China Cancels NY-Based Dance Troupe

The troupe was scheduled to perform four shows at Seoul’s KBS Hall in May, but the owners of the hall, Korea’s national broadcasting company, canceled them in April. KBS is one of the few foreign broadcasters allowed to air programs in China. The company that had booked the venue for Shen Yun took the hall to court and asked it to guarantee that the company could carry out its performances.

On April 19, the Seoul court at first said the troupe could perform, but on May 4 it reversed its decision after reportedly receiving a letter from the Chinese embassy. A representative of the troupe told the Guardian that China “has sent these kinds of letters around the world many times before to theaters and to government officials.” The cancellation would be a big blow to the company since it had already sold thousands of tickets and would have to “endure travel and hotel costs for its 80-some members.” Shen Yun’s performances present traditional Chinese culture as it “goes through different dynasties, ethnic groups, into contemporary China.”

The representative claims that the Chinese authorities are opposed to the performance because Shen Yun puts on stage “something they…pretend never happened.” The shows also feature vignettes that portray the group’s persecution by the Chinese government. For its part, the court referred to the “financial losses” that KBS would incur if the shows were allowed to go forward, since the Chinese government would likely retaliate by banning Korean TV dramas, which are very popular in China. It even put a price on this loss: $8.5 million a year.

A number of Korean media have said that the court’s decision effectively legitimizes Chinese censorship in South Korea, a democratic country.