Who's afraid of Shen Yun?

With audience members already in the theater (Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts) for a nearly sold-out performance, the theater received an emailed bomb threat, evacuated the theater, and canceled the Sunday performance. Even though all these emailed threats have been hoaxes and never was there any actual threat, the manager decided to go ahead and cancel the shows. The capacity 1,500-person performance was 96% sold out.

Toronto Star report

CP24 news report

On March 24 in Manhattan I got to go on the red carpet and watch the movie premiere of “Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun.”

This movie follows the lives of a few performers and systematically analyzes what we have been up against: the Chinese Communist Party, the New York Times, the bomb threats and how they are all connected.

After the movie I joined a panel and we took questions from the audience and from journalists. You can watch the panel at the link below:

Watch Unbroken: https://unbrokenshenyunmovie.com/

Red carpet photos from the Associated Press.

Watch post-show panel here.

According to Australian news reports, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his residence in Canberra, Australia for several hours so police could search his home after an emailed threat mentioned him by name.

On February 22, an emailed threat similar to the ones sent to England, Wales, and Scotland was sent to the ticketing center for the Melbourne, Australia shows:

“A large quantity of nitroglycerin explosives has been placed at the Prime Minister’s residence on Adelaide Avenue in Deeken, Canberra, Australia. If the Shen Yun performance proceeds anyway, the Prime Minister’s residence will be reduced to a blood-soaked ruin. Of course, if you don’t care about the safety of the Australian Prime Minister and other high-ranking officials, you can certainly continue the Shen Yun performance.”

The police search found no actual danger, and both the Prime Minister and his dog Toto returned safely to their home.

See CNN report: Australian leader evacuated from residence following bomb threat linked to opponents of group banned in China

As reported in Metro UK, an emailed threatened to murder the British Prime Minister should Shen Yun’s England performances be allowed to take place:

“Cancel the Shen Yun performance, or British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be shot from a distance!”

The email was sent to Birmingham’s BJCC Concert Hall ahead of Shen Yun’s shows.

See Metro UK article: Chinese Communist Party ‘threatened to shoot Keir Starmer’ over Shen Yun dance troupe

According to a report by Taiwan’s Liberty Times, in light of a spat of bomb and shooting threats targeting Shen Yun’s performances there, the Criminal Police Bureau launched an investigation and pinpointed the source of the threatening emails as the “Huawei Xi’an Institute.”

This Huawei research institute is located in the city of Xi’an in Shaanxi, China. The investigation further concluded that the threats were made by someone related to the Huawei Group, and indicated it does not rule out the possibility that it was made by Chinese Communist Party cyber-armies based in the vicinity of the location.

Theaters hosting Shen Yun performances in the Taiwanese cities of Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Keelung have all received emails threatening to bomb the theater or shoot audience members should the performances be allowed to take place.

On March 30, a total of 27 live chat message bomb threats were sent in under two minutes to Taichung City Chung Shan Hall, often with multiple messages going out the very same second, suggesting these were perhaps being sent by a bot.

“We have guns and Molotov cocktails prepared,” the identical messages read. “We will enter as spectators on the day of the Shen Yun performance. If the Shen Yun performance starts, we will suddenly pull out our guns and shoot at the actors and throw Molotov cocktails towards the stage! Anyone who stops us will be targeted.”

That same day, as widely reported in Taiwanese press, at least four entities in Taiwan received emails threatening to set off bombs if they don’t make public statements opposing Shen Yun. The threats included to blow-up the 17-story building shared by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Digital Affairs, as well as the Neihu District Office of Taipei City, and two local media. The Ministry of Digital Affairs additionally received an email trying to blackmail it to pay 10 million NT$. Upon police investigation, no threats were found.

The Taiwanese Criminal Police Bureau investigation is the first to have identified the source of the threats. In total, 42 different theaters have received threats of mass violence targeting Shen Yun performances.

Additionally, Shen Yun’s headquarters of Dragon Springs in New York has received nearly daily death threats in recent months, as have individuals and entities affiliated with Falun Gong practitioners, such as the Falun Dafa Information Center.

Below is a graph showing the recent trend:

March 30 saw five theaters when Shen Yun is performing receive mass violence threats. It was one of the busiest days in a season that has already seen 37 different theaters receive emailed shooting and bomb threats targeting the performers and their audience members.

The torrent began in Taiwan, where Taichung City’s Chung Shan Hall received 27 live chat bomb threats in under two minutes. The first came in at 3:57:52pm Taiwan time and the last 3:59:42pm. Several messages were often sent on the exact same second timestamp, suggesting that they were perhaps being sent by a bot.

“We have guns and Molotov cocktails prepared. We will enter as spectators on the day of the Shen Yun performance,” the messages all read. “If the Shen Yun performance starts, we will suddenly pull out our guns and shoot at the actors and throw Molotov cocktails towards the stage! Anyone who stops us will be targeted.”

That was just before 4am New York time, and things were just getting started. Later that morning, the Hanover Theatre in Worcester, MA, where my group was performing, received an emailed bomb threat.

