**Jackie Chan Is Still Punching — But the Legend Is Complicated Now**

Here’s a hot take that might sting: **Jackie Chan the movie star still rocks; Jackie Chan the public figure… not so much.** In 2024, Chan is both a living action icon and a walking reminder that legends don’t always age the way we want them to.

Let’s start with the obvious. The man is **70+ years old and still doing his own stunts**. That’s insane. Hollywood can barely insure 40-year-olds to jog onscreen, and Chan is out here insisting he’ll keep throwing himself down staircases “until the day I retire — which is never.” His return in *Karate Kid: Legends* (2025), alongside Ralph Macchio, isn’t just nostalgia bait; it’s proof that no one else ever really learned how to mix comedy, pain, and choreography like he did. Even when his recent films (*Panda Plan*, cough) are critically meh, the physical commitment is still unmatched. On craft alone, Jackie Chan deserves his flowers forever.

But here’s where it gets uncomfortable.

Over the last few years, Chan has increasingly positioned himself as **a loud, proud cultural ambassador for Beijing**, praising the Chinese Communist Party, expressing a desire to join it, and backing laws that criminalize “insults” to China’s history and heroes. That’s not a neutral stance; that’s choosing power over pluralism. For fans who grew up seeing Chan as a global, apolitical everyman — the scrappy underdog who fought bullies with ladders and frying pans — this version feels jarring.

Some argue this is just survival: if you want to work at scale in China, you play the game. Fair. Others say Chan genuinely believes in the system and sees order and nationalism as virtues. Also fair. But intention doesn’t erase impact. When a beloved international icon supports restrictions on speech, it hits differently — especially in Hong Kong, where Chan once symbolized local pride and now represents alignment with the mainland.

So where does that leave us?

Jackie Chan’s **artistic legacy is bulletproof**. No one will redo what he did for action cinema, stunt work, or cross-cultural filmmaking. But his moral legacy? That’s still being written, and it’s a lot messier. You can admire the performer while questioning the platform. You can love *Police Story* and still wince at his politics.

Maybe that’s the real lesson of Jackie Chan in 2024: **heroes don’t freeze in time**. They evolve, sometimes in ways we don’t like. The question isn’t whether we should cancel him — that’s lazy — but whether we’re mature enough to hold two truths at once.

Can we cheer the punch… while side-eyeing the speech?

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