Who's afraid of Shen Yun?

LinkedIn just alerted me that my account has been blocked in China. They were very transparent about it and I’ve asked them for more information.

I was trying to think of what had triggered it. I had recently updated my profile and in that update I included an article I had written in Chinese for Beijing Spring – an overseas Chinese publication. Ironically, the subject of the article was Chinese censorship and interference with overseas freedom of expression, specifically in the world of performing arts by trying (unsuccessfully) to stop performances by Shen Yun.

Here’s the Beijing Spring article

And here’s the LinkedIn message:

It was a pleasant Sunday afternoon and a couple of us dancers decided to pay a visit to the park across our hotel. We took off our shoes and began to jump around and do some flips, easily attracting the attention of passersby. A mother and her two daughters approached us—the mother pointed at a nearby building and asked “El Rey Mono?” I nodded and replied, “We’re not performing anymore.” She smiled sadly, and said, “Such a shame.”

El Rey Mono is Spanish for The Monkey King—the name of a Shen Yun dance production touring South America in 2015. Last weekend we were scheduled to perform two shows at the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana in Quito, Ecuador. Unfortunately, due to pressure from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the theater management refused to let us perform and the shows were forcibly cancelled. So instead of warming up on stage, we were flipping on the grass behind the theater as scores of eager audience members were greeted with closed doors.

This is the second time I’ve witnessed a democratic country falling prey to the CCP’s intimidation. The first time was on February 2008 in Busan, South Korea, where our shows were suddenly cancelled—even though we were already in the country—due to pressure from the CCP. Similar antics occurred in Moldova on May 2010, when Shen Yun members who had arrived at the theatre were refused entry because the theater director had received threats from the Chinese Embassy.

But why is the CCP so intent on blocking our show? Most people would probably find it nonsensical and absurd. First, Shen Yun presents genuine traditional Chinese culture through world-class performances and has received critical acclaim around the world. Second, our particular show is a new dance production based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. It is one of the four classics of Chinese literature and possibly the most popular novel of all time in the East.

Moreover, we had just completed shows in Mexico and Colombia, and the audience response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Not only did they thoroughly enjoy the adventures of Tang Monk and his three eccentric disciples, but they could also understand the deeper meanings, wisdom, and values being portrayed.

However, instead of supporting our efforts to promote Chinese culture internationally, the CCP threatens the countries that are planning to host Shen Yun performances. This is because the CCP promotes Chinese culture on the surface, while in reality it is systematically destroying it from its roots. (More details on this can be found here)

Personally, I find the situation saddening—not only because we were unable to perform, but more importantly because a democratic, independent country allowed itself to be controlled by a communist dictatorship. It is really a loss for everybody, including the Ecuadorian people, since they’ve been barred from getting to know true Chinese culture.

On our last day in Quito we visited the Old Town, where we encountered crowds of locals gathered at the main plaza as soldiers and government officials paraded down the narrow, congested streets. It was their national holiday—a day marking a historic battle fought against the Spanish that led to the country’s independence. I hope that they will truly exercise their independence and liberate themselves from the Chinese Communist Party, too.

Shen Yun’s production The Monkey King was scheduled to perform in Ecuador as part of its 2015 tour of South America. But a week before the performances, the Ecuadorian House of Culture officially cancelled the shows at the National Theatre. Local presenters cited month-long pressure from the Chinese Embassy to Ecuador as the cause for the sudden, last-minute cancelation.

“We have tried telling them in every possible way that they are violating the freedom of expression of the Ecuadorian people, that they are censoring culture in a democratic country and are doing so through a foreign country,” said Alejandro Nadal, a representative of the Falun Dafa Association of Ecuador, the performance’s presenter in Quito.

Read blog by Shen Yun dancer Gary Liu who had traveled to Ecuador with the production expecting to perform. (link)

As part of its 2015 world tour, Shen Yun was scheduled to perform in South Korea for the ninth time. One stop on that tour was Gunpo, a city of 260,000 about half an hour outside Seoul. According to local presenters, shortly after the performances were booked with the Gunpo Culture and Arts Center, the theater manager received a phone call from the Chinese Embassy. The embassy’s representative tried to persuade the theater manager to cancel the Shen Yun performances. The theater manager, though, told the PRC representative: “You’re such a big country with big international affairs. Why don’t you deal with those be international issues, and not worry about a show in a small town like ours here.” The theater manager refused to cancel the performances, and they went on as planned.

