On March 3, the 2007 New Tang Dynasty TV Station Chinese New Year Spectacular staged two performances in the Chicago Auditorium Theater. Meanwhile, another show scheduled on the same day, sponsored by the Chinese communist regime, had been cancelled only three days earlier.
According to the organizer, the regime's 2007 Chicago-Shanghai Chinese Lantern Festival Performance was cancelled because its 80 performers from Shanghai were denied U.S. entry visas.
Shortly after the cancellation on February 28, a secret communist document was made public by The Epoch Times , which exposed the communist regime's directives to suppress the NTDTV Global Chinese New Year Spectacular. (see first link in Related Articles).
Underhanded Tactics
Regarding the incident, Epoch Times journalist interviewed Liu Tong the Director of the Spectacular Planning Committee (Chicago). Liu said, "The regime had taken all measures at all costs to interfere with the NTDTV Spectacular in Chicago this year. They wrote letters and made phone calls to sponsors, government officials and even the media, attempting to stop them from supporting the show. They even intercepted the NTDTV Spectacular's Chicago hot lines to prevent ticket sales and made harassing phone calls."
"In addition, three months before the Chinese Global New Year Spectacular in Chicago, the regime sent several mainland Chinese performing groups to Chicago, including the cancelled group sponsored by the Shanghai Wenguang Corporation, which was supposed to perform its show on the same day as our Spectacular."
According to Liu, because the Global Chinese New Year Spectacular was malevolently interfered with by the CCP everywhere last year, including asserting pressure on local theaters, the Spectacular Planning Committee (Chicago) added a condition in the contract with the theater this year that two months before and after the show, the theater cannot accept other similar shows.
The theater did not think the condition was necessary at first, but after the committee explained how the regime interfered last year, the theater thought there would be no harm to guard against it happening again and happily accepted the condition.
In mid-December last year, the theater told Liu, "Just as you predicted, another Chinese group contacted us … of course we acted according to the contract and therefore, we offered them the date of January 6."
Several days after Liu received the above message, the China Star Media Corporation stated on its website, "The China Star Media Corporation overcame numerous hardships, and within a short period of two months, successfully organized and will host The First World Peace New Year Gala in Chicago on January 6… the World Peace New Year Gala will be ahead of and powerfully ward off the NTDTV Chinese New Year performance, which is hosted by Falun Gong in March at the same theater."
"The official launch of the China Star English Channel on January 1 was the most important milestone of the ten year development of the China Star Media corporation. This will greatly enhance the corporation's ability in its important overseas propaganda mission, which it has voluntarily undertaken in the past ten years."
The China Star is known as the "Junior People's Daily" among the local [U.S.] Chinese communities [note, the People's Daily is the Chinese communist regime's official mouthpiece print media.]
Communist Regime's Stage Production a Flop
The January 6 show hosted by the China Star Media Corporation was held as scheduled. However the advertised Sichuan opera, drama dance group, Tang Dynasty music and dance Palace Costume troupe, etc., did not show up. As described by Ms. Tang who watched the show, "The performance was so pathetic that I almost did not finish watching it. There wasn't even an announcer, it was worse than an amateur show, there was a so-called Fan Dance; the performers were in black costumes. A Philippine reporter told our journalist, "It was horrible!"
Another spectator, Mr. Xu said, "There were very few theatergoers there; most of them were called to fill the seats by the organizer. The show was supposed to end at 10:30 p.m. but many left around 9:30 p.m. I met one local American when I exited. He told me, 'It was unbelievably inferior. I don't know what they were trying to present. They said it was a Chinese show, but came out of nowhere. There was a lot of Latin dance and Jazz music. I also have no idea what was going on.'"
The Regime Plans a Competing Show on the Same Day
Liu Tong said, "The communist regime planned to have their show around the same time in the same theater as us but they didn't succeed. Although audience feedback from their previous shows was awful, they didn't give up and continued to plan further performances."
In mid-January, a businessman told Liu that the Chinese Consulate was raising funds and planning to present another larger show on the same day as the NTDTV Spectacular.
This news spread quickly through overseas (outside of China) Chinese Student Associations in various universities via email. The source claims that on March 3, there will be a celebration in a grand church in South Chicago. The church has a theatre-in-the-round design with a maximum capacity of 15,000 people. The sponsor claimed that Tsai Chin, a famous singer from Taiwan, would be there as the last stop of her world tour and the Shanghai Wenguang Corporation will send 80 performers, including well known singers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan to Chicago. The sponsor also claimed that the Shanghai City government and the standing committee of the Shanghai People's Congress are co-sponsoring this show.
According to the Epoch Times journalist's investigation, soon after news of the upcoming performance was released, Chinese students in universities in Chicago and the Midwest started receiving free tickets for the show. A student from the University of Michigan, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the university was assigned 500 free tickets for the students to watch the Chicago-Shanghai Chinese Lantern Festival Performance.
Frustrated Ticket Holders
Regarding the cancellation incident, Liu, said, "In the past two days, many people who originally planned to watch the regime's Chicago-Shanghai Lantern Festival Performance came to us. They complained, 'How could the government of such a large nation treat its performance like a child's game!'"
Ms. Wang from the University of Chicago said, "When I bought tickets from them (Chicago-Shanghai Lantern Festival Performance), they told me there was only one Chinese show on March 3. I found out later that they cheated me."
Why Does the Regime Go to All This Trouble?
To respond to the regime's interference, on February 6, the Chicago Chinese New Year Spectacular planning Committee held a press conference to expose the communist regime's program of interference.
A reporter from the Chicago Sun Times asked, after seeing the preview of the NTDTV Spectacular, why would Beijing try to interfere with a nice show like this?
Zhou Yu, the contact person for the Spectacular replied, "Traditional Chinese culture respects heaven and fate. It believes in Buddhism, the Tao and Confucianism. However, the Beijing government is a communist government, believing only in atheism, which is incompatible with traditional Chinese culture. In addition, communism advocates 'class struggle' and 'violent revolution,' which also contradict the traditional Chinese tenets of harmony and tolerance."
Zhou added, "If all Chinese people began to learn about real traditional Chinese culture, the CCP would find it has no foundation, so it will try its best to disturb and spoil all organizations and activities which reflect genuine traditional Chinese culture and values."
At the end of the interview, Liu said, "The cancellation of the Shanghai Lantern Festival Performance once again shows the failure of the regime's interference. Its various interferences have ended up unsuccessful. On the contrary, the mainstream media is paying more attention to the (NTDTV) Chinese New Year Spectacular. This also verifies the principle of "evil can never prevail over good."
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