The Disciple

While I’ve been in Beijing, I’ve finally accomplished a small dream that I’ve had for many years and the grand finale of The Disciple competition has successfully come to an end. Not only has the past year of activities for The Disciple competition brought honor to the extensive and profound nature of Chinese martial arts, it has also allowed Chinese culture and the Chinese spirit to be well known around the world again. The awards presentation will be shown on the eve of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony where many film makers and artists will be gathered together, giving blessings and well wishes for the Olympic Games.

I remember that from when we first started making preparations for the program until the beginning of the event, more than 200,000 people registered to enter the competition. Initially, this event was only open to people from Mainland China but in the end, we allowed other people to enter as well. I can’t say that the contestants came from all over the world but there were some who came from Europe and there were even some from other countries too. Through a process of elimination, the 200,000 entrants were filtered down to over a hundred people. Later, there were just over sixty competitors, then it was down to thirty two, and then it came down to sixteen finalists. At last, an extremely magnificent grand final was held today at the Great Wall of China.

To tell you the truth, China is very busy preparing for the Beijing Olympics at the moment so being able to hold this event at Badaling on the Great Wall of China in Beijing wasn’t an easy task, and I feel extremely honored. Also, a lot of friends made a special appearance in the grand final, including: John Woo, Han Sanping, Wu Siyuan, Tsui Hark, Stanley Tong, Peter Pau, Cheng Pei Pei, and Chen Daoming.

John Woo, Chen Daoming, and Tsui Hark were the special guests for presenting the final awards and they announced the three finalists of The Disciple. The winner was Jack Tu Sheng Cheng, runner-up was Yang Zheng, and third place went to Yi Yang. Two of the finalists are from America while one finalist is from Tianjin.

A lot of people have been discussing whether or not The Disciple would be like another type of entertainment program, not a real competition for selecting talented rising stars but purely a scam that uses tricks to deceive people. I can tell everyone this – I truly hope that through this competition I am able to select some new stars with potential, give them a chance to perform their skills and talents; and also discover some new blood to inject into the entertainment industry, offer them advice and help them advance in their career.

No official announcement has been made about a second competition for The Disciple yet but a lot of people have already registered to participate. Actually, I personally don’t want to hold a second competition so soon because I want to arrange the work for the sixteen finalists first, and at the moment we’ve already prepared three scrīpts that will be filmed by three new directors respectively. To the other contestants who didn’t make it into the top sixteen, don’t be discouraged. We will be selecting people to play characters according to the requirements of the scrīpt and if there is a suitable role, we will also invite you to participate – and it doesn’t matter if you were placed thirty something or fiftieth because apart from the main characters in each movie, we will also need different types of male and female actors, people to play comedic characters, plus others.

This group of newcomers will all be signed under the artiste department in my Jackie Chan Company in China, and over the next couple of years we’ll start shooting some new productions so that they’ll have an opportunity to perform on screen. As for Jack Tu Sheng Cheng and the others, I might select a few of them to follow me and be by my side so they can learn about the work involved on the set, learn about editing, and industry secrets because I want them to become well-rounded people who know about everything that happens both on the screen and behind the scenes.

After the competition grand final ended, I invited all the contestants and friends to a private club for dinner. All the competitors could finally relax and enjoy a meal. Before the start of the competition, they had to move into Wendu Shuicheng (Hot Spring Leisure City) and receive training for the challenges. Everyone’s cell phones were confiscated and they were only allowed to make a two minute phone call to talk with their families, the rest of the time was used to prepare for battle on the competition field.

At the dinner party, I watched them eat the foods that they wouldn’t dare to eat during the competition because they wanted to keep in top form, and now they were eating to their heart’s content. During the eight months they received training and competed, everyone wanted to maintain their best possible shape and condition so they strictly refrained themselves from eating or drinking too much. From this you can tell how important the competition was to them.