On Feb. 19, 2015, two weeks before Shen Yun’s performances in Chicago, a promotional truck sporting Shen Yun advertising was sabotaged. Corrosive chemicals were poured under the car mat, over the brake and accelerator pedals, and the throttle cable underneath the truck had a 1-inch-long knife slash and was heavily corroded. These tactics are insidious, as they do not cause issues immediately, but over time – as the brake and accelerator corrode, the car may become uncontrollable in the middle of driving.

Report in Chinese: 芝加哥神韵广告车被恶性破坏 疑为中领馆所为

On Jan. 30, officials from the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago met with a manager at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri. They demanded that the theater cancel Shen Yun’s booking from Feb 20-22, threatening that otherwise it would harm U.S.-China relations. The theater refused.

How China is Trying to Disrupt a Chinese Dance Company in the Midwest

中共阻擾神韻美中演出 遭劇院拒絕

The house of the Shen Yun presenter in Wisconsin was broken into. The only things taken were her laptop and passport.

On Feb. 3, 2015, a burglary took place at the residence of Lucy Guan, the president of the Wisconsin Falun Dafa Association that presents Shen Yun’s performances in Appleton and Milwaukee. The robbery took place in the evening when she was away from home. Police that arrived on the scene called it a “strange case.”

The items stolen were her new U.S. passport and three former Chinese passport. “It’s got everything about where I’ve traveled. It’s got my Chinese name, where I was born, my exact identity,” Guan told The Epoch Times. She said she believed Chinese agents thought these were of value as the information could be used to threaten her family back home in an attempt to stop her from presenting Shen Yun performances in the U.S.

Also stolen was her 5-year-old laptop with contact information of family in China and information regarding the Shen Yun performances.

Her pearl necklaces and other valuables were not taken.

Epoch Times Report (scroll down to”burglary,” half-way down)

A large-scale cyber attack aimed at bringing down the Shen Yun website occurred during the first week of January, coinciding with Shen Yun’s first performances of the 2015 season. The DDoS attack from mainland China employed massive resources, believed to be from hackers backed by the Chinese Communist regime.

See official Shen Yun press release

Congratulations to Ethan Gutmann on publishing is monumental The Slaughter: Mass Killings, Organ Harvesting, and China’s Secret Solution to its Dissident Problem.

This book is, in spite of its daunting title, a good read and a page turner. It’s narrative nonfiction at its best, and if you’re familiar with Gutmann’s other writings you know what I’m talking about.

It’s also the best place to go for a third-party, investigative journalist account of Falun Gong – the practice’s rise in popularity in China, the early signs of oppression, the crackdown, the brutal persecution, and courageous resistance.

It is only the only account to place the horrific practice of harvesting organs from Falun Gong believers in recent historical context, going back to practices uncovered in Xinjiang.

This book is a product of years of research that I had the honor to be a part of as Ethan’s assistant and translator. Ethan is a kind but hard nosed interviewer who asks tough questions. His inquisitiveness drove our entire research process, which took us all over the world. It is a definitive book on organ harvesting written by a man who initially was not convinced it is actually taking place. But we had access to exclusive interviews with former Chinese policemen, medical personnel, refugees who escaped labor camps so recently they still had healing wounds, and many other people who took great risks to talk to us. This is their story and it is one you will want to know.

http://ethan-gutmann.com/the-slaughter/

On Amazon

After seven years touring around the world, in its eighth season Shen Yun finally made its Spain debut at Barcelona’s Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, April 9-12. Promotion of the four performances received a boost from the consulate of the People’s Republic of China, though that may not have been its original intent. 

The Chinese consulate attempted to force the cancellation of the shows by pressuring the national theater and Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Spain’s El Mundo, the consulate used “the same forcefulness with which it prohibits inconvenient culture in its own country.”  In a personal visit, the consulate asked the theater to cancel the performances on the grounds that it “went against the interests of the Chinese Communist Party.” To the foreign ministry, the consulate suggested that failure to cancel the performance might “compromise” Spain-China relations, including economic ties.

The consulate further claimed that Shen Yun’s members were “illiterate and crazy.”

Carlos Iglesias, a human rights attorney famous for indicting high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials including former chief Jiang Zemin for genocide and torture under Spain’s universal jurisdiction laws, has sued the Chinese consulate.

The consulate’s interference attempt drew public attention in the Catalonian capital. In addition to El Mundo, several Spanish newspapers and television stations (see Informativos.net) reported about the performance and the consulate’s attempts to block them.

Walking down the street one morning, several Shen Yun dancers were greeted by a thumbs up from passersby who told the dancers it was incredible that Shen Yun cannot perform in China today.

More:

El Mundo article by Juan Pablo Cardenal, author of China’s Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijing’s Image.

The Epoch Times: Chinese Consulate Tries to Cancel Shen Yun in Spain.