Who's afraid of Shen Yun?

AFP March 11, 2010 10:42am

A NEW York-based musician is appealling for help to find her husband who vanished as he boarded a flight from China to the United States amid fears he was seized for his Falungong beliefs.

Mei Xuan, who fled to the United States from China in 2007, said she went on February 18 to Newark Liberty International Airport to welcome her husband Jiang Feng who was due on a flight from Shanghai.

But he never arrived and phone calls went unanswered. Mei said she confirmed that the 42-year-old Jiang had checked in to the Continental Airlines flight and concluded that he disappeared between security and the boarding gate.

“I’m very, very worried for him,” Mei told AFP on a recent visit to Washington, where she was seeking help from lawmakers.

“Because we both practice Falungong, we have experienced this before and know they can just take you away,” she said. “I thought we could finally be together. We want to have a baby.”

Mei plays the erhu, a Chinese stringed instrument, in the Shen Yun ensemble, which incorporates Falungong themes. The troupe was recently in the spotlight when members said they were denied visas to perform in Hong Kong.

China outlawed Falungong — a spiritual movement loosely based on Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian philosophies – in 1999 following a silent mass gathering in Beijing by its members. China denounces the group as an “evil cult”.

The New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre, which supports Falungong’s rights, said it had information that Jiang was taken to his native Anhui province where agents are trying to force him to renounce his beliefs.

Mei, who uses an alias for security reasons, said she and her husband suffered abuse in lengthy previous spells in detention.

In one incident, Mei said plain-clothes police shoved her into a car as she waited on the street for a taxi. She said she was then handcuffed to a chair and deprived of sleep for two and a half months.

“The only reason was because I practice Falungong,” she said. “I didn’t want to give up my beliefs so they just tortured me physically and mentally.”

“My feet were so swollen I couldn’t put on any shoes.”

The Falun Dafa Information Centre appealed for international pressure to ensure Jiang’s “immediate release and safe passage to the United States”.

I’ve known erhu player Mei Xuan for three years – we’ve spent much of that time touring together with Shen Yun Performing Arts. Those who have seen her perform will remember that she plays the two-stringed erhu with tremendous emotional depth. Perhaps some of it stems from she has been through – Mei Xuan, a Falun Gong practitioner, spent spent four years as a prisoner of conscience in China. But her suffering doesn’t end there.

The persecution of her faith has also forced her to be separated from her husband of ten years. Late at night, after our shows, you could often find Mei Xuan sitting alone in the hotel lobby, calling her husband back in China. Until now.

Last Thursday, her husband checked in at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport, ready to board a flight for Newark, NJ, to be reunited with his wife. He passed through security and disappeared. He never made it on the plane. Airport employees suggested he was taken by the 6-10 Office, the special police force running the persecution of Falun Gong.

See the full Epoch Times story

Watch the short clip

A brief discussion of the significance of what Shen Yun Performing Arts is doing and the upcoming shows at Radio City Music Hall. The interview has been posted online and starts at 19 minutes and 50 seconds.

Hong Kong and the Falun Gong Drama
One more sign that the territory is bowing to China’s mandarins.

OPINION ASIA FEBRUARY 1, 2010

In New York last month to promote the West Kowloon Cultural District development, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Henry Tang declared that the territory was poised to become “Asia’s cultural hub.” Earlier this week, Hong Kongers got a taste of the kind of “culture” they can expect. Continue reading

Great interview with Shen Yun dancers Regina Dong and Jessica Quach, plus local presenter Levi Browde.

– January 27, on the right hand side, click to download, about 47 minutes in.



“I am just here to show my support to the Shen Yun Performing Arts. I believe that with respect to the human rights issues in China, everyone of us must know that the Chinese government is one of the most outrageous violators of human rights. And again they are not allowing the Shen Yun Performing Arts to go in to China to perform there. It is just another indication of how the Chinese government are trying to suppress any kind of expression that will challenge their right to supremacy, Continue reading

Continue reading

“I urge you to take action…”

January 28, 2010

On January 27, 2010, the Shen Yun Performing Arts group held a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC, regarding the refusal of Hong Kong authorities to allow members of their pro-human rights Chinese cultural show to perform in Hong Kong.   Days before the Shen Yun Performing Arts was scheduled to perform in Hong Kong, visas for their production staff were denied, preventing their production staff with specialized knowledge of how to manage the Shen Yun performance and choreography from entering Hong Kong.  The result of the visa denial was the cancellation of sold-out shows of the Shen Yun performances, affecting 7,700 ticketed audience members. Continue reading