(http://english.ntdtv.com)
The Chinese Communist Party is trying to stop artistic freedom in the UK. That’s what a group of speakers said at a panel in London’s West End last week.
[Peter Graham, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts]:
“I think it’s completely out of line that a foreign embassy should try and influence what is happening with the artistic world in London, because we are proud of this tradition of being able to support arts.”
The issue is over Shen Yun Performing Arts, a classical Chinese dance and music company that’s set to perform at the London Coliseum in mid-April.
The show is being presented in London by the Falun Dafa Association. Last month, the theater told the presenters that the Chinese Embassy had contacted them to try to get the theater to cancel the show. The Embassy was unsuccessful.
[Rosemary Byfield, Falun Dafa Association Spokesperson]:
“This is not the first time this has happened. Shen Yun performed in London last year at the same theater, and before that performance the embassy again tried to persuade the theater to cancel.”
In the last five years, over 40 cases have been documented of the Chinese Communist Party trying to stop Shen Yun from performing at various venues throughout the world.
[Ethan Gutmann, Investigative Journalist]:
“There’s the case in Canada where the tires were slashed on a bus, slashed not to the point… only to the point they would burst once the bus carrying the Shen Yun performers reached highway speed.”
For years the Chinese regime has used performing arts as a way to push its “soft power,” carefully controlling the message of its state-sponsored performances.
But Shen Yun Performing Arts was formed overseas--and remains independent.
The show’s songs and dances display China’s ancient values, including belief in virtue, and karmic rewards and retribution--values that are rejected by the Communist Party.
[Rosemary Byfield, Falun Dafa Association, Spokesperson]:
“What’s special about Shen Yun is that it’s reviving those ancient traditions for all of us, not just for Chinese.”
And there’s another reason, too, says Gutmann, that the Communist Party is trying to stop it.
[Ethan Gutmann, Investigative Journalist]:
“Perhaps 20% of the show deals in some way with the persecution of Falun Gong. In some stylised, careful, emotional, artistic way the persecution of Falun Gong, very removed, very removed from the actual atrocities, but that 20% is enough to remind the communist party of their crimes.”
But artistic independence is something highly respected in the UK. And as long as that tradition is upheld, Shen Yun performing Arts will be performing at the London Coliseum from the 12th to the 15th of April.
NTD News, London
From - http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/news_europe/2012-04-02/beijing-fails-to-stop-independent-chinese-cultural-show-in-uk.html#video_section
