On this episode of China Uncensored,
China tells South Korea to stop dancing.
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I'm your host Chris Chappell.
Did you ever see The Sound of Music?
More like The Sound of Propaganda!
Here I think I'm watching a nice musical celebrating Austrian culture...
when suddenly it turns into a story about Nazi oppression.
Now clearly, the Third Reich is not one of their favorite things.
But I mean, how dare they use art to make people think?
Now speaking of artistic performances that make people think: Shen Yun.
It's a classical Chinese dance show run by a nonprofit Chinese-American company.
Apparently, the Chinese Communist Party considers Shen Yun a major threat
including in South Korea.
Why is that? Well let's see.
According to the Shen Yun website,
It's "reviving 5,000 years of civilization."
It "features the world's foremost classically trained dancers";
and it was "established by Falun Dafa practitioners in 2006."
I feel like it's probably one of those three.
And if you want some background
on why the Communist Party is so intent on stopping Falun Dafa, a.k.a. Falun Gong,
watch this video here.
Now Shen Yun tours around the world
in hundreds of cities.
I've watched it a few times at Lincoln Center in New York.
Each show has about twenty dance and music numbers.
Some of them depict historical things,
like the founding of a dynasty.
And a couple of them usually depict contemporary issues,
like Falun Dafa meditators standing up the to Communist Party's suppression.
Well apparently, in South Korea,
the use of the arts to make people think
about certain contemporary issues is a huge threat
to the stability of the Chinese Communist Party.
You see, KBS Hall in Seoul had signed a contract
with promotion company New Cosmos Media
to host Shen Yun performances here in May 2016.
But then on January 26, just a few weeks ago,
KBS suddenly canceled the contract.
Organizers suspect the Chinese Embassy was behind it.
Now, I know that sounds like wild speculation.
But there are numerous, well-documented cases
of Chinese Embassies around the world trying
to stop Shen Yun.
Let's call it "diplomacy with Chinese characteristics."
They often tell theaters that hosting Shen Yun
"may compromise relations" between China and their country.
For example, according to Spain's biggest newspaper,
in 2014 a Chinese diplomat tried to pressure a theater in Barcelona
to cancel its contract with Shen Yun.
When the theater refused,
the Chinese official tried to pressure Spain's Foreign Ministry instead.
Shen Yun performed anyway,
and it got rave reviews from Spanish media.
And when Shen Yun was scheduled to perform in Berlin that same year,
the German Chinese Embassy's cultural attaché
met with the theater’s marketing and sales manager, Jörg Seefeld,
telling him he had better cancel Shen Yun.
This German Newspaper reported on the incident, saying,
“It sounds like something out of the Cold War.”
Fortunately for Shen Yun,
Mr. Seefeld had been a prisoner during the Cold War in communist East Germany.
He told the Chinese attaché to go pound sand.
And those are just two of literally dozens of examples,
around the world, of Chinese diplomats
"diplomatically" trying to force theaters to cancel Shen Yun.
And most of the time, their efforts have failed because theater managers stand up to them.
So when getting theaters to cancel on Shen Yun doesn't work,
they sometimes try a different approach.
Like trying to stop people from attending.
"Last week, Seattle City Council members received a letter from the Chinese Consul in San Francisco
urging them not to promote or attend the show."
Or the year before:
"The Chinese government's been told to butt out of local politics
after apparently asking city council members to stay away from a dance show."
"Cathy Casey says the Consul-General's letter is a breach of human rights."
"'China has its own laws. This is New Zealand.
We are a democracy. We have freedom of expression and freedom of association.
And this breaks every rule in the book.'"
You know, I feel like there are more important things the Chinese Embassies could be doing.
But anyway, back to Korea.
Shen Yun has tried to perform here every year since 2008.
And almost every time, whether in Seoul, Busan, or another city,
the theaters have told organizers they received pressure from Chinese officials not to hold
the show.
In some cases, theater owners have withstood the pressure and let Shen Yun perform.
But in many cases,
the Korean theaters folded under pressure like it's their first time at the poker table
claiming "Hey, it's not our fault! The Chinese Embassy pressured us!"
But let’s not completely blame the victim.
I should point out that Chinese pressure on Korea has been unusually severe.
You see, South Korea has a very tight relationship with China.
China is South Korea's largest trading partner
a relationship worth more than 200 billion dollars a year.
And Chinese money is critical to Korea's economic development.
And that may be why KBS Hall broke Shen Yun's contract and canceled this year's show.
Also, KBS Hall is owned by state-run Korean TV broadcaster KBS.
And KBS has lots of reporters in China.
Reporters who need Chinese media visas.
And speaking of media,
guess who shares a building with KBS in Seoul?
Why, the local bureau of China Central Television!
But, you know, I don't want to make wild accusations
about what's behind KBS Hall's cancellation of Shen Yun.
So I attempted to contact KBS for their side of the story.
I sent a letter to their official email account,
but it was returned because of "an error in the mail server."
I called several numbers for the relevant departments,
but they all said something like this.
“The number you have dialed is temporarily not in service."
Then we called their main phone number,
and asked to be transferred,
but the representative refused;
she insisted we send an email instead.
I did speak about the issue with Changsik Lee,
who's promoting Shen Yun in South Korea.
”Shen Yun has been performing in Korea for the last nine years
and 10,000 people every year have watched Shen Yun and the response has been fantastic,
they like the show very much."
"Have you talked to anyone at KBS since they canceled the contract?"
"Yes, yes we met with some people,
and they all know that the show has no problem and the show is very famous worldwide."
"So why cancel the show?"
"They have no choice.
They just got ordered from the higher level."
"Did they say who the higher level is or why?"
"They cannot tell."
Mr. Lee also gave me a copy of KBS's official termination notice for Shen Yun.
KBS wrote that, "there is concern that it may damage our public corporation's image."
Hmmm.. Well that same concern didn't seem to apply for this show,
which I saw rehearing at KBS Hall:
The "Korean Overseas Chinese Friendship Association Lantern Festival Gala."
And it's sponsored by, you guessed it, the Chinese government!
It's performing this week.
Oh, according to the program,
it features such traditional Chinese classics as,
"I'm so sexy."
Which is apparently fine for KBS’s public image.
It's just that, when you compare it to Shen Yun...
Wait a second! I know what's going on!
It's like those off-brand LEGOs I kept seeing in South Korea.
I guess KBS Hall only wants the cheap, Chinese knockoff.
So what do you think?
Leave your comments below,
and subscribe to this channel for more episodes.
Once again I'm Chris Chappell. See you next time