Who's afraid of Shen Yun?

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Parliament Member Keith Locke receives a similar letter from 29 Chinese organizations. In a press release posted on the Green Party’s website, MP Locke says he is “concerned that some Chinese organisations in Auckland may be acting in league with the Auckland consulate in this matter.”

But seven hours before the performance, a District Court adjudicated in favor of Shen Yun. The company was let in the theater, and after a breakneck setup completed in less than half the normal time, that night’s performance played to a sell-out crowd. The P.R.C diplomats ended up advertising for Shen Yun, as the incident led to Korean media coverage of the affair and tickets for Shen Yun’s other Korea performances also sold quickly.

Consular officials also contacted theaters and local government offices in Shen Yun’s next South Korean destination cities Goyang (Aram Nuri theater) and Daegu (Suseong Artpia theater). Consular representatives asked them to cancel the rental contracts, but in both cities, the requests were spurned as local officials explained that the city has no right to annul a private contract.

According to Tom Liang of the New Brunswick hosting organization, the New Jersey Falun Dafa Association, these emails “took on a very odd tone, threatening and demanding the theater’s full support for the show. It tried to portray its author as a ‘mentally-disordered’ person.”

The email regarding Shen Yun’s performance in New Jersey’s State Theater has been turned over to the FBI.

San Francisco, CA War Memorial Opera House management reported receiving several such emails.

In Rhode Island, the Providence Performing Arts Center reported receiving a similar email from a person pretending to be a Falun Gong practitioner warning the theater that if it does not promote the show, punishment will follow.

On May 21, the theater sent a fax to the hosting organization saying that the show will not take place due to technical reasons. One and a half hours after the fax, venue representative Ms. Kerasidou called the hosting organization to confirm that the show was canceled.

The day that the theater stopped selling tickets was the first day of a conference that the Chinese shipping company COSCO held at the venue.

During the week of the cancellation, the president and CEO of COSCO met with the President of Greece and other top Greek officials over a recently negotiated commercial collaboration project.

More on COSCO and Greece business and dates

A government official revealed that:

- the theater director said she received “daily” visits from the Chinese embassy

- a Moldovan  Foreign Ministry official met with the theater director and said it was the ministry’s position that the show be canceled.

- the theater director was in possession of a letter from the Moldovan Ministry of Culture saying it  recommended the show be canceled.

On both days that the show was scheduled to perform, Moldovan television reported on the show’s cancellation and frustration of audience members, who protested outside the theater entrance. Some audience members had traveled from as far as Russia and Belarus, over 30 hours by train.

The theater box office refused to refund tickets, and later put up a sign saying that the theater is not responsible for refunding tickets, and that audience members should actually contact the hosting organization – whose show was forcibly canceled – representative, Tatiana Chiriac, and displayed her phone number.

Given that there was a signed contract with the theater, the hosting organization is now proceeding with legal measures for financial compensation.

Both the Moldovan Minister of Culture, Boris Focsa, and theater director Ms. Seican said that the PRC ambassador told them Moldova would face financial repercussions if the show were not canceled.

Last July, the PRC promised the Moldovan government a $1 billion dollar loan (see Reuters article). At the time of the show’s cancellation, Moldova is still waiting for the money to come in.

In March, Moldova’s parliament passed a new law on freedom of expression.

Ukranian television reports, Epoch Times report (Chinese Regime Pressures Moldovan Theater to Close Doors to Shen Yun)

Letter from EU VP to the Moldovan government.

Letter from Canada’s Hon. David Kilgour to Moldova’s parliament

Moldovan media reports:

JURNAL TV morning talk show part 1 part 2 part 3 - interviews with hosting organization representative, Shen Yun performers, the minister of culture, and the theater director.

