介绍:
Lincoln: A recent report says a well-known Chinese singer, Yin Xiangjie, has been arrested by the Beijing police for drug offences. This is the second time this has happened. Now, Wu You, for some of us who might not be as familiar with this singer, could you maybe tell us a little bit about his background?
WY: Yeah, sure. Yin Xiangjie is a 45-year-old Beijing native. He shot to fame after singing “Boat Tracker’s Love” in 1993, and then, ironically, he was once appointed to the publicity volunteer for an anti-drug campaign in the year 2007. [Michael: Oh dear.] And then last year, Yin Xiangjie was detained for drug abuse in December, on Christmas Day, and then was only discharged from prison this July.
Michael: Yeah, well, I mean, talking about China, the son of the famous martial arts movie star Jackie Chan, Jaycee Chan, he was prosecuted in Beijing over drugs charges, I think, last year. [WY: Last year, in December.] Last year, yeah, and the actor Gao Hu was also arrested for possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, so… Chinese authorities, I think they’ve talked about waging war on drugs as well, so that’s clearly an area that they’re trying to crack down on as well, in recent years.
WY: Well, this case is the latest addition to the series of such incidents involving entertainers in China in the past two years, and besides Jackie Chan’s son Jaycee Chan, and also Gao Hu, that Michael has mentioned, also, in March 2014, Li Daimo, a popular reality TV star, was sentenced to nine months for hosting crystal meth [parties]. Previously, back in the year 2011, in April, Hong Kong actor Mo Shaocong was arrested in Beijing for smoking marijuana as well. And also, Zhang Mo, the son of actor Zhang Guoli, was found smoking marijuana in his villa.
Michael: What’s it like in South Africa? Is it as strict as it is over here?
Lincoln: Off the top of my head, I think it’s definitely not as strict, it’s probably closer to the UK’s approach to it. It’s definitely not as liberal as it is in the Netherlands, which is kind of the other end of the spectrum, but it’s also something that is very much, you know, the police will treat it properly.
Michael: It’s been a bit of a hot topic in the UK over the past ten or fifteen years. So, there are different classifications for different types of drugs in the UK. You’ve got Class A, which, obviously, heroin would come under that sort of classification, and then Class B – at the moment, cannabis sits in Class B, and then Class C is for, maybe, abuse of prescription drugs, that sort of thing, but cannabis was actually declassified from B to C about ten years or so ago, and this actually led to quite a big outcry, so much so that a few years later it was then reclassified up to B. So it’s a suggestion that, certainly in the UK, I don’t think people are ready for it to be decriminalized further just yet.
Lincoln: Yeah, certainly, there’s lots of opinions around things like this, as well, but I do want to return, just for a moment, to maybe the idea of the sons and daughters of rich celebrities having this kind of thing happen more often, it seems, than with other people, or perhaps we just know about it more because they’re the sons of celebrities. There’s lots of examples in Hollywood of people who are young and who’ve picked up quite debilitating drug habits, as well.
