The veteran actor frankly acknowledged that the strict parenting in the past has made the father-child relationship tense. Jackie Chan's statement: "I am not a good father but I am a responsible father" quickly attracted attention and sparked many reflections on the harsh parenting model in Asian families.
Sharing at the event, Jackie Chan did not avoid looking back at his own mistakes. He admitted that he used to apply strict control to his son during his adult years, from regularly criticizing each meeting, strictly managing personal activities, to rarely showing concern in a gentle way.
Even when Jackie Chan called to celebrate his birthday, he only received a cold response from Phung To Danh, showing the increasing distance between the two father and son.
According to the actor's account, prolonged strictness caused his son to develop a fearful psychology, leading to avoiding contact with his father. Only when entering the later stage of his life, through sharing from friends, Jackie Chan realized the extent of the hurt he had caused to his son. He admitted this with clear regret.
Jackie Chan's belated apology also reignites the hurts that were once hidden behind the image of a "stern father". He said that at one point, the two father and son only talked to each other once a year, and even then almost cut off contact because he "did not know how to say positive words". Jackie Chan expressed: "If I can do it again, I will still be strict, but educating children should not be like that.
In recent years, he has made efforts to mend the relationship through conversations on WeChat and visits to his son. However, Jackie Chan also admitted that the emotional distance has not been completely erased.
From the expectation of "son becoming talented and famous" in the past, currently he only hopes that Phung To Danh will be safe and happy - the change reflects the journey of self-reflection and reconciliation of a father.
Thanh Long's sharing quickly created many mixed opinions on social networks. A part believes that this is a typical consequence of harsh education, when words "for the benefit of children" unintentionally hurt children's self-esteem and emotions.
In the opposite direction, many opinions expressed sympathy for the pressures that Jackie Chan once endured in his career journey, seeing his self-proclaimed "responsible father" as a miniature image of the generation of fathers who silently sacrificed.
At the age of 43, Phung To Danh is still unmarried, currently living in Taipei (Taiwan, China) and pursuing a career in painting. Last August, when Jackie Chan went to Switzerland to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Locarno Film Festival, Phung To Danh accompanied his father, showing that the father-son relationship has somewhat improved.
