The Baekryeong Art Center apologised for the cancellation and said they were not acting on their own will. “The Ministry of Education has insisted.”
A South Korean court has determined that Shen Yun Performing Arts will be able to continue its planned two-day performance amid Beijing’s chaos efforts.
The hosting venue at Kang Won National University greenlighted the application of the New York Classical Chinese Dance Company, which will perform at the Baeklyon Art Center on April 1st.
The university said the decision to cancel the show had something to do with the school’s public interest. Because universities are national institutions under the country’s Ministry of Education, they are in a position that “directly and indirectly represent the official position of the Republic of Korea,” which escalates the issue to “diplomacy issues,” a letter from the university obtained by the Epoch era said.
The centre further said it took the decision out of public interest concerns, citing about 500 Chinese national students studying at the centre who claimed that if the performance proceeds on schedule, staged the protest and could potentially lead to conflict.
On April 30, the Chuncheon District Court was surrounded by the show presenter side, explaining that cancelling the university’s contract was “an abuse of discretion.”
Related Stories
With no solid evidence to support that claim, concerns about the school’s potential conflicts are vague and difficult to justify, the court said in its ruling called it “illegal.”
Additionally, the cancellations took place just 20 days before the performance scheduled for May 6th and 7th, with nearly two-thirds of tickets on sale. Stopping performances at this point would make it difficult for show organizers to recover financial and reputational damage, the judge said.
The Shen Yun Tour is a tour around the world, but cannot be played in China.
Founded in 2006 by artists who escaped the oppression of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Shen Yun has grown to eight equal companies that tour globally with live orchestras every year for the past 20 years. The group presents classic Chinese dance under the catchphrase “China before Communism.” It also features the story of the persecution of CCPs targeting Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has suffered from a massive persecution campaign in China over the past 26 years.
People believed to be connected to Chinese diplomats are using political and economic coercion to undermine Shen Yun’s global performance. The nonprofit Falun Dafa Information Center has documented over 130 such instances over the years.
On the second day of Shen Yun’s run at the Baekryeong Art Center, Shen Yun host Leeshai Lemish, who has been tracking these cases for many years, said: “I’ve seen the Korean courts uphold the laws of the country and take it to my heart.
However, the court’s decision “is only successful if the CCP can cooperate with local governments, courts and theatres,” he added.
“When individuals stand firm and do what they believe is right, as we see now in Korea, the CCP can’t do anything.”
He considers it “a great indication that Koreans have enough Beijing to tell them what art they can’t see.”
On February 8th, 2023, Shen Yun Performing Arts World Company’s curtain call was held at Gummy Gummy Grand Hall in Korea. Kim Gook Han/Epoch Times
Baekryeong Art Center apologized after cancelling the show and said they weren’t acting on their own will.
“We did our best, but the School and the Department of Education insisted on cancelling, so we had no choice but to cancel,” the staff told the Shen Yun presenter, according to a reviewed Epoch Times email.
Lemish repeatedly pointed out that organizations and theaters affiliated with the South Korean government have allowed Beijing to intervene, but have cited public interests claiming to succumb to the Chinese communist regime.
“What we’re looking at now is that more and more people in Korea and around the world recognize that CCP interests are not in line with theirs and that they need to protect their rights and freedoms in the face of CCP pressure,” he said. “As a bonus, they feel good about doing it.”
