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Courtesy Rebel Pepper
A cartoon mocking Christian Bale's confrontation with Chinese security was posted on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, on Friday.
BEIJING – Just days after Christian Bale made a red carpet appearance in Beijing for the premiere of his blockbuster new movie, “The Flowers of War,” about the 1937 Japanese sacking of Nanking, he made even bigger headlines in China off-screen on Friday.
Bale invited CNN’s Beijing bureau crew to accompany him Thursday as he attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, an activist who has been under house arrest since his release from a four-year-long jail sentence last year.
The 40-year-old Chen, a blind self-taught lawyer became a persecuted dissident after he filed a lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of residents of his hometown, Linyi, over the city’s practice of forced abortions and sterilizations, a municipal policy that runs counter to national regulations.
He was thrown in prison on what human rights activists say were trumped-up charges of “intentional damage of public property” and “gathering people to block traffic.”
Related link: Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight
Since Chen’s release in September 2010, dozens of Chinese and foreign reporters, as well as supporters, have gone to Dongshigu village, in Shandong Province, to try to visit him, but all have blocked from even entering the town. Some were even violently manhandled and beaten up by unidentified thugs, and some TV crews had their equipment damaged or confiscated.
Bale was no exception.
He and the crew were stopped at a road checkpoint when government security guards wearing green army coats asked what they were doing and punched the camera. When Bale took out his flip camera to record, he was punched and shoved, exactly the same treatment the CNN crew received just a few months earlier when they tried to visit.
After the scuffle, the crew got back into their vehicle and drove off, but they were followed by a security van for about 40 minutes.
"I'm not brave doing this," Bale said on camera. "The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them."
In a later interview on CNN, Bale said, “It’s amazing a superpower like China is actually terrified of this man. It shows such an intrinsic weakness within the fabric of the country.”
China's human rights detainees 2010
He also stressed that he did not inform any members of the movie crew in order not to implicate them with his own actions.
‘Pandaman vs. Batman!’
Bale’s confrontation with the security guards soon made headlines on Twitter and Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like, but government-controlled, social media forum. Posts about the encounter spread rapidly on Friday morning with some joking headlines like “Pandaman vs. Batman!”
Andy Wong / AP
English actor Christian Bale speaks to journalists on the red carpet as he arrives for the debut of the Zhang Yimou-directed movie.
The cartoonist known as “Rebel Pepper” who posted the Pandaman vs. Batman cartoon on Weibo said he was somewhat surprised that Bale was treated exactly the same as everyone else.
“Dongshigu village is the only place in China that everyone is treated the same [and roughed up] no matter where you are from,” Rebel Pepper said during a phone interview with NBC News.
Some cynics noted it could be a publicity stunt for Bale's new movie, but most expressed their respect and appreciation.
A Weibo user named Shenan wrote, “You could pretend not to see or hear. That blind man is not your relative or friend in a faraway foreign country. Even if the whole 1.3 billion people were jailed, it’s not your business. You really didn’t have to ask for the roughing up, Batman.”
By Friday afternoon, Weibo administrators censored all the posts related to Bale’s attempted visit. Steven Jiang, the CNN producer who was with Bale, found all his Weibo posts on their journey could not be forwarded.
It is a common practice for social media censors to jump in and try to put out the fire online before the flames get out of control. But determined Weibo users still spread the news with puns or pictures too difficult to censor.
A post on Weibo joked that Zhang’s movie “Flowers of the War," would be pulled from Chinese cinemas. But another user said, “No, the movie will be there, only all the parts Christian Bale is in will be deleted!”
Bale left China today for the U.S., but Chen still remains off-limit to all his visitors.
Leave a Comment:
Send a cartoon to do a mans job! Where is "Bugs Bunny" when we need him? Bugs would have handled "Pandaman" and his thugs with the brutal efficiency "Castor oil" handles constipation.
Or confused them by dressing in drag.
Christian Bale went as one citizen of the world to visit another citizen of the world. The government guards disgraced themselves before the eyes of the world and demonstrated on camera the mistreatment administered to a blind lawyer who committed the crime of submitting a lawsuit to the court which embarassed the Beijing Communist extremists by showing that they are little different from the Japanese militarist invaders of World War II. It remains for the Beijing Communist extremists to show that they are not the brutal sons of the Japanese invaders by allowing the free working of the court system and by granting the Chinese people the rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which has been adopted by the United Nations.
