But a New York Times review of the company's Chinese New Year Splendor at Radio City Music Hall earlier this month said the show was peppered with references to the practice, highlighting a torture scene it said drove audience members from the theater.
"It's a little too political, too religious, especially the dance showing some girls getting tortured in the prisons. That's too much for Chinese New Year, especially with our children," a Chinese-American viewer told the paper.
Days after the New York Times review appeared, Epoch posted a blizzard of articles condemning the piece, its author and the paper with headlines like "The New York Times parrots Communist Party line" and "Transportation company CEO: I didn't give a shit about what it (the New York Times) said."
One article quoted a New York psychologist who had heard about the New York Times article, but hadn't read it: "Everything I saw was positive. I don't know what they saw or why they were disappointed. … I'm going to go to the library, look that article up and tell the writer what I think."
Tung says she's not sure if the prison act will be part of the show in Taiwan.
"But a similar one was performed in Taiwan in 2007. No Taiwan audiences said that 'it's political' or said that they were bothered," she says.
And, as far as Epoch is concerned, neither did the 1,000 audience members it interviewed after a Feb. 9 show in New York - quite a feat of reportage, as there were 5,000 in total. The response "was overly positive," which judging from the praise lavished on the show in the paper's articles, might be an understatement.
For example: "Ms Valentina Alexis, a former ballerina with the Moscow ballet company, said, 'I am shocked, I am just completely shocked - but shocked in a fabulous way. It amazed me. I think it's the best show that I ever saw - the best.
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