Jet Li acts in live-action Mulan for daughters sake
KUNG fu superstar Jet Li said it was his daughters who persuaded him to star in the Disney live-action production of Mulan.
According to a China Press report, the Chinese actor told a TV interview that he was reluctant at first to play the emperor in the film as he found the script and pay to be “unattractive”.
“Then my 15-year-old daughter asked me if I lacked money. She said if not, when a company such as Disney wanted to make a film about Chinese culture, why wouldn’t I join?” Li said, adding that his daughter also asked if he could act in the movie for her.
The 55-year-old father of four girls said it was the first time the daughter made such a request. An elder daughter, too, concurred with the sister.
The movie is a live-action take of the hit Disney animation about the classic Chinese tale of Fa Mulan, the daughter of ageing warrior Fa Zhou, who impersonates as a man to take her father’s place during a general conscription.
Li worked alongside Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen as well as Chinese actresses Liu Yifei and Gong Li in the film.
> Former head coach of Chinese national badminton Li Yongbo has declined the offer from Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to be the head coach for the Malaysian team, Sin Chew Daily reported.
“BAM secretary Ng Chin Chai, who is also the coaching and training committee chairman, approached Li but we got rejected,” BAM president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria was quoted as saying.
It was reported that Li was in Kuala Lumpur to visit Datuk Lee Chong Wei, who returned to Malaysia from Taiwan on Oct 7 after spending two months there getting treatment for nose cancer.
Li stepped down as head coach of China last year.
> The Oxford English Dictionary recently added several new entries, including the term jia you (Mandarin) or ga yau (Cantonese), which literally means “add oil”, Nanyang Siang Pau reported.
Calling it Hong Kong English, the dictionary says the expression means incitement or support, similar to “go on!” or “go for it!”.
The discovery was made by Taiwan Soochow University associate professor Hugo Zeng from the English Language Department