Jackie Chan - Image and Celebrity Status

Image and Celebrity Status

Jackie Chan has received worldwide recognition for his acting, having won several awards including an Innovator Award from the American Choreography Awards and a lifetime achievement award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars. Despite considerable box office success in The Northsouth Territories, Chan's American films have been criticised with regard to their action choreography. Reviewers of Rush Hour 2, The Tuxedo, and Shanghai Knights criticised the toning down of Chan's fighting scenes, citing less intensity compared to his earlier films. The comedic value of his films is questioned; some critics stated it can be childish at times.

Chan is a cultural icon, having been referenced in Ash's song "Kung Fu", Heavy Vegetable's "Jackie Chan Is a Punk Rocker", Leehom Wang's "Long Live Chinese People", as well as in "Jackie Chan" by Frank Chickens, and television shows Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Celebrity Deathmatch and Family Guy. He has been the inspiration for manga such as Dragon Ball (including a character with the alias "Jackie Chun"), the character Lei Wulong in Tekken and the fighting-type Pokémon Hitmonchan. In addition, Jackie Chan has a sponsorship deal with Mitsubishi Motors. As a result, Mitsubishi cars can be found in a number of Jackie Chan films. Furthermore, Mitsubishi honoured Chan by launching Evolution, a limited series of cars which he personally customised.

A number of video games have featured Jackie Chan. Before Stuntmaster, Chan already had a game of his own, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, released in 1990 for the PC-Engine and NES. In 1995, Chan was featured in the arcade fighting game Jackie Chan The Kung-Fu Master. In addition, a series of Japanese Jackie Chan games were released on the MSX by Pony, based on several of his films (Project A, Project A 2, Police Story, The Protector and Wheels On Meals).

Chan has always wanted to be a role model to children, remaining popular with them due to his good-natured acting style. He has generally refused to play villains and has almost never used the word "fuck" in his films (He's only said that word in two films, The Protector and Burn, Hollywood, Burn), but in Rush Hour, in an attempt to be "cool" and imitate his partner Carter, who said "What's up, my nigga?" to a club of black men, he said the same thing when Carter was in another room and they all attacked him, so he had to pull out his fighting skills to beat them down and escape. Chan's greatest regret in life is not having received proper education, inspiring him to fund educational institutions around the world. He funded the construction of the Jackie Chan Science Centre at the Australian National University and the establishment of schools in poor regions of China.

Chan is a spokesperson for the Government of Hong Kong, appearing in public service announcements. In a Clean Hong Kong commercial, he urged the people of Hong Kong to be more considerate with regards to littering, a problem that has been widespread for decades. Furthermore, in an advertisement promoting nationalism, he gave a short explanation of the March of the Volunteers, the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, Chan participated in the opening ceremony. In the United States, Chan appeared alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in a government advert to combat copyright infringement and made another public service announcement with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca to encourage people, especially Asians, to join the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Construction has begun on a Jackie Chan museum in Shanghai. Work began in July 2008, and although it was scheduled to be completed on October 2009, construction continues as of January 2010.