Jet’s Li’s Daughter is a Philanthropist
Although only 16 years old, Jet Li‘s (李連杰) daughter Jane Li is already a budding philanthropist. At a Beijing charity event yesterday, she delivered a moving and powerful speech.
Dressed in a simple black and white ensemble, Jane’s resemblance to Jet Li and her mother Nina Li (利智) were apparent. During her speech, Jane exhibited great stage presence and spoke about her memories with her father.
Recalling the time when she was only four years old, Jane revealed that her father pulled her back from the rising waters during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, when the family was vacationing in Indonesia. Since experiencing the natural disaster, Jet established his own charity – The One Foundation, which raises funds for the needy. Aside from running his charity, Jet Li is also an ambassador of the Red Cross.
Taking inspiration from Jet, Jane founded the For Kids Club with several friends three years ago to help collect and recycle second hand electronics.
Source: QQ.com
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
kinda hard to see the resemblance. but then again, mama li is always glamorously made up.
@coralie I don’t find the daughter pretty.
With second marriages, most men will neglect the children from the first…largely afraid to offend the present wife.
gallen lo is one good example…so lovey dovey with the new wife and 3 year old daughter.
@janet72 haha i was trying not to be so blunt about it, but yes, compared to her beautiful mama, she’s only average. though who knows, she could grow up to be a beautiful swan.
and yeah, agreed about the new wife thing. what wife would like knowing that her husband is keeping in constant and tight contact with his previous family esp when they have a family of their own? plus they’re in the spotlight all the time. the less he remains in contact with the previous ex, the less gossipmongers would target them. his current family doesn’t have that advantage as they live with him.
@janet72
females should not be defined only by their looks.
face/body-shaming asians should read Jennifer Anniston’s letter on Huffington Post about this topic.
For shame – his 2 daughters from his previous marriage hardly got mentioned (in many profiles on him) – like they do not exist. To their father, maybe they do not exist (he being so absorbed with the “love” of his life and the 2 subsequent daughters). The sins of the parents are often visited on the children, no matter what. So, there is nothing proud about being the daughter a woman who has robbed another woman of her husband and a man who (by the sounds of it) has been a callous husband, and all the charity done will not dull that stain.
Jet Li takes pride in being a profound buddhist (it seems) but a buddhist would know lust from love. Lust, I believe, in buddhism is a “sin”. By his life story, he has put buddhism to shame rather than lived it ..no matter how much charity he has done, that cannot be erased.
He said that he knew it was love when he was ready to give up everything in the world for her but if he really does that, would she still want him? Like the story of a man who took care of and loved a blind girl to the extent of giving up his eyes for her to have his eyes. When she could see, she gave up on him. Jet might likewise have seen that his “love” will give up on him when he gives up his everything, then, he will know the difference between love and lust.
@kangaroo
It’s always like that. When one person marries a second time it’s like you will never hear anything/anyone from the failed marriage.
Isn’t Gallon Lo the same thing, he would talk about how much he misses now young daughter but forgets about his son or daughter? Even if real life, it’s the same kind of situations. My friend’s parents divorced when she was in HS or something. She never hardly EVER hears from the so called father after he remarried and had more kids. It’s like they are pretty much forgotten. And Asians its like less of those required alimony or they feel like they don’t need any s**t from them but for americans even one penny less they will hear it from court or whatever. lol… It’s sad but somewhat true. Not saying it happens to all Asian divorced /parents/kids but most likely the new young kids get more most attention than your firstborns which is BS. They are firstborns and if you don’t see them/live them you should talk/try to connect more but 90% that’s not the case I feel. Sad and sh*tty.
@kiki It’s true (these things happen) but it tells on the character of the person. So a person may appear good & so on but is it really so … more so when the person put himself out a religious, charitable, etc but cannot (or rather do not) protect or look after their own kins, their own kids – animals can do better
@kangaroo so if a partner in a relationship can no longer stand the other partner, it is more charitable and kind of him to stick around in that relationship for the sake of the kids? i’m just trying to see where you’re coming from.
personally, if being in a relationship makes me unhappy, this will most likely ripple through my other relationships and the quality will suffer. rather than prolonging the inevitable, i would cut it short. so i don’t see what jet li did wrong here. he just didn’t mesh well with his ex. and like @abcd stated, he does look after his kids from his previous marriage, on fb or whatever. just that since they’re not living with him, they don’t appear in the limelight as much as his current family. it’s understandable. and maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. obscurity and privacy is something valued in a lot of celebrities’ lives.
