by Katharine Schroeder
In the Fall of 2004, Jackie established the Dragon’s Heart Foundation with the goal of helping the very poorest people in China lead better lives. Although Jackie has been involved in charity work since he founded the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation almost twenty years ago, the Dragon's Heart Foundation is specifically geared toward building schools in remote areas of China and providing school supplies and uniforms for the children. Additionally, the Foundation gives aid to the elderly in China. Since its establishment, Jackie has taken every opportunity to visit these areas to lend support to the people and raise funds. He attends groundbreakings and openings of the Dragon’s Heart Schools and conducts charity auctions. This year’s trip was the most extensive so far, lasting nine days. Here on Jackie’s official website, we share the experience with fans so they can get to know the important charity work that Jackie does.
September 19, 2007
Day 5
This morning we left Wenshang and began our three hour drive to the city of Zaozhuang. It is the fifth day of the Dragon’s Heart trip through China, and there’s no sign that Jackie or anyone else is losing steam. Because we had such a long drive ahead of us, we awoke early after sleeping for only a few hours. The previous evening we had enjoyed a dinner with the Australian International School students and then had continued talking until late into the night. However, not getting enough sleep was a small price to pay for having such an enjoyable evening.
After a last minute check of the rooms, we all headed downstairs to the vans for the long drive to Zaozhuang. It would be three hours in the car before we reached our next destination, and it was a good chance for everyone to catch up on lost sleep. Within five minutes of boarding the van, nearly everyone was asleep except those of us whose job it was to either drive or take photos. Since I wasn’t driving, you will correctly guess that I was taking photos. The landscape that we drove through was rather bleak, but when Jackie's in the van there is never a shortage of entertaining subject matter for photos. Here are a few pictures from the ride:
One would not expect to find windmills in China, but here are two.
The China countryside's answer to the American strip mall.
Jackie tried out various methods of blocking out the morning sun. This is method one.
Method two.
Jackie accepts the risks of sleeping in front of any of his staff. Photos are always permitted.
During the ride to Zaozhuang, X Lee told me the translations of several of the place names where we'd be visiting during this trip. Last year when we went to Liupanshui, he explained that the name of that city translates as "six bowls (or plates) of water." The reason for Liupanshui being thus named is because the water collects in the valleys between the mountainous areas, giving the appearance of shallow bowls of water. The city we'd visited on our first day, Changchun, translates as "long spring." Zaozhuang means "date village" ("dates" as in the fruit) and is so named because they grow an abundance of Chinese dates there.
When we arrived in Zaozhuang at about 11:00, Jackie wanted to take a drive past the Dragon’s Heart School that we’d be visiting later that day. He likes to have a look at the schools when there aren’t so many people around; the crowds at the opening festivities make it hard for him to see everything. We turned off the main street and proceeded up a very long road that took us past groves of trees and fields of corn that stretched as far as the eye could see. Colored flags were flying on either side of the road as we got closer to the school and the staff was busily preparing for Jackie’s arrival later in the day.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of people on the campus getting ready for the ceremony, so Jackie couldn’t get out of the car. Still, he was happy just to look at the beautiful new school and the large, modern campus built by the efforts of the Dragon’s Heart Foundation.
After Jackie was done looking at the buildings, we made a quick stop at a trade show where he spoke a few words to some of the local businessmen who support the Dragon’s Heart project with donations. While he was talking, I took a moment to walk around and visit with some of the people. The group who had been playing music took a keen interest in me (don’t forget – I’m an American and many of these people don’t see Westerners too often). I spoke with them the best I could in Mandarin, telling them who I was, what my job was, and where I was from. I was beginning to learn that any of my attempts to speak in Chinese with the local people was always met with appreciation, and never with ridicule. My halting Mandarin seemed to make them feel more comfortable in trying out their English and it always led to laughter and lots of smiling. I posed for photos with probably a dozen different women band members before they let me go to continue looking around.
I love the way this woman's whole face gets involved with her laughter.
There wasn’t too much more to see, so I stationed myself near the stage and just took a few photos of Jackie:
After a while I noticed X Lee sitting in the van resting his arm. He was still having pain in his wrist from adjusting to the extra weight of his new video camera. He never complained, but it was obvious that it was bothering him. I went back to the van to visit with him until it was time to leave. He’d been watching me talking to the group of women and commented that I was turning out to be “the second most-photographed person” on this trip. My American face certainly makes me a curiosity to the local people and their fascination got even more intense the further we traveled away from the big cities.
After Jackie finished saying a few words, we proceeded on to the hotel where lunch was waiting for us. Jackie didn’t have much of an appetite for the food that was served, so he ate only a little before he got up and went to the other room, where he sat and looked through some books. The hotel had posted a welcome notice for him on the computer screen; here is what it looked like:
A special welcome for Jackie.
Lunch.
X Lee relaxes in Jackie's suite.
After lunch we went to our rooms to unpack and relax for a while, then we left to go to the middle school for the opening ceremony.
At the entrance to the school there is a large marble pillar inscribed with the words that Jackie had written two years ago when he came for the groundbreaking: “Study hard and do your best for your country.” The actual Chinese characters that Jackie wrote were transferred onto the marble and carved, thus making the pillar bear Jackie’s own handwriting. It is very beautiful.