“We have put a lot of explosives in the theater. If you don’t want the explosives to explode, please cancel the Shen Yun performance immediately. If the Shen Yun performance starts, we will detonate the explosives remotely! I swear to Jesus, this is not a prank! ! !”

A very giddy and excitable canine and his police officer came in, searched the building, determined it was safe, and we had our matinee as planned and everyone went home happy.

The bomb threats were sent to at least three other venues that morning. At 8:44am PST (11:44am EST), Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, Canada received the identical threat sent to Taiwan. Half an hour later, at 10:27am MST (9:27am PST and 12:27pm EST), Colorado Springs’ Pikes Peak Center received a similar threat. And finally, 23 minutes after that, at 9:50am PST (12:50pm EST), Bridges Auditorium on the campus of Pomona College in Claremont, CA got one as well.

The police in Claremont actually evacuated the premises and blocked streets on a large part of campus. The dancers warmed up, stretched, and had their lunch in the parking lot before being allowed back in right before the performance when the venue was deemed clear. The show started after a 20-minute delay and was packed. Audience members spoke of not being intimidated.

Principal Dancer Kenji Kobayashi made a short video about the Claremont situation.

And award-winning journalist Eva Fu wrote about how audience members responded.

On a personal side note, I studied at Pomona College and Bridges Auditorium, which we called Big Bridges, is where I graduated, walking across the same stage Shen Yun performed on. Pomona is where I first learned Chinese, which helped me land this gig to begin with, and the community there has been extremely supportive of my work, starting with my trip to Tiananmen and arrest there as a freshman in college. Now they are being threatened with murder…

Kudos to the tremendous work of the local police in Claremont and, really, wherever we have received threats. We always feel respected, safe, and taken care of by you guys – thank you for the work you do to ensure everyone’s safety!

On March 28, for over an hour Shen Yun’s official website suffered a Distributed Denial of Service attack. For over an hour, between 12:13-1:25pm EST, some 10,000 distinct IPs from all over the world were manipulated to attack www.ShenYunPerformingArts.org using the DDoS technique. This is classified as a large-scale form of the cybercrime and significantly slowed down the site’s operations. By 1:25pm, the website’s firewall blocked all attacking IPs and the site returned to normal.

How often do you see someone invoking this collection: the Chinese sea goddess Mazu, Jesus, and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of the Republic of China? That’s exactly what the person (people?) sending bomb threats to Taiwan has been doing.

“We have placed explosives in 98 Xueshi Rd (the theater address), immediately cancel all upcoming Shen Yun performances, and make a public announcement, if we do not see the announcement by tomorrow afternoon, we will set off the explosives, I swear to Mazu, this is no joke!”

“Multiple bombs have been placed throughout the theater. If Shen Yun dares to start the performance, the bombs will explode! I swear to Jesus, this is not a joke!”

“I swear to Sun Yat-Sen! ! I have placed explosives in the Tainan Cultural Center Performing Arts Hall. If you do not want to be blown into rubble, immediately cancel all future Shen Yun performance plans.”

With Shen Yun’s Taiwan tour in full swing, the list of entities who have received them is just as wild: Mainland Affairs Council, Ministry of Digital Affairs, Taiwan Ticketing Center, and local media, as well as the Weiwuying Opera House, Tainan Cultural Center, Keelung Performing Arts Center, and Taichung City Chung Shan Hall.

And yes, for those reading carefully, “Chung Shan” is another name for President Sun Yat-Sen. So in one email, the sender is swearing to Sun Yat-Sen; in another, threatening to blow up a theater named after him.

(CNA article)

(Taiwan Liberty Times article)

On March 15, we were hunkering down for opening night in Birmingham, AL as tornadoes rolled across the southern U.S., causing devastation in multiple counties. We kept an eye out on the tornado watches and alerts and the theater assured us that, unlike what some scenes in Twisters would have you believe, the sturdy complex with much of it underground was one of the safest places to be.

But as if that weren’t enough, the BJCC Concert Hall where we were performing was one of four known theaters to have received identical bomb threats targeting the Shen Yun performances that day, joining Stifel Theatre in St. Louis, MO, Des Moines Civic Center in Iowa, and Teatro Auditorio in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.

Here is a screenshot of the threat sent to St. Louis:

The shows went on just fine, and we were spared the tornadoes as well.

The Lienzo Norte theater in Ávila, Spain, received a letter from the Chinese Embassy in Madrid four months before Shen Yun was scheduled to perform there. The letter, signed by Cultural Office Minster Counselor He Yong, repeated long-standing CCP rhetoric attacking Falun Gong (“evil doctrines so extreme that it calls on its believers or practitioners to commit suicide in order to become ‘Buddha'”) before going on to include the token boilerplate reference that Falun Gong was banned in China “in accordance with the law,” and finally asking the the theater to renege on its contract.

“Considering the good relations between our two countries and their peoples, I request your valuable support in considering the possibility of canceling the two performances.”

The theater refused and, after seeing Shen Yun and particulary liking the performance, a theater representative provided us with the Embassy email.