jet li
December 23rd, 2002
I finished reading James Robert Parish’s book Jet Li: A Biography the other day. It was a very entertaining read, starting with when Jet Li was just a, 8 year old student introduced to wushu, to his recent blockbuster movies. I could have done without the paragraphs upon paragraphs of quotes from a variety of movie reviews and all the numbers Jet Li racked up in the box office.
It was interesting to find out that Jet Li met Richard Nixon during an exhibition. On his website, Jet Li retells this story:
The last stop and climax of our U.S. tour was Washington, D.C., where a select few from our team performed our wushu routines on the White House lawn. After the performance, we were officially introduced to the American dignitaries and posed with them for official pictures. As I remember, President Richard Nixon stood with one of my female teammates, and I stood next to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. At one point, Nixon turned towards me and said, “Young man, your kung fu is very impressive! How about being my bodyguard when you grow up?”
“No, ” I blurted out. “I don’t want to protect any individual. When I grow up, I want to defend my one billion Chinese countrymen!”
Now I’m just waiting for my copy of another Jet Li biography.
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