After dinner, they all went on stage to perform a song one after another. As I listened to them sing, I felt that their future ahead of them had absolutely no limits because every one of them was multi-talented; they know kung fu, they can act, dance, sing, and play the piano. But Jack Tu Sheng Cheng not only knows how to play the piano, he also knows how to play the guitar and Guzheng, and he knows how to speak fluent English, sing, and perform martial arts. I guess you could say that the eighteen artistic talents are all gathered into his one body.

On the next day, I saw parts of The Disciple grand finale being shown on CCTV and I thought this was quite strange because I knew that CCTV doesn’t broadcast this kind of television program; usually these types of shows are only shown on Beijing TV, so why did they make an exception this time? Later I found out that the Chinese government rated The Disciple as one of the healthiest, most educational, and most high-aiming competition programs; and this is why they permitted us to film the event at Badaling on the Great Wall of China. As everyone already knows, it’s nearing the start of the 2008 Olympic Games so there are a lot of locations that the Chinese government will not approve to be lent out for external uses like filming. This time we were granted permission and I honestly feel very happy and honored.

Awaiting the Arrival of the Olympics

Now that The Disciple competition is completed, I will fully concentrate on the rehearsal for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. At the moment we have rehearsals every night. Even the traffic in Beijing is running very smoothly without congestion, and the Beijing people I’ve seen so far have been very happy as if the Olympics were on every day. I can truly sense that they love their country very much. At night time I see a lot of police cars on the roads going through the routes they need to follow for when the Olympics take place, and on every street there is someone on duty standing guard making sure that everything is in order. I have many artist friends who tell me they have very conflicting feelings: on one hand they hope they can stay in Beijing so they can support the Olympic Games, but on the other hand they also want to leave Beijing during the Games because they don’t want their presence to add anymore troubles to the city. If there were less people in the city, then there would be fewer cars used on the road, which also means that the air quality would be better too. Furthermore, if there were fewer people in Beijing then there would be more space for foreign tourists to come here and visit.

Anyway, I’m going to be in Beijing and I’ll be doing some promotional work for the Beijing Olympics; appearing on some television programs, giving interviews on radio stations and other things. I can feel myself being fully charged with energy, as if I were ready to take part and compete in the Olympics. I know everyone in Beijing is actively and positively putting in their efforts for the Olympic Games and I’m honestly very happy to be one of those people as well. At the moment, everyone is eagerly awaiting the start of the Olympics. This is the chance that China has been waiting for over a hundred years and like the leaders of the country, I hope China will hold a very special and successful Olympic Games. We are ready!

Text and photos ©2008 The JC Group. All Rights Reserved.

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July 26 (星期六)

龍的傳人：

          這一次來到北京，終於可以完成了這麼多年來的一個小心願，‘龍的傳人’的總決賽終於完滿結束了。‘龍的傳人’在一年多的活動比賽中，不僅弘揚了中華武術的博大精深，更是讓中國文化和中國精神再次揚名世界。頒獎典禮恰逢北京奧運會開幕前夕，眾多電影人一起為奧運祝福。

          我記得從籌備到最後有二十多萬人登記參加，本來只是給國內人參與的活動，最後都有其他人來參加，不可以說是全世界，也有來自歐洲，甚至某些國家都有。從二十多萬人淘汰到一百多人，後來只有六十多人，三十二人，到十六強，終於今天在長城舉行一個非常隆重的總決賽。

          坦白說，現在中國正忙於北京奧運期間，能夠在北京長城八達嶺舉行這個活動真是不簡單，而且感到非常榮幸。還有，很多朋友如：吳宇森、韓三平、吳思遠、徐克、唐季禮、鮑德熹、鄭佩佩、陳道明等悉數亮相。

