The Glasses Incident

When Jackie told me of the reactions some of you had towards his glasses I felt compelled to write to you all and explain, especially since Jackie told you I bought them for him. As you know Jackie and I have been working on Shinjuku Incident for some time now so we have been spending a considerable amount of time together. One night at dinner I was wearing this pair of glasses and Jackie took them off my face to try them on. We all laughed immediately because he looked totally different. We were no longer looking at Jackie Chan, Action Star but more like Professor Jackie Chan or Commrade Chan. In fact, it didn’t look like him at all. So the next day I bought him a pair and gave them to him at dinner. He put them on immediately and wore them throughout dinner. After dinner, we strolled though Roppongi, which as most of you know is always teaming with people. We walked for ten minutes and not one person noticed Jackie, for once he felt like a regular person. On previous occasions, Jackie would be recognized and mobbed immediately. As Jackie is probably the most recognized Asian face in the world, it was amazing to see that a silly pair of glasses could be such a good disguise. So from then on Jackie started to wear them whenever we went out.

Although Jackie loves his fans probably more than any star in the world, you must understand that stars sometimes yearn to be just like everyone else sometimes. Sometimes they like to observe the world rather than having the world always observing them. Those glasses gave Jackie a sense of freedom, albeit temporary, but freedom nonetheless. So please don’t be so hard on Jackie for wearing those glasses. It was never meant to be serious and never meant to be part of a new image, they were meant to be fun and at the same time unknowingly, a disguise. I did not expect Jackie to wear them at a public appearance like he did in China and I agree that he should not in the future because revealing the disguise actually ruins the disguise. They were simply meant to be a novelty, just like those old toy glasses with the fake nose and moustache. So please do not be so upset about them and don’t worry, they probably won’t appear again.

I hope this explanation helps to make those protesters feel a bit better because it would pain me to see all of you so upset over this.

Sincerely,

Daniel Wu

p.s. I read a comment about the glasses looking cheap. I wish they were but they are handmade by a famous glasses maker in Japan and cost over $300usd. So I wouldn’t call that cheap.