Chinese actress Gong Li is officially a Singaporean after taking an oath and collected her Singapore identity card last Saturday (Nov 8).
The 43-year-old actress was supposed to collect her identity card on August 23, but failed to show up because she was filming a movie overseas. Her no show irked some Singaporeans who felt that she was disrespecting her new country… but it’s all history now.
Gong Li is married to a Singaporean businessman since 1996, so the switch of citizenship is not entirely surprising. Both China and Singapore do not recognise dual nationality, which literally means that she would have to renounce her Chinese citizenship.
Chinese netizens are generally unhappy about the news… lots of them are criticising Gong Li’s decision, while some are sharing concerns that this would become a trend among popular artists and younger generations.
Some netizens are showing support Gong Li though, stating that it’s her freedom to choose her own path; a few also stated that they would also like to migrate out of China if given the chances.
Possibly Related Post
The Singapore FlyerFann Wong and Christopher Lee getting married in May
Singapore tops Asia in competitiveness report
Anime Festival Asia 2008
China should regognize that Gong Li has a freedom to follow her husband and become a citizen to his country if she chooses. It is out of respect for her husband if nothing else, which is her right.
citizenship could be changed, but not ethnicity.
no matter what country she’s a citizen of, she’s still chinese afterall.
I was told before that Chinese people are Chinese nationality no matter where they aquire citzinship because of their ancestry? Is that not true.
cole… not true at all. As what bb said, the Chinese people are still Chinese in terms of ethnicity, but citizenship is a different issue. Most if not all Asian countries don’t allow dual citizenship.
Traditional Chinese family place high values on the ‘root’ of ancestry, so lots of the overseas Chinese still have a certain emotional bond with China… but the formal tie is broken once a person switched their nationality.
I’ve always been a little unclear about ethnicity I guess. Apparently it’s not just about what race you are. The definition states the following
Ethnic : “of or relating to large groups of people classed according to common racial, national, tribal, religious, linguistic, or cultural origin or background.”
So, I suppose anyone could technically retain their ethnicity no matter what nationality they become. For instance, If a white American moves to China, Africa, Mexico, Russia, Europe or wherever and becomes a citizen of that country, but if he/she still speaks English, eats western style food, practices western religion, and generally retains alot of the western culture in their personal life, then that person is still considered white American.
I would think it’s the same with a mideast person, Japanese person, Indian person, Korean etc etc.
Would you agree?
i don’t think language, food, or religion changes a person’s ethnicity.
it’s not about the country. it’s your race.
for instance, i know a lot of chinese people here in canada who can’t speak chinese…but that doesn’t mean they aren’t chinese.
a lot of chinese kids here eat western foods more than traditional chinese food.
and as for religion, what is the “chinese” religion? maybe you’d say buddhism, but many chinese people are christians, catholics, etc…
as for me, i was born in canada, so i’m a chinese with canadian citizenship. so are my parents, since they’ve immigrated here for 20 years now. however, i never realized or asked them if they are still citizens of china. now that i know china doesn’t allow dual citizenship, they’re probably not anymore. they have a canada passport, but not a china passport.
one small question. hk allows dual citizenship, right? so are they sort of like a separate nation with china?
I don’t think HK allows dual citizenship. Their situation is a bit unique… they hold a different passport than mainland Chinese and have lots of different policies than China despite the fact they are part of China.
Ethnicity does change… after a long time though, hundreds of years maybe. Canadian Chinese for example… they will reach a point that they are almost completely isolated with Chinese culture and developed some unique lifestyle of their own… I would call it a new ethnicity by then.
It depends on what we interprete the word Ethnicity as well… Chinese is one ethnicity? But mind that there are lots of sub-ethnics under the Chinese too. Most of the white Canadians came from England or France right? But can we categorise them as the same ethnicity with English or French?
There’s plenty of stuff to study about this obviously.
Reminds me of the fighting that occured a few months ago in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. The people in South Ossetia region of northern Georgia where the attacks took place are said to be “Ethnic Russian”. They don’t really want to be part of Georgia and are backed by Russia.
When they say “Ethnic Russian”, they must be referring to their culture and ancestry because they are basically the same race as the Georgians.
Same situation that occured with the very bloody and violent Bosnia/Serbia war back in the ninties. It was all about “ethnic’” cleansing and borders.
Chinese are sometimes to emotional