Jackie Chan sidesteps child's question about qi!

[Hau Tien]

heh... kinda.

Was watching Jackie Chan Adventures today and the question asked to the real Jackie Chan was "What is qi?"

Jackie started to speak with "Qi is..." and then trailed off, making animal noises and funny hand gestures and faces for the next 20 seconds. I thought I was going to pee my pants I was laughing so hard.

[shane2112]

why do i have a strange feeling that all of that was made up, *cough* jackie chan hater *cough*

[SPJ]

Qi is a difficult Q to answer.

If you try to answer it, there will be more Q's.

I was in a Church. The boys in Sunday school asked me what I was doing every morning. I said I practice Qi Gong and Tai Ji.

What is Qi?

Qi is the essence of Life. Qi exists in everything in the heaven and on the earth.

Qi is air or oxygen. Qi is energy or ATP. Qi is in mitochondria in a cell. Qi is heat. Qi is electromagnentic wave.

? ? ?

Qi is flowing along the acupunture meridians or channels.

On and on.

I was thinking out loud.

The boys were all confused.

I then said If you are happy, you have a joyful Qi. If you are angry, you have a bitter Qi.

They said Oh----

[Cody]

HaHa! A child's question, huh? Well, answering something along those lines is close to the "Where do babies come from?" genre.

One might give the child what can be most easily and most constructively grasped. In this case, as what animates us. our energy. an animal's energy. on the most simplistic level.
I think it was a gentle answer, and not really side stepping. just a different kind of communication, probably best suited to this situation.

Cody

[SPJ]

J. Chan is "Bob Hope" of the east.

He first started in "serious" movies. People yawned and yawned. He never used any stunt sub. He would fight from the beginning to the end of the movie. I enjoyed it but not the majority of people. The stories were always family got "morder" or "kyll". Practiced some Kung Fu and came back to fight guards and heavy guards then the big villant, the end. Including Bruce Lee movies.

J. Chan thought there were too much bitterness and seriousness in life in Hong Kong already. People want adventures and laughs. The fighting scenes became dodging, running, using stuff and opportunity strike. Smart and funny. Close calls and close calls. Stunts and stunts with all sorts of sport venues, mountain climbing, hang glider on and on.

Bob Hope is a comedian with words.

J Chan is a comedian with actions.

J Chan is a friend on the screen that makes you laugh more than tearing.

He is a fun to watch. He does this by bringing smile and laugh out of you from sadness and stresses in our daily lives.

[shane2112]

what do most parents say when children say 'where do babies come from?' i think they say stuff like 'from girl's tummies' or 'storks bring them' so when a child asks 'what is Qi' you can basically respond in the same manner, children have the right to know and learn, the sooner the better i think. So i would probably just say something like 'It is energy, it lets you move, breath and live' keep it simple, true, and to the point

I agree with what spj says, jackie chan is awesome and i liked some of his older movies also, it was a good martial arts watch, but i still think his newer more funny movies are much better

[Cody]

The explanation that kids came from mom's tummy was the answer I got. I remember feeling like it wasn't what I was asking, though I believed the baby was there. I guess I was 5 years old. I wasn't thinking, not with words anyway. I remember playing along and being shown off to adults.

At the same time, I saw pictures of storks bringing babies in fairy tale books. I didn't buy it, but something felt good about the explanation. still does. It's a different approach from the biological nuts and bolts. needs updating in whichever way the child is raised.
I guess what struck me was the mention of tummy and storks as explanations, and given equal weight. But, thinking on that further, I hope I understand correctly that you are referring to two different kinds of education which can be combined.

I'm assuming that Jackie Chan's meeting with the youngster was very casual and brief. But, I'm sure he didn't want to get into the one question after another scenario, no matter what the age of the child. I still agree with Mr. Chan's answer.

The concept of energy is not simple. It is full of mystery. Again, there can be a nuts and bolts explanation geared to the young. Mr. Chan wasn't giving a lecture series. Hence, showing nonverbal energy might have been the way to go. And, certainly with a young child, nonverbal communication is great if you can muster it. In fact, I think it's great for any age, though the specifics of the performance change.

In fact, you don't know exactly how the child picked this up, or the entirety of what was communicated. Energy is a funny thing to communicate. I remember a long time ago when a teacher of mine used to occaasionally stand up close and in front of a student and roar ferociously for a short time, out of nowhere. That elicited giggles, fear, or a half-hearted attempt to roar back by some students. I silently observed, though I admit I made a quiet squeal the first time. I took something in from that roar which I practice to this day, generally without sound. But the significance of the entire performance gained relevance to me over the years. Simple mime with trained energy holds within it an education that words might only touch on.

I met Jackie Chan once at a book signing event. He appeared decent and very self-possessed. The child was very fortunate, imo.

Cody

[ShaolinTiger00]

Qi is a difficult Q to answer.

Not according to science.

[Ai Lek Ou Seun]

Originally posted by ShaolinTiger00
Not according to science.

Ah yes....he pulls out the almighty SCIENCE.

Ok...let's go Mr. Wizard.

[SPJ]

There are 4 types of people; The doer, the talker, the do+talker, the nondoer +nontalker.

1. The do-er does a lot and not talking about it. J Chan is like that. He likes to do things. He does not talk much in Chinese or English. There are not a lot of things to say in his movies. There are a lot of actions instead.

2. The talker is ok. Just need to do more. The movies are so boring, because there are only words and stages. Not so many actions. People may add singings and dances. Such as "Beyond the sea'.

3. The do then talker. Most people are like this. They have some experiences then talk about them. Such as "Aviator".

4. The nondoer and nontalker. They do not care. So never bother.

[Hau Tien]

Originally posted by shane2112
why do i have a strange feeling that all of that was made up, *cough* jackie chan hater *cough*

LOL... No no... I love Jackie. Hell... I was watching his cartoon!

I wasn't cutting him down on it at all... I thought it was absolutely hilarious.

I'm not sure if any of you have watched the cartoon, so I'll explain what I meant a bit better. At the end of the show, Jackie typically answers a single question, posed to him by a child. Usually the questions are "How many hours a day do you train?" and that sort of thing. Very simple things. So I was kind of surprised when the question was "What is Qi?".

I totally agree that there was no way to sufficiently answer the question, but just thought his choice of response (various child-like animal gestures and noises) was awesome