Radio Europa Libera (audio): The minister of Culture says it’s not his responsibility, while another official says it’s the responsibility of the Minister of Culture, yet a third official he was in Italy at the time…

Radio Europa Libera II (audio)

Radio Vocea Basarabiei: Reprezentanţi ai Asociaţiei Obşteşti „Falun Dafa” cer guvernului explicaţii (audio)

Ziarului de Gardă: Azi protest SHEN YUN în faţa Guvernului

PRO-TV: Membrii Falun Dafa au protestat astazi in fata Guvernului (video)

Publika-TV: Administraţia Teatrului Naţional de Operă şi Balet susţine că a preîntâmpinat despre interzicerea spectacolului dansatorilor chinezi din New York

Infotag News Agency: Falun Dafa [Association] asks for explanations regarding illegal actions against the company Shen Yun Performing Arts

JURNAL TV: “They remained without the show”

JURNAL TV: “Chinese culture forbidden?”

Oblconcerteservice, an organization under the Odessa Regional Council sent a letter informing the hosting organization for Shen Yun’s Ukraine show that their contract with the Odessa Academic and Ballet Theater is suspended.

The letter states that PRC officials have requested the Council to cancel Shen Yun’s performance.

Oblconcerteservice chief Dmitry Polunin told The Epoch Times that Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry requested that show be canceled for political reasons.

Odessa officials also informed The Epoch Times that the Ukrainian prime minister’s office, minister of culture, and the head of the national security service sent similar letters as well. Vice Prime Minister Vladimir Seminozhenko, however, denied any government involvement in the cancellation.

The cancellation came immediately following an official visit to Kiev by PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jieqi.

Two Shen Yun performances were canceled in Kiev last April under similar circumstanced.

Letter from EU VP to the Ukrainian PM urging not to cancel the show.

See Epoch Times article: Beijing Leads Ukrainian Officials to Try to Cancel Cultural Performance

On December 15, the hosting organization signed a contract with the theater. In January, the Ministry of Education notified the hosting organization that they are not allowed to lease the venue, without explanation. The hosting organization tried to meet with officials from the Ministry of Culture but these request were repeatedly denied.

On March 8, European Parliament Member Renate Weber sent an open letter to the Romanian Minister of Education about the case. As a result, the following day Romania’s Prima TV featured a report on the story.

The ministry publicly attributed to the denial to the fact that the show of traditional Chinese culture has nothing to do with education. Romanian television later mocked this justification by playing footage of various conferences that took place at the theater, including a gypsy summit.

In a March meeting, a ministry official privately admitted the decision was based on a recommendation from the Romanian Foreign Ministry due to pressure form the PRC embassy.

Romanian European Parliament Member Csaba Sogor said: “This is very troubling, because politics should never override human rights and culture.”

Beijing Dance Academy’s The Butterfly Lovers

Official Hong Kong visa refusal letter and visa application letters available upon request.

Wall Street Journal piece

BBC

South China Morning Post

Scotsman article

DC Human Rights Examiner

R.E.A.L. Organization report

Congressman Rohrabacher’s statement

Letter from Congressman Bilirakis to Hong Kong authorities

2010

Three days later, a tire on the bus of one of Shen Yun’s other companies burst at 1am while traveling on I-40 West between Memphis and Little Rock. This was the first time in four years one of the company’s buses had a burst or flat tire. Two days later, while in Little Rock, the same company’s prop truck, during a pre-trip inspection, discovered slashes on one of its tires.

In one case, five police officers from three different districts (Panyu District police, Guangzhou city police, and Wuhan city police) harassed the family of Yang Fan and forced them to hand over four tickets to see Shen Yun in Hong Kong. The police presumably knew about the ticket purchase through phone-tapping. Three other family members had traveled from Wuhan city in Hubei province to Guangzhou in order to travel from there to Hong Kong together with the rest of the family to watch the show. The police were unable to find their tickets.

The letter said that Shen Yun “propagates lies saying that the Chinese government persecutes Falun Gong.”

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/28417/

1. The Dalai Lama’s speech, scheduled to take place at the conference center on June 4, 2009.
2. The Shen Yun Performing Arts show, scheduled to take place April 21, 2009.

Theater management informed the Chinese embassy that the conference center is for everyone.