          吳宇森、陳道明和徐克作成最後的頒獎嘉賓，揭曉了‘龍的傳人’前三強，冠軍涂聖成、亞軍楊政、季軍易楊，有兩位是來自美國，一位來自天津。

          很多人在討論‘龍的傳人’會不會是另一場娛樂節目，而不是真的選拔新秀，純粹是騙人的技倆？我可以告訴大家，我真的希望通過這個比賽，可以選拔一些有潛質的新人，讓他們有一個大展才華的機會，也可以為歌影視界發掘一些新血並給予他們栽培。

          第二屆‘龍的傳人’比賽還沒有正式公佈，已經有很多人登記參加了。其實，我本人不想那麼快舉辦第二屆的比賽，我希望先為最後十六強安排工作，我們現在已經預備了三個劇本，分別由三位新晉導演拍攝。十六強以外的參賽者不要氣餒，我們也會因應劇本的要求而選角，有合適的角色，我們也會邀請你們參與，不論你的名次是三十幾或者是五十。因為每一個戲，除了主角以外，也需要不同類型的男女演員、丑角、喜劇角色等等。

          這一批新人全都會跟我中國成龍公司的藝人部簽約，未來的一兩年都會為他們開拍一些新戲，讓他們有表演的機會。至於涂聖成他們呢，我可能會挑一兩個人跟在我身邊，學習現場的工作、剪接、所有幕後有關的知識等，因為我想他們成為全方位的藝人，不論台市幕後的東西都懂。

          總決賽結束以後，我邀請所有參賽者和朋友去我朋友開的私人會所吃飯。所有參賽者終於可以放下緊張的心情，輕鬆的吃一頓飯，因為他們在比賽前後都要入住溫都水城受訓，要沒收所有人的手機，他們只可以跟家人談兩分鐘電話，其他的時間就要備戰比賽。

          飯局當中，見到他們在比賽期間不敢吃的東西，大家現在都開懷大嚼，因為在受訓和比賽的八個月裡，大家為了保持最佳的身形和狀態，都嚴戒大吃大喝，可知他們有多重視這一次比賽。

          飯後，他們紛紛上台獻唱，我聽著他們唱歌，我覺得他們將來是前途無可限量，因為每一個人都是多才多藝，懂打功夫、做戲、跳舞、唱歌、彈琴。涂聖成不單單懂得彈琴，還懂彈結他和古箏，又能說流利英語、唱歌和武術，可以說是十八般武藝集於一身。

          第二天，我看到中央電視台播放‘龍的傳人’總決賽的過程，我覺得很奇怪。因為這些北京台的選拔節目，中央台是不會播放的，為什麼這一次破例呢？後來，我才知道國家把‘龍的傳人’評為最健康、最有教育性和最向上的選拔節目，所以批准我們在長城八達嶺做這個活動。眾所周知，臨近2008奧運會，有很多場地都不獲國家批准外借出去，這一次我們可以得到批准，真的感到非常高興和榮幸。

期待奧運的來臨：

          完成了‘龍的傳人’以後，我會全情投入2008年北京奧運的綵排工作。現在每天晚上都要綵排，就是北京的交通也很暢順，所見的北京人民都很開心，像是天天都是奧運，我真的感受到他們很愛國。晚上看到很多警車在街道上綵排奧運期間的行走路線，每一條街都有人站崗，秩序井然。我有很多演藝界的朋友都很矛盾，既希望留在北京支持奧運，又希望盡量在這段期間離開北京，因為他們不想給北京添任何麻煩，因為人少一點，車也開少一點，那空氣質素又會好一點，而且人少了，也可以讓北京有更多的空間給外國人來訪。

          總之，最近我都會在北京，為北京奧運做宣傳工作，如：出席電視台節目、為電台做訪問等。我感覺到自己充滿了活力，就像自己在參加奧運，我知道北京每一個人都積極地為奧運出一分力，真的很開心自己是其中一分子。現在，大家都在期待奧運的來臨，那是中國等待了百年的機會，如國家領導人，希望舉辦一個有特色和成功的奧運，We Are Ready！