Susan Walker, Dance Writer
Toronto Star
January 11, 2008
For those with an awareness of the Chinese government hostility to the Falun Gong movement, the Chinese New Year Spectacular is not just a pretty pageant.
Coming to the Sony Centre next Friday for five performances over the weekend, the music and dance show is billed by the presenter as a showcase of "the true traditional Chinese culture devoid of any elements of the (culture of) Chinese communism."
The show contains references to Dafa, a concept associated with the meditative practices of Falun Gong adherents. One scene reportedly depicts the oppression of Falun Gong members in China by prison guards wielding clubs and wearing uniforms emblazoned with hammers and sickles.
Joe Wang, president of New Tang Dynasty Television Canada, presenter of the show in Toronto, says the production "depicts the values of traditional Chinese society (with) stories from history and from today's China. In today's China, the Falun Gong issue is very significant." But, says marketing co-ordinator Carolyn Jin, "the show has nothing to do with teaching Falun Gong."
The Chinese government regards the Falun Gong movement as a cult. But before it was condemned in China, says Wang, Falun Gong spiritual exercises were "practised by one-tenth of the population.... Many people one way or the other are connected to the persecution."
The New Year Spectacular has been in Toronto four times before, but in the smaller Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York. This year's event engages more than 50 performers – including a live orchestra in some venues (not Toronto) – from the New York-based Divine Performing Arts company, most of them born and trained outside mainland China.
But the Spectacular will not be the only Chinese New Year game in town. On Feb. 5, at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York's Mel Lastman Square, 85 artists from China will be involved in a one-time performance of Dream of Red Chamber, a dance production based on a famous novel regarded as a work of classical Chinese literature.
The show, performed two days before the start of the Chinese New Year proper on Feb. 7, is touted as the product of historical research into Chinese philosophy, culture and social customs. Dream of Red Chamber is coming to Canada with the full support of the Chinese government.
In the Spectacular, much of the production is dedicated to depicting Chinese legends, through dance, music, singing and martial arts. Dancing and dramatic scenes are played out against a sophisticated, video-enhanced backdrop, says Wang.
The celebration of "human dignity and time-honoured traditions" is what makes the show so popular, says Ying Chen, a production manager speaking on the phone from Boston. That's one of more than 50 cities on this year's tour for Spectacular, which has been growing in size and popularity ever since it began in 2004. The Toronto Star is one of the sponsors of this year's Toronto production.
The marketing of the New Year production takes a grassroots approach. Volunteers recruited by New Tang from Toronto's Chinese community have been pamphleting people attending big stage shows in Toronto since early November. The presenters have also promoted the show with a video excerpt screening in shopping malls, downtown business buildings and the St. Lawrence Market.
New Tang Dynasty Television is an independent Chinese-language network based in New York, and its president, Zhong Lee, has denied any links to Falun Gong. But some of the network's reporters, he told the Boston Globe, "like millions of Chinese, practise Falun Gong's meditation and exercises."
So, too, do a number of performers in the Spectacular, according to Ying Chen. But "it's not something we necessarily keep track of or discuss too much."
New Tang representatives charge that the Chinese government, through its consulates in various cities, has put pressure on local officials to dissociate themselves from the New Year show by withholding notices of welcome or recognition. A letter from the consulate in Los Angeles, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, was sent to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The letter maintained that behind the Spectacular was intent to "defame China's image in the international community and undermine the development of U.S.-China relations."
No such efforts have been reported in Toronto.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/292993
For those with an awareness of the Chinese government hostility to the Falun Gong movement, the Chinese New Year Spectacular is not just a pretty pageant.
Coming to the Sony Centre next Friday for five performances over the weekend, the music and dance show is billed by the presenter as a showcase of "the true traditional Chinese culture devoid of any elements of the (culture of) Chinese communism."
The show contains references to Dafa, a concept associated with the meditative practices of Falun Gong adherents. One scene reportedly depicts the oppression of Falun Gong members in China by prison guards wielding clubs and wearing uniforms emblazoned with hammers and sickles.
Joe Wang, president of New Tang Dynasty Television Canada, presenter of the show in Toronto, says the production "depicts the values of traditional Chinese society (with) stories from history and from today's China. In today's China, the Falun Gong issue is very significant." But, says marketing co-ordinator Carolyn Jin, "the show has nothing to do with teaching Falun Gong."
The Chinese government regards the Falun Gong movement as a cult. But before it was condemned in China, says Wang, Falun Gong spiritual exercises were "practised by one-tenth of the population.... Many people one way or the other are connected to the persecution."
The New Year Spectacular has been in Toronto four times before, but in the smaller Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York. This year's event engages more than 50 performers – including a live orchestra in some venues (not Toronto) – from the New York-based Divine Performing Arts company, most of them born and trained outside mainland China.
But the Spectacular will not be the only Chinese New Year game in town. On Feb. 5, at the Toronto Centre for the Arts in North York's Mel Lastman Square, 85 artists from China will be involved in a one-time performance of Dream of Red Chamber, a dance production based on a famous novel regarded as a work of classical Chinese literature.
The show, performed two days before the start of the Chinese New Year proper on Feb. 7, is touted as the product of historical research into Chinese philosophy, culture and social customs. Dream of Red Chamber is coming to Canada with the full support of the Chinese government.
In the Spectacular, much of the production is dedicated to depicting Chinese legends, through dance, music, singing and martial arts. Dancing and dramatic scenes are played out against a sophisticated, video-enhanced backdrop, says Wang.
The celebration of "human dignity and time-honoured traditions" is what makes the show so popular, says Ying Chen, a production manager speaking on the phone from Boston. That's one of more than 50 cities on this year's tour for Spectacular, which has been growing in size and popularity ever since it began in 2004. The Toronto Star is one of the sponsors of this year's Toronto production.
The marketing of the New Year production takes a grassroots approach. Volunteers recruited by New Tang from Toronto's Chinese community have been pamphleting people attending big stage shows in Toronto since early November. The presenters have also promoted the show with a video excerpt screening in shopping malls, downtown business buildings and the St. Lawrence Market.
New Tang Dynasty Television is an independent Chinese-language network based in New York, and its president, Zhong Lee, has denied any links to Falun Gong. But some of the network's reporters, he told the Boston Globe, "like millions of Chinese, practise Falun Gong's meditation and exercises."
So, too, do a number of performers in the Spectacular, according to Ying Chen. But "it's not something we necessarily keep track of or discuss too much."
New Tang representatives charge that the Chinese government, through its consulates in various cities, has put pressure on local officials to dissociate themselves from the New Year show by withholding notices of welcome or recognition. A letter from the consulate in Los Angeles, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, was sent to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The letter maintained that behind the Spectacular was intent to "defame China's image in the international community and undermine the development of U.S.-China relations."
No such efforts have been reported in Toronto.
http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/292993
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