You don't complain to Obama when you get roughed up by some hillbilly cop, so why complain to Beijing in this case?
Some people just can't think logically.
OOPS! The blind man escaped. Boy are those security guys going to be embarrassed.
That's sad. Bale got punked by little chinese men. I would have gotten some punches in trying to defend myself. I'm not racist either, I'm Asian-American.. but raised on FDA approved, good ol american food which probably gives me the upper hand.
Glad no one got hurt physically...
No, you would have been "punked" too. Just about anybody would be if they are attacked by multiple security guards at once. Oh, and good ol' American food tends to produce people who look like trashbags filled with pudding. I really hope that's not what you meant.
If he had resisted and/or hit back, Bale would have been arrested himself.
I think Neo from the Matrix, along with any Chuck Norris and Jean Claude van Dam, should pay this village a visit.
A lonely black van pulls up to the village entrance. Out steps a short Chinese man, in uniform, waving the van to stop at the checkpoint. The window motor lightly moans as the driver side windows slides down. A grizzly, bearded Chuck Norris sits in the driver seat, hands on the wheel, and alert eyes fixed on the guard. "We are here to see Mr. Chen."
The guard's eyes narrow, and he barks out in broken English, "Yoo - yoo all ge' out."
"Come on guys, lets do what the man says and get out," Chuck says with a half smile, looking back at his cohorts. (Cue techno music.) Simultaneously, the driver and passenger door pops open as the side door slides back. Neo, with his dark sun glasses and black duster emerges and steps to the front, flanked by Chuck and Jean Claude, both clad in jeans and a flanel shirt. Neo reaches into his pocket to retrieve an iPhone 4S, which he holds in front of him. In a low monotone voice, he says, "Siri..."
"Yes, Neo..."
"Begin filming...
"Anything for you...Neo. Filming..."
The guard eyes become as big as saucers, and he screams as loudly as his lungs can force the air out of his chest, "Yoo shuu it off, NOW!!!"
Again, in a cool, dry monotone voice, Neo quips, "Why don't you shut it off?"
By now, two other guards have stepped up behind their leader in roughly the same stance as Chuck and Jean Claude, peering eye to eye with them, a mean shivering cold look immenating from their pupils. The lead guard grittet his teeth, rared back, and swung his fist at Neo's face. An inch and a half from its target, his hand abruptly froze in the air, and the guard gasped in shock as he realized Neo's hand was grasping his wrist.
Once again, dry and cold, he whispered, "You shouldn't have done that..." A second later, the muffled sound of bones cracking under muscles and sinews could he heard coming from his arm as Neo bent it behind his back and kicked him in the rear, sending him rolling to the ground. The other two guards attacked, only to be put down in one punch. Moaning in pain, the guards lay on the ground as the trio got back in their van and quietly drove past the checkpoint.
It's easy to talk tough, it's a whole different thing to be faced with starting an international incident by fighting with a law enforcement officer in a country where the media is censored, news is suspect, reports can be falsified, and the people you were with change their statements because suddenly their families are in just as much trouble as you are.
Sure...you'd throw one punch...then find yourself being the target of every dirty attack of the Chinese government as they try to save face against the "disgusting foreigner" who cares not for their customs.
At least they can't make Christian Bale disappear like they could you. There at least he has an advantage. If YOU threw a punch, you'd find yourself with your head turned 180 and shoved in a dumpster behind a 'massage' parlor in the seedier part of town...another 'foreigner' on a sex-tourism trip gone-bad.
Sounds like a great idea for a movie - called International Incident
One actor against a host of Chinese security guards, that's as fair as any one-on-one. Christian Bale lost just because of luck, not numbers.
10 years ago you would have never seen this tape or that douche bag Bale again.
Huray?
You still don't see them if you are in China with out jumping the GFW.
I question the agenda of US Media on increasing its negative media attention towards a country that has lifted 500 million people out of poverty and has the fastest growing major economy in the world. Yes they have faults, but honestly I think we're just hating on them too partially because of jealousy. How come the negative media was less when they were poor and people lived even worst? Please tell me. Does the USA care or are they just jealous and looking to contain China? So China censors its media which is not a secret. Everyone including Chinese people in China knows that.
