Internationally renowned Chinese actor Jackie Chan will appear
in an advertisement made by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department to encourage Asian Americans to join the police force,
officials said Saturday.
County Sheriff Lee Baca is hoping the Hong Kong-born star, whose
mixture of slapstick, swift-footed martial arts and death-defying
stunts helped him gain popularity with American audiences, will win
over Asians in his latest flick, a public service ad aimed at
recruiting minorities to the force.
Chan told a news conference at the Sheriff's Headquarters that
he was honored to be a police ambassador in America for the first
time.
The advertisement, to be shown during recruitment fairs and
other events, will feature Chan getting out of a squad car and
wearing a sheriff's deputy uniform, urging potential recruits to
join the force and "doing his own stunts, as usual," said sheriff's
Deputy Luis Castro.
Castro said that Chan as an icon is well known and admired in
all communities, not just the Asian community.
According to the official, of the 10 million people in Los
Angeles County, about 20 percent are Asian, while most sheriff's
deputies are white, followed by hispanics and blacks.
The number of Asian deputies is "at the lower end," and Native
Americans rank last, Castro said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2007)
