South Korean presenter of Shen Yun Performing Arts accuses the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) diplomats of interfering relentlessly with Shen Yun’s performance in the country, calling on Seoul to stop CCP interference and to investigate Korean officials involved.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance company. Using the universal language of music and dance, Shen Yun seeks to “revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization” and show audiences the beauty of “China before communism.”
Shen Yun has become a global phenomenon since its inception in 2006, and its eight equally sized companies have presented 750 performances in over 180 cities in more than 20 countries this year.
The show, however, has experienced difficulty securing venues for the past 17 years since it kicked off its first performance in the country in 2007.
Most recently, in 2023, 13 theaters in cities in South Korea refused to rent venues to Shen Yun, using Beijing’s disinformation as an excuse, according to Shen Yun’s South Korean local presenter.
“Sometimes, we received oral notice that our application for renting the venue had been approved, but when we went there to sign the rental contract, we were told the application was ‘unsuccessful’ and we were even not allowed to ask the reason for the refusal,” said Kwon Hong-dae, president of the Falun Dafa Association of South Korea, on Friday.
Press Conference Outside South Korean Presidential Palace
The Korean Falun Dafa Association—the local presenter of Shen Yun—and some Falun Dafa practitioners held a press conference in front of the Presidential Palace in Yongsan District, Seoul. Mr. Kwon read out a statement at the press conference, condemning the CCP for its interference and calling for a thorough investigation of Korean officials involved with the CCP’s interference.
Mr. Kwon told the audience that when Shen Yun was the only applicant for a venue, there would be a delay in approval and that the presenter would be notified that they were defeated by other applicants.
“But when the scheduled date of the performance was due, the venue was unoccupied and vacant,” added Mr. Kwon.
The statement also condemned the CCP embassy in South Korea for obstructing Shen Yun’s performances for a long time, intimidating or threatening people in charge of the performance venue rentals not to rent a venue for Shen Yun. It also blamed some officials of the South Korean government for assisting the CCP in violating the basic rights of the Korean people.
Mr. Kwon read out the full statement at the press conference and then handed it to the security officer of the Yongsan Police Station where the Presidential Palace is located, who would pass the statement over to the Presidential Palace.
Despite the CCP’s interference, Shen Yun’s presenter in South Korea has managed to find venues for the world’s top dance company and hosted over 150 Shen Yun performances since 2007.
“We believe that reviving divine culture is the only path to upgrade humanity and morality in current times when human nature is lost and morality is degraded,” said Mr. Kwon at the press conference, “Returning to tradition can awaken people’s kindness.”
CCP Interference
Mr. Kwon believes that the refusals from the performing venues are a result of fear of retaliation from the CCP, as the venue managers are mostly professionals who truly love art and they are just repeating the CCP’s rhetoric in their refusals.
The CCP has been exerting pressure on Korean performing bodies and local governments.
Seoul’s KBS Hall, a government-owned venue attached to Korean Broadcasting Service, had a working relationship with China’s state-run mouthpiece China Central Television (CCTV). In 2016, ahead of the performance, the theater received multiple letters from the Chinese Embassy, also obtained by The Epoch Times, demanding that it not host Shen Yun.
The local organizer had to launch legal action against the venue, seeking a court order that the company be allowed to perform.
Seoul Southern District Court ruled that the cancellation does not hold and that Shen Yun must be allowed to perform at KBS. However, seeing the result, the Chinese embassy issued another official document and sent it to KBS Hall, again with the same libel and threats.
A few days later, the court revoked its decision and canceled Shen Yun’s four performances—even though thousands of tickets had already been sold.
The court order also revealed the implicit financial threat involved. It noted that KBS, or Korean Broadcasting System, the national public broadcaster that owns the hall, currently broadcasts content in China. The court order reasoned that if Shen Yun’s shows were canceled, the theater would only have to compensate the company’s losses. But if Shen Yun performed and, as a result, the Chinese Communist Party retaliated and revoked KBS’s content dissemination rights in China, then KBS stood to lose upwards of $8 million.
Government officials in a free and democratic country like South Korea are bowing down to the CCP and cooperating with Beijing in interfering with Korea’s cultural sovereignty, which should be probed by the Korean government, Mr. Kwon said.
He hopes that President Yoon Suk Yeol will conduct a thorough investigation through the Korean Constitution and relevant laws to find out the corruption in Korea related to the venue renting of Shen Yun and to identify and penalize those within the Korean government who are following the Chinese regime.
Mr. Kwon also noted that the U.S. State Department recorded the case of Shen Yun’s performance being blocked in South Korea in its 2020 report on international religious freedom, which shows the U.S. concern over the issue.
Oh Se-yeol, secretary-general of the South Korean Falun Dafa Association, told reporters at the press conference that the CCP has been suppressing the spiritual practice of Falun Dafa in China, which is one of the reasons that the Chinese embassy to South Korea has been blocking and disrupting Shen Yun’s performance.
The Monthly Chosun, a monthly magazine owned by ChosunMedia, one of South Korea’s largest media companies, published an article “The Chinese Embassy Exerts All-round Pressure to Prevent Falun Gong-related Performances,” exposing some inside information about the Chinese embassy’s interference in Shen Yun’s performance. The report also disclosed official letters sent by the Chinese embassy to Korean theatres and government organizations, demanding them “not to provide performing venues for Shen Yun performances.”
The person in charge of propaganda at the Chinese embassy in South Korea reportedly stated to the Monthly Chosun: “We do not agree with the view that interference with Shen Yun is ‘sovereign interference.’ We will continue to convey the position of the Chinese embassy that future venue applications for Falun Gong activities must be rejected.”
Mr. Oh said that the CCP is based on atheism, so it is extremely hostile to God and has been destroying traditional culture and corrupting human morality.
“The purpose of Shen Yun is to show the Chinese culture before communism, and many people learn about the traditional Chinese culture through the performances of Shen Yun,” said Mr. Oh.
“We invite U.S.-based Shen Yun to visit Korea to perform for the benefit of the wider public,” Mr. Oh said.
Mr. Oh blamed officials in the Korean government who collude with the CCP embassy and use their official positions to serve the CCP. “We demand that these officials be openly investigated and punished. We come here today to petition with hope,” Mr. Oh said.
An Jing, Jin Mingguo, and Sean Tseng contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times