@ chill out guys… check out this article on his and his first wife’s relationship: http://www.jaynestars.com/news/jet-li-and-ex-wife-huang-qiuyans-20-year-relationship/.
jet li wasn’t terrible to his first wife, they just didn’t mix very well. and most male celebrities tend to focus on their current family, not the previous family. look at the likes of Will Smith, Sylvester Stallone, Gallen Lo, etc. it’s just the way it is.
@coralie I was going to say the same thing lol. Plus if you look at jet Li’s Facebook, he’s very much in his others daughter life also. Not as much as his current family. But you can tell he tries.
@abcd yeah, i don’t check his fb but from what i can tell of his persona onscreen/offscreen, it seems he’s a really good guy. he made a mistake when he was young, but doesn’t mean he should get persecuted for it. even his ex-wife doesn’t harbor any ill-wills toward him, and they’re friends so i don’t get the anger and lashings. and whoever brought up the buddhism thing lol – even christianity allows one to repent for their sins. why wouldn’t buddhism encourage the same?
@coralie it’s sad. I think people just like to bash on guys who have second marriages. Like Gallen Lo. Funny though, in the U.S. It happens so much, and no one cares lol
like killing somebody and then repenting?
@kangaroo yes even murderers can repent in the eyes of god from what i’m aware of in multiple religions. i thought that was the point – hoping ppl would be brought to the path of enlightenment and good, from where they were once lost and have sinned.
@coralie
I believe you spoke from the perspective of Christianity, in which repentance and forgiveness are the essence of the faith.
I am not too sure you can broad brush and apply the same concepts to Buddhism, which is what we are discussing here.
@aiya does Buddhism not encourage enlightenment and forgiving sins? the very concept of religion was to do good, a tool for others to use as guide.
i’m pretty sure most religions encourage this principle whether it’s Buddhism, Christianity, etc.
here’s a story based on buddhism and life teachings, so i do think this is applicable (from huffpost):
“This topic reminds me of the story of the Buddha and Angulimal. Angulimal was a murderer. A mass murderer. It’s said that he had killed 999 people and wore a necklace of fingers, one from each of his victims. Still the Buddha went down the road to see him. Angulimal warned him that if he came any closer the Buddha would be his 1000th victim.
The Buddha, willing to offer his life to fulfill Angulimal’s desire to complete his necklace, asked only for one last wish. His desire? For Angulimal to cut a branch from a tree. Angulimal did so and offered it to the Buddha. Then the Buddha asked him to re-attach it to the tree. When he saw the murderer was confused the Buddha explained, “If you cannot create, you have no right to destroy. If you cannot give life, you don’t have the right to give death to any living thing.”
Angulimal was instantly transformed, put down his sword and was accepted into the monastic order. He was forgiven by the Buddha himself for his misdeeds and is said to have died a truly awakened man.
I mention this story not to equate what you did with this mass murderer (really and truly) but to point out that even the harshest and most senseless of acts can and have been forgiven. Furthermore, our largest mistakes serve as the largest fodder for our path to enlightenment. We learn what aspects of our life we want to cultivate and which we need to learn to reject. We grow stronger knowing that we have survived our mistakes and learned from them.”
@coralie Yes and No, that’s the simplest way to address your question.
The central point of Buddhism (stripped off all side stories and legends that are equivalent) is to free oneself from the ways of this world and set one’s sight toward nirvana by following the ways and practice set forth by Buddha (path of enlightenment). There are no judiciary tenets of accounting for one’s past actions; the concept of redemption (where repentance and forgiveness comes in) is strictly Christian.
I did not mean to turn this discussion into a heavy theological expose’ but just wanted to preserve the integrity in evaluating one’s character through the prism of the faith he/she practices.