Following protests, the show was reinstated and successfully took place as scheduled April 8, 2009.

According to The Age, four MPs canceled their attendance at the last minute without explanation.

2. See article in Australia’s The Age titled: “China pressured state MPs to skip show.” (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2008/03/30/1206850707183.html)

Jiri Liska, Vice Speaker of the Czech Republic’s Senate, said that embassy’s “interference won’t work here.”

According to the BBC, “Diplomatic relations between Sweden and China are said to be threatened by a row over dance performances.”

City officials in Stockholm and Linköping report receiving phone calls from the Chinese embassy. “They stepped way over the line. I think they really owe us an apology and an explanation,” AFP reported Madeleine Sjoestedt, Stockholm Vice-Mayor for Culture and Sports, as saying.

See BBC, “Dance show risks China Sweden row”: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7218690.stm

According to local organizer Wong Mei Yee, some 2,000 tickets had already been sold and the cancellation cost the organizers $31,800.

http://www.fofg.org/news/news_story.php?doc_id=1481

2008

World Forum Theatre

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-2-21/66393.html

Both the venue administration and the director of the Department of Foreign Affairs within the Ministry of Culture, Bella Krisbay, called the hosting organization in for clarification. Following the meeting, they refused to cancel the show.

Between Shen Yun’s first and second shows at the National Theater of Bucharest, a PRC embassy representative visited the theater and asked the theater manager to not allow Shen Yun to continue performing. The theater manager refused, saying: “I saw the show, it’s great.”

But when the local organizers tried to lease the venue again for 2009, they were turned down without explanation.

PRC consular official Zhou Jihe also made phone calls to Chinese community members in Bucharest, warning them not to attend the show.

Despite the pressure, the German agency held its ground and the shows were successfully held according to schedule.

- Pictures of the vice-consular Wang Yanmin and her colleague visiting Tonicale

“This demand is astonishing but it is valueless. It is completely unthinkable that we stop the show. It doesn’t matter who rings us, we shall not be influenced,” Municipal Chairman Paul Lindvall told the Swedish newspaper.

Leo Wijkman, program manager of Arenabolaget, the company that operates the Konsert & Kongress, where Shen Yun was scheduled to perform, told Corren that he had booked Shen Yun based on the show’s artistic merit.

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-1-29/64912.html

Quote from Russian historian Oleg Mironenko:

“I don’t know why these dances could provoke such a reaction from the Chinese Party leaders. Maybe the regime is not so strong if dances can make it fall.”

http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/256/2657.html

Chairman Norby reportedly rebuked the consulate and said it amounted to “an attempt by a foreign government to dictate to American elected officials what organizations we should support, recognize or associate with.”

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/03/local/me-letters3

California Center for the Arts in Escondido

The letter claimed that the show’s “ulterior motive is to defame China’s image in the international community and undermine the development of China-US relations.”

The letter also compared Falun Gong, known for its strict non-violence, “to the Branch Davidians, which engaged federal agents in a standoff over illegal weapons stockpiles that killed 82 members near Waco, Texas, in 1993; and to the Peoples Temple, of which more than 900 members committed mass suicide in Guyana in 1978.”  (LA Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/03/local/me-letters3)

Beijing has used this official line since 1999 to try to establish guilt-by-association, comparing the non-violent Falun Gong to destructive groups familiar in the west.   (for more on this, see: http://faluninfo.net/article/910/)

Congresswoman Susan Davis’ staff member indicated that the congresswoman had received such a letter as well.

The article reports that another person said that “The consulate had invited several Chinese people over for tea,” said the ticket purchaser. “One of my friends was included in this group.” The consulate told the guests that the show “is super-terrifying, it shows live organ harvesting on the stage, very bloody, you should tell other Chinese people not to attend these performances.” Not intimidated, the friend reportedly immediately purchased 40 tickets for friends and relatives.

2007

Following the show, the Washington DC ticket hotline service received multiple phone calls, sometimes only seconds apart from an unknown entity. The caller’s number – 8617911020000 – is from China.

Phone records available upon request.