chinese diaspora, right?
Being Chinese is just super, super complicated.
And I think that that's why most ABCs or American born Chinese just try to opt out of it because you have to do so much research.
You have to do so much soul searching or whatever to even have a formed opinion on this that most people just try to detach themselves from this whole discussion.
Yeah, I mean, I could see from my ABC friends, a lot of people, they don't even want to deal with it or think about it.
So they don't even try to engage with any of their friends who are saying something bad about China.
Because they wouldn't like, you know what I'm saying?
Or if you feel like you want to defend China, but you don't just don't even want to open up that can of worms.
Or if you just don't want to be seen as like a China hater because you're Chinese for whatever reason, you know.
The truth is it is really complex, though, right?
In the reality of it, it is complex.
For sure. China is the most polarizing country right now.
Listen, listen, it's this country that is supposed to take over the world.
But at the same time, everyone's also saying it's going to collapse.
And then everybody also thinks that you can beat up any singular Chinese person that you ever meet on the street in America.
Like everybody thinks they could beat up beat up a Chinese person.
Right. But it's the big dog that's going to infiltrate America and take over America with the AI in the trade.
It is very, very, very convoluted.
And then also it's like everybody likes Chinese food.
But Chinese food is doesn't represent China, of course.
But then do Chinese people and then are you a Chinese national?
Brands want to celebrate the New Year.
Yeah. Yeah. And then you can't buy property in Texas if you're a Chinese national now.
But but what does that mean? And all this other stuff.
Chinese students and scientists are trying to head back to China.
Right. But then Chinese people that are part of the diaspora, as long as you don't mention and get political, then you're cool.
As long as you're Westernized enough.
But if you mention anything that's like even 50 50 politically, you're an op of the West and it's very, very big.
So what I see a lot of other ABCs do is just like, listen, I'm just going to I'm just going to eat the food and celebrate Chinese New Year.
I'll call it Chinese New Year even, but I'm just going to eat the food.
I just don't want to talk about it, man. This is beyond me.
And it's true because a lot of people think they cannot impact the situation.
Now, I believe as a singular American, no matter what color you are, you cannot impact the situation.
However, it's kind of weird.
And I'll just say this, that you can be affected on a negative side sometimes and it feels right. Right.
Yeah. You can't really make it better, but you can just feel the downside.
Yeah. And I think that that's why most ABCs try to detach themselves from the whole thing.
Anyway, guys, let us know what you thought.
A Jackson Wang's thing in the comments section below.
And also let us know about basically just our theory or just our assertion that just being Chinese, whatever that means,
whether you're talking about Sino or this or that or just using characters to describe whatever it means to be Chinese,
because you could be from a bunch of different places and be Chinese.
Just let us know what you think in the comments section below,
because honestly, everything just sparks a huge Internet debate nowadays.
Also, I want to know how you personally deal with being Chinese right now or how you deal with your Chinese identity.
Maybe you're like, hey, I'm Chinese blood, but I don't give a F about all that stuff.
Maybe that's fine. Just let us know in the comments down below.
I'd like to hear it because obviously I know a lot of people watching this video probably are of some type of Chinese descent.
So let us know. Hit that like button. And we are the hot pop boys.
Until next time we out. Peace.