But what about heavily biased negative media filled with political agendas of containment and preserving global hegemony by spitting negative news on a country going through development? Is that right? And worst off many Americans aren't aware of this, so this is worst then censorship which people actually know about.
Can you please name a time when USA did not talk harshly of a country that is developing and may rival them? Japan in the 80s , Soviet Union and now China. Face it guys you guys are just jealous and hating.. China is wrong, but atleast they dont have predator drones killing inoncent lives and utilize powerful negative media as an excuse to invade countries. Weapons of mass destruction anyone? Which one is worst?
At least in the United States, there aren't faceless security thugs roughing people up who try to visit another person. Not yet, anyway.
"Worse," twice, not "Worst."
You obviously weren't around in the 1950's and 60's when China was demonized far more than it is now. Oh, and that was when Mao was killing tens of millions of his countrymen. All in the name of progress.
And trust me, if they had the smarts, the Chinese would have predator drones too. The difference is, they'd most likely use them on their own people first.
Next thing you know, you'll be telling us Kim Jong Il is a nice guy, just misunderstood...
Something about the way this is written, the tone, certain missing pronouns, suggests somebody Chinese wrote this. I have heard they pay people to write posts of this nature. I suggest if that's the case they brush up on their grammar. But I may be wrong. I just don't see reporting what happened as "bashing." Given who has the money these days, why do even care what we think?
Haven't been to an airport recently?
Oh, and be sure that the people you visit are OK to visit, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen
The country that lifted 500 million from poverty by first plunging 1,000 million into poverty, and then release their shackles slightly to let them breath a little, confiscate most of their earnings and give them to the rich and powerful 0.7%, and by lowing their poverty line a hundred fold from what it was.
If the US lower the poverty line to the Chinese level, there won't be any poor in US, not one. Poverty line in China is US$1.08 a day each person. UN standard is $2.00 a day each person.
It seems that China speaks harshly of Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Philippines and Tibet among other neighbors of China as well as attacking and killing people of those countries. A Chinese boat captain recently stabbed to death a member of the South Korean security forces and seriously wounded another. China has surgically sterilized many Tibetan women without reason. Chinese Naval ships have attacked and killed Vietnamese fishermen for fishing off the shores of their own country. China has made many threats against the Philippines and Taiwan. China wants the mineral resouces of Indonesia and will undoubtedly make moves to acquire those resources along with the territory of Indonesia. Beijing Communist extremist leader, Hu Jintao, has alerted his navy to speed development to be prepared for war. Beijing Communist extremists have stated that their navy is no threat to the USA. If not a threat to the USA, what countries do Chinese Communist military forces threaten? They threaten their close neighbors, of course.
Since all Chinese media are reporting positive news about China, and negative news about all other countries, and Chinese people are not allowed to access foreign press, some one has to balance the act. I am glad western media is doing what they can do. I wish US government forbids any American from reading Chinese press, and stop any publishing of Chinese government controlled media (that's about all Chinese media) in US, so that Americans can have some balance in their reading.
Balanced reporting is not about reporting all sides of a story by every medium, but about all media reporting what each sees as its story by many media. Just like democracy is not about everyone have the same opinion (that's "harmony"), but about 300 million people having 600 million opinions on each subject.
Whenever a Hollywood star "uses his fame" to try to help a cause like this, I get a bit annoyed. There is egotism involved, no matter what he says. Isn't Bale the one who was recorded being an extreme ass and going on a 10 minute diatribe against some crew member who made an accidental noise during a shoot? Look--none of us like what is happening to the Chinese activists, but the solution will emerge among the Chinese people as they wisen up to how things are done outside the lunacy of the Mainland. A man who plays a superhero in a movie is most certainly not one.
Imagine for a moment that you are the star of a film. And the scene you are shooting requires a tremendous amount of prep and due to the nature of the shot, there is no ability to cut midway to take a break.
Now, due to the nature of film in general, there are all sorts of angles and re-shoots that can occur regarding the same scene as your team is prepping dailies for review back at the studio and editorial to decide which ones to ultimately utilize and take through finishing.
Now picture this, the shot is time sensitive because it's on location and outdoors, so you've got a relatively narrow window each day/night to pull off the shot and that's if weather permits.
