AUCKLAND, New Zealand—Green Party MP Keith Locke attended Friday evening's performance of the Chinese Spectacular , and said he was upset that at least one mayor had been asked by Auckland's Chinese Consulate to stay away
"I think if you believe in freedom of expression and freedom of artistic creativity, there's no way that any politicians should, or any embassy should try and influence people against seeing this show," he said.
"I think the letter they sent to the mayors wasn't the sort of thing an embassy should do, to try to stop people, in effect to influence mayors not to come to this performance. The North Shore City Mayor's office also received a letter from the Chinese Consulate last month essentially pressuring the Mayor to stay away from the show.
The letter took four paragraphs to defame and discredit the Chinese Spectacular and ended with: "Your understanding and friendship will be highly appreciated."
Mr Locke said that he hadn't really known what to expect from the show. His overall impression was that it was "fluid and colourful."
"I pictured it would be quite colourful—the colour worked perhaps more than I thought. I knew it was bright colours, but they worked quite well."
"The first half was really good," he said, during the intermission. "And the variety of acts... I particularly liked the drumming... I thought it was quite creative."
"All the pieces are great," he concluded. "It is hard to put one above the other... I enjoyed it.
"They obviously had some messages through it, but all art has some messages."
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit:
www.BestChineseShows.com.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular. For our complete coverage please visit:
http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/
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