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China pressures Malaysia into canceling show

""Actually whether it's related to Falun Gong or not, it's legal. They don't have the right to interfere like this."

Wong Mei Yee, project manager for New Tang Dynasty Television

The Malaysian government canceled a live stage dance that contained a performance based on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, the US-based organizer said yesterday.

The performance by the Divine Performing Arts troupe scheduled for the weekend was ordered to be canceled by Malaysia's culture ministry, said Wong Mei Yee, a project manager for US-based New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) station, which funds the troupe.

The troupe finished a tour of 22 performances throughout Taiwan earlier this month.

Wong said the ministry told the television station in a Feb. 21 letter that the show, featuring different ethnic dances and stories from China's dynasties, would have to be canceled because of China's objection.

"Due to pressure from the Chinese embassy, they canceled the performance ... because [the embassy] says this show is related to Falun Gong," Wong said.

Calls to the Chinese embassy and Malaysia's Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage went unanswered yesterday.

The show, titled Chinese Spectacular, was to have been performed by an international cast from China, Canada, US, Australia, Europe and other countries.

Chinese authorities have denounced NTDTV, which is based in New York and broadcasts by satellite in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, as a mouthpiece for Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that Beijing bans as a dangerous cult. Many of the station's staffers are Falun Gong practitioners, but NTDTV insists it is independent.

Wong acknowledged that parts of the performance hinted at the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners "in an artistic way."

"Actually whether it's related to Falun Gong or not, it's legal. They don't have the right to interfere like this," she said.

Wong said 2,000 tickets had been sold for the two performances, but the organizers officially called off the show after its appeals failed, costing it an estimated 100,000 ringgit (US$31,800).

NTDTV is refunding the tickets, but people from Indonesia, Singapore, India, Japan and Hong Kong had still traveled to Kuala Lumpur and would join a protest later yesterday at the ministry, Wong said.
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