So, you spend 2hrs in hair/makeup so that you look identical to the scene sequentially just before this one, each run takes 10+ minutes of performance and 30+ minutes of prep, and that's assuming no errors in delivery and the director likes the performance.
Now assume that there have been some challenges with the shot, the director is iffy on the scene and angle, so you've spent hours in and out of makeup to keep you looking just right and you have to keep delivering the same 10 minute performance perhaps 5-10 times before you break for meal.
Aaaaaaaand finally, you're 9 minutes into the 10 minute performance for the 10th time in a row, Maggie Gyllenhaal is no longer hungover, you're both delivering perfectly, when suddenly Dirty Dingus McGee smacks a piece of metal attached to a boom and flubs the shoot.
How would you feel?
As most other solutions that the Chinese people have come to in this fashion, it's likely going to involve a very bloody and violent revolt that could possibly drag most of East Asia and even the US into the conflict.
I think shaming the Chinese government into confronting their demons rather than allowing them to conduct horrible abuses against their people in secret is a benefit to everyone.
Perhaps you would like to give Czechoslovakia over to Germany again and let the powder-keg build further, Mr. Chamberlain?
Clearly, but I think that he and other high profile activists are harder for a country that prides itself on blacking out media and silencing critics to shut them out.
Notice that it took Christian Bale and a CNN crew getting roughed up by CCP-goons before the rest of the world gets to hear about this stuff...notice also high the Chinese echelons already jumped on trying to mute the reports.
typo - "how" not "high"
Are you Christian Bale? And have you ever lived in China? I have for 10 years. I speak Mandarin. And I am positive I understand the culture and how the people think here better than you. My family is Chinese. And guess what? Many of my friends here make $200 USD per month for doing things twenty times harder and more frustrating than this pampered actor who whines about re-shooting a scene he's being overpaid for anyway. Come on, dude, he's pretending for a living. If he really wanted to meet his "idol" the activist so much he didn't really have to bring a long a CNN crew. Self-promotion was his deeper motivation. And by the way, were any of the Arab Spring revolutions sparked by Brad Pitt or Adam Sandler or did they happen organically among the oppressed themselves?
The "idol" is under house-arrest in a town essentially barricaded by the Chinese police...and under house-arrest for speaking out against his government.
...I'd bring a CNN crew as well!
And you'd take his job in a short second if it were offered to you! LOL
Do yourself a favor and don't under-estimate the difficulty of other people's work, regardless of what they do. Every job is hard, if it wasn't, it would merely be a responsibility of someone else doing a different job.
Anyway, since you think Bale is over-paid, try pointing a camera at yourself and deliver his lines...see how well you do! If you think you're any good, send it over to an agent and see if you've got a chance.
Considering how few actors ever make it, I'd say that you'd likely end up like most...serving me coffee
More than likely yes! About the culture anyway, but I'd argue that unless you've breached The Great Firewall, your knowledge of current events is probably lacking.
Care to shed light on why China, of all "developed" countries deems it important to silence critics and jail political dissidents for extended periods of time?
Since you're experienced regarding the Chinese culture, could you explain to all of us here why China, who wants to be treated equally on a global stage seems to care not for sponsoring the theft of intellectual property from other countries, or is fine with bulldozing over neighborhoods in Beijing to make way for shops and wares to be sold during the Olympic Games?
Also, why does China think it's important to censor its own history for its people. Do you want to discuss Tainanman Square and why China has practically removed any information on it from its internal intranet and doesn't offer all accounts, just "state approved" materials.
Randy in Shanghai I ate a mandarin orange once! Did it come from China? Mm mm nom nom good chinese orange ...wanta more rice-a with your porka chop? Now I too know of all of China custom. work in field...all day long....while I sing....the mandarin song! Chinese people are lazy if you think about it! All they have to do is pick rice! No hustle bustle of driving to work and your boss yelling at you cause your late! Then you spend all day bent over a computer! Your eyes hurt from the light...oh what am I talking about? I work in a tire garage putting on tires and changing oil! I make 8 dollars an hr and get 26 hrs a week with no 40 weeks! My mortgage is due yet I don't make enough to pay it! I would get a second job but there is know one else hiring! I am exactly $40.00 dollars short on my house payment and have no way to get it so now I will probably be losing my home before long! I have my computer till the end of the month! Why am I woring about Bale and the Chinese when I have my own problems! Living on the street is hard here too! One day I will hopefully be rich but I doubt it! www.kingsofleonlive.blogspot.com
GAaaAR,
You hit the nail right on the head! For the last 100 years, we've been telling the Chinese they need to be more like us capitalists and now that they have outdone us, we're jealous as #$%#$%#! There's not a businessman/politician alive in the USA that doesn't wish they could get away with the same stuff! Crooks are crooks regardless of which side of the ocean you're on.