@aiya it’s a firm tenet of christianity, yes.
and maybe at its core, buddhism is less about repentance and forgiveness, but i feel it’s also disingenous to not at least mention that there are implications in buddhist teaching and principles that allude to the importance of forgiveness, if not for others then at least for oneself (avoiding negative thoughts.)
but how does this apply to jet li? the original poster advised he’s lusting and not loving and thus, is ‘sinning’ against buddhism. but there’s nothing firmly written in buddhism regarding adultery, if anything that’s more of a christian issue. and then she stated there’s nothing he can do to erase his sins…well, you already know what i think of that.
my bottomline is that i think religion is fun to think about, and applying to real life is good (if it’s to do good). but i don’t think it has any place in society now. not to mention, i feel all religions are all part of the venn diagram and overlap each other in everything. some are more specific and therefore dumber (imo) than others, but the good things are still good.
@aiya Hi, Aiya, certainly, what you said here shows that you have captured more of the essence of what I meant to convey. Like you mentioned, this is not really the platform for discussion of religion and theology, hence, I was being very slip-shod and used the word “sin”. But it is just as well (the slip-shoddiness) as people who can understand understands and those who can’t don’t.
The topic of religion comes in as he seemed to profess himself as very religious, very profound, very charitable – on that ground, people label him a good man. That is superficial. Then, the title to this topic, the child is a philantrophist – wow, the term philantrophist is a very honourable term, certainly not to be used in this context nor to this family (so far as I can see).
To really address/clarify the context of what I have written and to truly read and answer the replies will take too much time – I would certainly not wish to waste such time. As mentioned, either you understand or you do not. And either you agree or do not.
Just 1 more thing – to talk about repentance in a wake of a wrong that someone has done is flippant. When you/your family members have suffered the wrong and you are able to repent, then, only do you have a right to make any judgment/statement about it. Usually, the wife and the children of the 1st family will suffer, regardless of what they in public or is reported. I think it was reported that Gallen/1st wife & children, Donnie Yen/!st wife & children, probably a few more, have good relationship (like this case) – do you believe it?
@kangaroo @coralie
In my comment I had tried to express that it is not appropriate to evaluate Jet Li through the prism of religion. Obviously I was not very successful at it (sigh!)
First, based on publicly available info, he and his ex remain close that he even gifted her US$100K for her wedding. Therefore I don’t see any “wrongdoing” on his part. Perhaps Kangaroo knows something that is unknown to the generally public.
Second, calling his daughter a philanthropist is strictly semantic on the part of the translator of the article. Just like they call anyone promoted by TVB as TV King does not necessarily mean a conveyance of royalty. But his daughter’s involvement with charitable work at such young age when most of her contemporaries concern themselves only with leisure and enjoyment should be commended and I think that’s the point of the article.
@aiya As I said, those who can understands, understands, those who cannot don’t
Incidentally, it is US$50K, and as 1 reader said to that:
Quote-unquote:
To those who say he’s so generous to Wife #1:
What is US $50,000 in comparison to how much he earns per movie, or how much efforts, youth and time Ms Huang spent in his direction?
If I don’t recall wrong, he ought TWO homes side by side in Singapore in a prime district, for his other family with Nina Li-Chi (in an area wherehomes that start at $5 million and up)
I doubt his first wife ever enjoyed any such luxury with him. $50 000 is pocket change, and a token to assuage his guilty conscience maybe.
@kangaroo 50K towards her marriage to another man though. that wasn’t a one-lump sum for life. it’s just his gift to her new relationship to another man. to another man!
when he broke it off with his first wife, he gave her i think half of his fortune from what i remember of his history. or maybe all. probably not much in comparison to what he has now, but at what point are you tethered to someone for life just because they’ve had your kids?
@kangaroo I just wanted to say that they have both moved on so there’s really no point in saying what he did is right or wrong. I rather that they split up when things didn’t work out then being together because they have kids together. This will only hurt the kids in the long run. Yes his current children get more limelight.. but that’s expected as that is his current family. Who wife or hubby will want their other half spending more time with their other family? It’s sad yes but that’s how life goes. As long as he tries and still keep in touch with his other daughters then all is good IMO.
@aiya point taken, good points, thanks for clarifying. good discussion!
Some comments are so harsh on this poor girl. I’m glad to see she’s doing something productive for society unlike many other kids her age. She seems very humble and kind.
@pleikupho lol kids her age in the states do something called community service to bolster their resumes and get out of high school. it’s productive of her to do something good for the world, but not extraordinarily humble or kind imo.
sorry for being cynical. i just don’t think it garners true commentary.
I don’t see how she is a “budding philanthropist ” when all she did was deliver deliver “a moving and powerful speech ” lol!