PUBLISHED ONSeptember 06, 2023 7:47 AMByYeo Shu HuiVeteran Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen was given the superstar security treatment in Shenyang, China, while attending a product endorsement event last Saturday (Sept 2).
While some fans were excited to see the actor in person, it also drew the ire of others.
In a viral video that was posted on Weibo on Sept 3, the 60-year-old was seen walking down a street, with at least 10 security guards hand-in-hand surrounding him. There were also a few other security guards parting the way for them to pass.
Although there were a few excited fans who gushed and cheered, there was only a small crowd. In fact, the loudest voice came from the security guards, who can be heard shouting all the way: "Step aside! Step aside! You step aside!"
At one point, a middle-aged man who had his phone out to film the 60-year-old was held by his upper arm and pushed away by a security guard.
As he moved out of the shot, a background voice can be heard saying: "Don't crowd here! Don't crowd here!"
Next came a young man, who approached the security guards and Donnie with his left hand extended towards the latter, hoping to get a high-five from him.
Donnie smiled and gave him a high-five. As the man was moving away from them, a few security guards could be seen pushing him away as well.
Netizens criticised Donnie for the security treatment that he received, calling him "pompous" and "pretentious".
One of them wrote: "My goodness, does this road belong to your family?"
"You can walk normally. Nobody is looking at you and no one cares, why do you have to create a scene and let others know that a star such as yourself is here?" another commented.
While most of the criticism was directed at Donnie, there were others who commented on the security guards.
A netizen wrote: "Security guards from northeast China are like this, once they are assigned to protect some big star, they will think that they are the big star."
Another said: "The man who is taking photographs of Donnie was almost in his face, why is nobody saying anything about that?"
In response to the criticisms, Donnie addressed the matter in a Weibo post yesterday evening.
He wrote: "When I arrived at the scene, I was actually surprised, because we did not ask for such a large security arrangement. But after communicating [with the relevant parties], we were told that the arrangements were for safety reasons, so we could only accept them and go with it."
Donnie thanked netizens' feedback and agreed with them, expressing that he also "did not like it" and understands their reactions towards it.
He added that he saw the criticism towards the security guards and felt that they were just doing their jobs and if netizens are unhappy about it, they should just blame him and his team. He also said that they have communicated with the organisers to avoid similar situations in the future.
Donnie ended the post by apologising to the people who were affected by them and vow to be more cautious in their working arrangements in the future.
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