Jackie was greeted with great fanfare; there was a huge marching band playing music, students waving balloons, and even a red carpet rolled out to welcome him. Everyone was very excited to see him and could barely contain themselves as he walked past, waving and smiling. The security team worked hard to keep everyone in order as Jackie made his way to the stage.
Once everyone had settled down, Jackie took the stage and gave an inspirational talk to the students, encouraging them to study hard and to make their families and country proud of them. He reminded them that the school belonged to them and that it was their responsibility to love and care for it. He is a skilled public speaker and his sincerity and humor combined with his animated style of talking held the attention of hundreds of kids - no easy task!
After his speech, Jackie accepted donation checks from local businessmen, shaking each one’s hand as they came up on the stage to present it to him. After that, he handed out uniforms to several of the children and posed for some group photos.
Next, four students took the stage to sing one of Jackie’s own songs for him. Perhaps because they were nervous singing in front of him, the students immediately began having trouble with their timing and seemed to be forgetting the words. I watched Jackie’s face as the students tried to get the timing right; I just knew he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from helping out. Sure enough, when he saw their dilemma, he began trying to help them get back on track with their singing.
They were still struggling, so Jackie came out from behind the table where he'd been standing and began to sing with them, signaling to them when to start a verse, helping them keep the rhythm and beat of the song, and joining in with them. Jackie’s efforts to help the students with their song were endearing, and it was it was a very special moment for the students and everyone who was watching. When the song ended, the entire audience of teachers, students, and guests burst out into a great round of applause.
After the singing ended, I left the stage area to go take a look around. As I walked along, my attention was caught by a familiar voice accompanied by the sound of laughter coming from one of the classrooms. I peeked in and saw none other than X Lee standing in front of a class full of students, waving his camera around and gesturing while keeping up a running monologue which had the students giggling and smiling. X Lee was trying to get some footage of the students and was asking them to do certain things for him (like ignoring the camera, which is no easy task for youngsters). I felt great admiration for X Lee as I watched how well the children responded to him. He never talks down to kids and always injects humor into situations, which in turn puts youngsters at ease. They always end up relaxed and smiling in his presence, and this is quite apparent in the video that he brings home with him.
As I stood in the doorway of the classroom watching X Lee, I heard a commotion behind me. That could only signal one thing: Jackie was approaching. I slipped into the classroom and stood at the back and when Jackie walked in he was greeted by applause and dozens of ear-to-ear smiles. Jackie said hello to the students and spoke to them for a few minutes. A couple of the kids asked Jackie questions and he happily answered them, then told them that they should get back to work and waved goodbye. He proceeded to take a tour of the science labs, the library, the cafeteria, and the study hall. Jackie was very pleased with the clean and modern looking classrooms, although later he would again confess that as much as there was for the students, he still wished they could have more. Last year when we were in Guizhou, he told me that if he were in charge of spending the Dragon’s Heart money, there would be only one school – a “super school” - because he would not be able to stop himself from having the best of everything brought in, and there would be no money left for anything besides that one school! He said that is why he leaves it up to the Dragon’s Heart Foundation’s staff to allocate the money. They do the best they can to stretch the funds as far as they’ll go so that as many children as possible receive an education. Right now the number of schools and other facilities for children and the elderly is approaching two dozen - in only two years! That takes a lot of dedication and hard work by many people. Jackie is very proud of the progress made by Dragon’s Heart.
After Jackie toured several more classrooms he went to meet the teachers and have a photo taken with them. He thanked them for their dedication to the students and encouraged them to continue to work hard for China’s future – the children.
Soon it was time to leave. Jackie had spent a considerable amount of time at the school, and they needed to get back to their studies. As we drove away the students ran after the van, waving excitedly and shouting his name. As is his habit, Jackie immediately went to the back of the van to keep anyone from running alongside and possibly getting hurt.
After a long day of traveling and visiting the school, the Dragon’s Heart team was treated to an evening off. No auction or concert was scheduled, so we all stayed at the hotel, relaxing and visiting with each other, working on different projects or catching up on lost sleep. In the evening, we joined Jackie for a quiet dinner and talked about some of the things that we’d been doing the last few days. Jackie is very pleased with the progress being made, but he always worries about not doing enough. He said he’d like to clone himself and send “Jackie” to many different places in the world so that he could get more done. Lately he has realized more and more how important his personal visits to the places where he’s building the schools are. He knows that it’s not enough just to build the schools or supply the uniforms; the children need the emotional boost that comes with his appearance at the school openings or groundbreakings. Although Jackie is quite humble, even he can’t deny how inspiring it is for the students when they realize that they are so important to him that their “Uncle Jackie” will travel great distances to visit them.
After dinner was over, we all said goodnight and headed to our rooms for an early bedtime since we would be leaving in the morning to drive to the airport for our flight to Inner Mongolia. Incredibly enough, we had more problems with the showers; this time there was no hot water. But really, it was a minor inconvenience and we all just dealt with it the best we could. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if the same guy did the plumbing work at every hotel in China.
Click to download this small video to your computer for viewing. This will take a few minutes; file size is 14 megabytes.
Thank you to Jessica Chow for much of the video. Thanks also to a special friend for composing and performing the guitar music to accompany it.
If you'd like to learn more about one of Dragon's Heart's projects, click here to read about Jackie's Build a School for a Dollar campaign.
Text and photos ©2007 The JC Group. All Rights Reserved.