Kelly - there's a significant difference between capitalism and a democracy with respect for human rights. Don't try to conflate the two. China has embraced market forces while maintaining a brutal tyranny.
Chinese have out done us since they let their crooks get away with bad stuff ? Hmm.. This must be a new definition of civilization.... And I thought civilized people don't let crooks get away with hurting other people. Obviously I am wrong.
"In a later interview on CNN, Bale said, “It’s amazing a superpower like China is actually terrified, of this man. It shows such an intrinsic weakness within the fabric of the country.”
The wall continues to crumble.
Wall ? And I thought it was a curtain, a bamboo curtain....
“You could pretend not to see or hear. That blind man is not your relative or friend in a faraway foreign country. Even if the whole 1.3 billion people were jailed, it’s not your business. You really didn’t have to ask for the roughing up, Batman.”
Sooooo...they dont want anyone to care about political prisoners. Um ok f-u then.
Similarly, that little girl lying on the street after been ran over by a car twice, and then by a truck, is not your friend or relative. Even if the whole 1.3 billion people were ran over by cars, it is not our business. No one should care.
"I'm not brave doing this," Bale said on camera.
No one said you were.
Whatever he did before pales in comparison to this heroic dissident move (including the movie I now want to see) in support of the dissident Chen.
Bravo C.B. !
What REALLY happened was the Chinese told Bale he had to join the Kyoto Protocol or they were going to bitch slap the @!$%# out of him and CNN. Bale responded with a polite 'Go Fuch Yourself' then out come the rubber chickens. After a mild beating, bale and his crew fled the area while getting followed by the chinSS police but managed to lose them in the Beijing FOG.
You have to believe this story because its on the internet of course.
"I'm Batman! I'm Batman!"
It is sad really.
The great Chinese Communist Party, Mao's legacy to his people, is terrified of the world listening to one old blind man with an opinion.
This should go in the 'yougottabekiddinme' column.
They are afraid of being judged by the eyes of a blind man.
Too Funny!
Why do people think this should concern Beijing? It occurred and stayed in a small rural village, it should be resolved there.
In any case you clearly don't know what the blind man did, so let's cut the fake sympathy.
1.3 billion people in China can't be jail or KILLED at the same time. Let the the government figure it all out. The People's Republic of China isn't and will never be about the people.
What's with these actor wannabe activists? Just promote your movies and move on.
China can lick my salty nuts. They're just as dead as the USSR but haven't realized it yet.
This just shows the World that China remains a totalitarian state that should be isolated and boycotted by all freedom loving people. The idea of allowing them to continue on the road to becoming an "established" super power is a madness, one fueled by an international investor class willing to do any thing that will allow cheap Chinese goods flowing to the West!
Note: To all you people who seem to think this is some kind of joke. What we're facing is a totalitarian country, one having an iron fist on the lives of its citizens. Kids, if you haven't read George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World do so! All the technology necessary is now available to duplicate the world these books written 60 years ago portended!
Question: How much longer can the Free World continue "coexisting" with such a nation, especially one whose population has now passed 1.3 Billion and is rapidly gaining greater and greater power on the World Scene?
Brahms Lee, The problem is there are powerful forces that wouldn't be at all disturbed to see the entire world (including the USA!) follow this same totalitarian pattern! Yes, they are out there today--other Stalin's, other Hitler's, other Mussolini's out who would relish ruling in such a "brave new world"!
And that powerful force is CCP, old friends of Kadhafi, bin Ladin, Assad, Stalin, Mubrak.
Batman was unbeatable in the previous batman movies series. Seems like this time batman was beaten by the kungfu pandaman. What a tragedy! Hollywood should come out with pandaman blockbuster movies next time.
And it was called "Kungfu Panda".
Yes China has alot of problems, but im suprised Bale didn't go nuts as he tends to do :)
He was stupid for trying a stunt like that.