After visiting the classroom, Jackie was shown the exercise room where some of the staff demonstrated the routines that the children do to strengthen their muscles and coordination. The school leader kept up a continuous monologue to inform Jackie about all the wonderful things that are being done at the Center. Afterwards, we were led to a small staging area where the flag of China was raised and the national anthem sung. Then came a charming performance by the children at the center. These children are mentally disabled, but you would never know that if you watched them perform. They danced and sang beautifully, then demonstrated martial arts movements, much to Jackie’s delight. When the performance was over, a ping pong table was brought into the clearing and after two students played for Jackie, they invited him to join them. One of the boys was an ace table tennis player and he immediately smashed several shots right past Jackie, who is also a really good player. The crowd cheered when the boy scored, but they cheered equally as loud when Jackie did too.


Here’s a short video of Jackie playing ping pong:

After the ping pong game Jackie joined in several other activities with the children and then we went to visit the school kitchen where Jackie was invited to help make dumplings and have lunch with the students. During the lunch, Jackie spoke with a young lady who was quite personable; she was a terrific conversationalist. Jackie really enjoyed his talk with this girl and with the other children at the lunch table. And of course he also enjoyed the delicious dumplings that he’d help make!


I must take a moment to tell you about something that happened to the photos that I took during this part of our day. When we returned to the hotel in the evening of October 14th, I immediately uploaded the pictures to both my laptop and to an external backup drive. Unfortunately, I was interrupted in the middle of the upload to the backup drive and when I returned to the task later in the evening, I thought I picked up where I left off, but apparently I didn’t. Then the thing that I always fear happening did happen….the laptop completely died. At the time I was not worried because I knew I’d backed up the pictures to the external hard drive. It wasn’t until I got back to Hong Kong that I was horrified to discover that all the photos from the second half of the afternoon at the Disabled Center were gone – several hundred of them. I have been taking photos for many years and this was the first time that something like this ever happened. Since I am fanatical about backing up my photos, I couldn’t believe that I’d neglected to upload all of the pictures to both the laptop and the backup. But I did. When I finally accepted that the photos were gone forever, I remembered a really nice photographer who was taking pictures at the event that day. We’d spoken briefly and he’d given me his business card. I immediately wrote him an email and asked him if he would be willing to share a few of the photos that he’d taken of the dumpling ceremony and the lunch with the children. He replied right away, sending me a handful of photos and told me I could use them on the website. So despite losing those photos, I’m happy to say that there are still some to share with you. I have two reasons for sharing this story with you. The first is so that you know how important it is to back up every single important thing that’s on your computer since you never can predict a complete failure of a hard drive. And the second reason is that I wanted you to know how many nice people there are in the world - - this photographer who shared his photos with us is just one of them.

While I was taking photos, Fibe was busy recording some video of Jackie eating lunch with the children:

After our visit to the Center, we drove to a local television studio for a charity auction. Although the crowd wasn’t that large, they were very generous and enthusiastic and Jackie ended up raising US $365,000 for the charity. One of the auction winners was a young boy who became very emotional when he spoke to Jackie. He said that Jackie was his hero and role model and that he wanted to work hard to help others when he grew up. Since he was using his own money to buy an auction item for charity, it looks like he is off to a good start. On the way home, Jackie expressed his amazement that even with the recent economic downturn, people were willing to donate large amounts of money for the children. He was very happy with the result of this small auction.


After the auction we returned to the hotel to rest for a while before we continued our activities. Jackie asked us to come to his suite….he was too excited to sleep and just wanted to talk about the successful auction and reminisce about our first day on this Dragon’s Heart trip. While we were chatting, the television was on in the background and every single channel had Jackie on it. There were news reports of our trip to the Disabled Center, Jackie movies, Jackie commercials. Jackie joked that it was “Jackie TV – all day, every day!” It was really funny but also heartwarming to see that he local television stations had honored Jackie by playing his movies non-stop while he was visiting the area.


After we ate a quick dinner, we got back in the van and drove to a nearby venue where some local singers and dancers as well as Jackie’s Disciple finalists and the all-women singing group A Jia from Tibet would be performing. When we arrived at the small auditorium, there were hundreds of people waiting to see Jackie. We managed to make our way inside the building but the crowds were nearly impossible to get through. People were everywhere – lining the aisles, crouching near the stage, stuffed into the hallways. It was really a security nightmare and Jackie’s bodyguards were on high alert. Fibe and I managed to find a seat in the audience but we soon had to abandon them because everyone was standing up in the aisle in front of us. Instead, we made our way down to the stage area and somehow found a way to squeeze in so that we could watch what was going on. I needed to be in a clear spot to take photos, and luckily I found a good place. However, the videographer who was filming the performances was one of the rare kind who has no regard for his fellow photographers and he constantly stood right in front of those of us who were trying to take pictures. While trying to film Jackie’s solo singing performance, this same man came and stood right in front of my video camera. Luckily this is a rare occurrence; most photographers and videographers are much more respectful of each other than this man was. They may push and shove to get close to Jackie, but they always check their backs to see if they’re blocking anyone.

I’m not sure where Jackie was during the first several performances; perhaps he found a safe place backstage. After a performance of Peking Opera, Jackie came out on the stage and thrilled the audience by singing a bit of opera himself.



When he was finished, he talked to the audience for a few minutes, telling them about how he’d recorded several songs in honor and support of the Sichuan earthquake victims. He asked the crowd if they’d like to hear him sing Xiāngxìn Zìjǐ (Believe in Yourself). Of course everyone wanted to hear it, so Jackie sang a very moving and heartfelt solo of this touching song. The crowd was quite wild that night and the security personnel had a hard time keeping everyone in their seats and away from the stage. During his performance, Jackie reached out to shake hands with someone in the audience and in a flash one man leaped onto the stage and went running directly for him. But the bodyguards were just as fast and immediately tackled the intruder and wrestled him away from Jackie. This episode was indicative of the behavior of the people for much of this Dragon’s Heart trip. I’ve never seen so many aggressive fans as I saw in Henan. Luckily for Jackie, his security team was vigilant and they kept him safe throughout the trip. Of course it’s understandable that people get excited when they see Jackie, but I don’t think they realize the danger that is created when large crowds all rush ahead at the same time.

When Jackie performs on stage, he always gets really pumped up and this night was no exception. He was very excited and he talked and sang the entire way home from the venue. We returned to the hotel at around 10:00 in the evening and after relaxing for a few minutes, we went to our rooms and got ready for bed. Just as we turned the lights out, the phone rang…it was Jackie. It seemed that a group of children and teachers from the Disabled Center had come to the hotel to give Jackie a special gift. He wanted me to come and take some pictures. A few minutes later I entered his suite and was surprised to see dozens of people wandering around! Jackie came out and after visiting with the kids for a few minutes, posed for photos. Finally it was time to say goodnight (again) and rest up for another busy day tomorrow.

The students and their teachers.


Jackie with the students.


Jackie with the teachers.


Visiting with one of the children.

Text, video, and photos Copyright 2009 Katharine Schroeder / The JC Group
All Rights Reserved

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