A few Chinese students who complained about an advertisement in Auckland University's student magazine—promoting the upcoming Chinese Spectacular show—later took matters into their own hands.
New Zealand Chinese student group representative, Jim Sun, and a few of his accomplices were caught on surveillance camera lifting 800 copies of the university's Craccum magazine from their news stands on Monday morning.
The editor of the magazine, Daniel Sloan, said although Craccum can occasionally offend some readers, he's never seen such a strong reaction to an advertisement before.
The Chinese Spectacular
The Chinese Spectacular is performed by New York-based Divine Performing Arts who are bringing the show to Auckland for the second year. They will be playing four shows between April 17-19 at the ASB Theatre.
According to their website, their purpose is to recreate and preserve the traditional and ancient Chinese culture, something almost lost after communism took control. A couple of the acts depict contemporary China and the Communist Party's persecution of the meditation practice Falun Gong.
Editor Will Continue to Promote Show
Mr Sloan said Sun was so concerned about the Chinese Spectacular performance that he called the ticket promotion hotline to find out more. After enquiring about the show, Mr Sun demanded that the Auckland University Student Association and the magazine pull the advertisement because the Falun Dafa Association was one of the hosts of the show.
The management at Craccum said they would continue to promote the show and advised Sun that he and his friends could put their views in writing and the magazine would consider publishing them.
"He chose not to do that and instead he went with a much less constructive path. So we are disappointed that our magazine has been caught up in the middle of all this. It is just disappointing for us, considering how accommodating we tried to be."
Sun initially denied taking the 800 magazines.
Investigation
Auckland University Student's Association president David Do said he was approached by Sun last Thursday, and asked him to pull the ads before they were published.
"And he did express his concerns about the ad, he said that some Chinese students were quite offended even by just the presence of the group... that they were offended by the Falun Gong association with the [performing arts] group."
"He also, towards the end, did give some hints that if Craccum decided to pull the ad, we might be able to be financially compensated in some way," he said.
Mr Do said he investigated the matter and responded to Sun in writing. "And explained to him that we are not going to pull the ad."
He said that was the last he heard from Sun until Monday morning.
"Essentially to punish him, we are having some meetings with him and probably someone else this afternoon. We need to talk more about this and then we will decide on a course of action, with regards to what they did."
He said he would not take Sun to court.
"I think they are very clear on what they believe and they are not willing to really listen to any other views really. That is only my sense of their mindset."
Mr Do said he did not know if Sun was the organiser of the theft.
"But from what I understand he actually was involved in the actual theft itself I think he was caught by one of our staff and then he said we had authorised it."
"I think having a robust debate on these issues is much better than resorting to this amateur censorship," he said.
Ticket Sales 'through the roof'
New Tang Dynasty Culture and Arts Exchange, a charitable trust, and one of the main organisations bringing the show to New Zealand, questioned: "Why would a handful of Chinese students be up in arms over the Falun Dafa Association hosting the upcoming Chinese Spectacular? Especially when this event showcases the absolute very best of ancient Chinese culture, art, dance, and music."
Spokesperson Jay Zelaya continued: "I am very grateful to Mr Sun in one way... and that is, his criminal actions and those of his accomplices, has brought our Spectacular into the public eye in a very big way, and as a result, ticket sales are exploding—they're literally going through the roof!
"People want to see the show now, they're curious, they want to know what all this commotion is about," he said.
"And for those lucky people who attend our show — they're in for an evening of unforgettable entertainment — they're in for the time of their lives!"
Mr Zelaya said Sun's attempt to interfere with the show may not just be "an amateur attempt to steal several hundred magazines. Being that Mr Sun is the head of a Chinese student's group at Auckland University, we might want to consider that what we're seeing here, is very possibly a foreign government using impressionable Chinese students to shove communist party ideology down the throats of Kiwis, telling Kiwis, among other things, what cultural events they should and should not attend."
Chinese Embassy Front Organisations
Chen Yonglin, a former diplomat at the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney, defected in 2005 and has said that Chinese University groups were backed by the communist regime and often held meetings at the Chinese Embassy. He said there were many organisations in New Zealand working as fronts for the Embassy—who were "sponsored and set up by the Chinese Embassy here in New Zealand to control the Chinese people here."
"The Chinese people are brainwashed to serve the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."
He said the groups are part of a complex propaganda and influence strategy set up in 2002 to influence Oceania countries.
Their purpose, he said, was to use the Chinese community to monitor and gather information, and infiltrate the "five dissident groups", including Falun Gong and pro-independence of Tibet activists.
Chen said Falun Gong was seen by the regime as the biggest threat as "it makes people aware of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and belief. It shakes the communist power."
He has spoken of a network of 1000 spies operating in Australia for the communist regime and said they are also active in New Zealand.
Traditional Chinese Culture
Zhou Yu, a contact person for the Chinese Spectacular said: "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."
"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 organisations and activities which reflect genuine traditional Chinese culture and values," he said.
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