星期日, 2月 22, 2009

《紐約時報》誣陷神韻?

法輪功的堂口大紀元時報鄭重駁斥「《紐約時報》誣陷神韻」,寫了一篇長文把紐約時報的記者Eric Konigsberg身家調查一番之後貶為「黑五類」,不愧是共產黨作風。但是大寶好奇的是為何大紀元時報說紐約時報以前有造假前科,卻不正面回應紐約時報記者Eric Konigsberg指控的重點之一:到底紐約市長Bloomberg到底有沒有去看他們那個鳥不拉蛋的新年晚會?還有Bloomberg到底有沒有如大紀元時報所報導的誇獎他們的新年晚會?

法輪大法弟子的「真善忍」與「講真相」果真是掛在嘴邊唱好聽的放屁狗屎!

紐約時報談神韻藝術團的表演

A Glimpse of Chinese Culture That Some Find Hard to Watch


By ERIC KONIGSBERG

Published: February 6, 2008

Each of the first few numbers was more elaborate than the last, teeming with acrobatic dancers, awash in jewel-toned silks, swelling to the anthemic strains of the orchestra. It was the opening night of Chinese New Year Splendor, a music and dance production that began at Radio City Music Hall last week.

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Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

From left, Pearl Chen, Shiu Ying and Ernie Li set up an advertising banner in Midtown on Saturday for the Chinese New Year Splendor show at Radio City Music Hall.

Then the lyrics to some of the songs, sung in Chinese but translated into English in the program, began referring to “persecution” and “oppression.” Each time, almost at the moment a vocalist hit these words, a few audience members collected their belongings and trudged up an aisle toward the exit.

Before long came a ballet piece in which three women were imprisoned by a group of officers, and one was killed. At the end of the number, more members of the audience, in twos and fours and larger groups, began to walk out. At intermission, dozens of people, perhaps a few hundred, were leaving.

They had realized that the show was not simply a celebration of the Chinese New Year, but an outreach of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice of calisthenics and meditation that is banned in China. More than three years after flooding city corners and subway stations to spread the word about the Chinese government’s repression, Falun Gong practitioners are again trying to publicize their cause. Only this time, it involves costumed dancers and paying audiences in that most storied of New York concert halls, Radio City.

While the street theater, which often included live simulations of torture and videos and photographs of beaten victims, took a direct approach, the Chinese New Year Splendor show involves a slow reveal. It is not until the performance is under way that any reference is made to Falun Gong.

“I don’t feel comfortable here,” said Elizabeth Levy, an author of children’s books who was among the first to leave. “I had no idea when I came that this was about Falun Gong.”

“The Power of Awareness,” a piece that occurred late in the event, marked one of the first overt mentions of the movement in the program. In that number, Communist police officers walking through a park rough up a mother and daughter whose banner carries the Falun Gong message of “truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.”

The abusive officers are pushed back and chased away by a large group. The mother and daughter duo then “poetically leads the multitudes in learning the exercise of Falun Gong.”

Advertisements for the show, which have appeared on Metro-North trains and in The New York Times, among other places, make no mention of Falun Gong. Nor do the show’s Web site or the brochures being handed out on Manhattan sidewalks. The brochures include what appears to be an endorsement quotation from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg: “Brings to life the rich traditions of ancient China right here in the Big Apple.”

However, a spokesman for the mayor, John Gallagher, said that Mr. Bloomberg had neither seen the show nor praised it, and that the quotation may have been taken from a greeting card Mr. Bloomberg sent to Chinese-American organizations in which he saluted Chinese New Year celebrations in general.

The show, which runs through Saturday, is a production of New Tang Dynasty Television, a nonprofit satellite broadcaster started by Falun Gong followers and based in New York.

With roughly 200 performances planned for 2008 — the company employs two troupes — it estimates that about 600,000 people will see the shows (in 2007, the company said, the number was about 200,000).

The television network, which often broadcasts news critical of the Chinese government, has been sparring continuously with Beijing over the shows. Before last year’s show at Radio City (the first was in 2006), the network complained that China was pressuring sponsors to withdraw their support, a claim echoed in other cities where the show has run.

In a statement, the Chinese Embassy criticized the network for trying to “inveigle the public into watching the show,” and said, “The truth is that the so-called ‘galas’ were nothing but a sheer political tool used by ‘Falun Gong’ organization to spread cult and anti-China propaganda.”

Falun Gong is a form of qigong, an ancient practice of breathing exercises, but also incorporates a spiritual element and some unique beliefs, including one that followers have a spinning wheel in their bellies that pushes out evil and attracts good. In 1999, its founder, Li Hongzhi, told a Time magazine reporter that aliens from other planets were responsible for corrupting mankind by teaching modern science.

From its creation in the early 1990s, the movement, and Mr. Li, grew in popularity through the decade. The Chinese government branded it an “evil cult” in 1999, banning the practice and persecuting its members.

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Human rights groups have supported claims that the Chinese government has tortured, imprisoned or killed thousands of Falun Gong followers. Mr. Li immigrated to the United States, and at one point was said to be living in Queens.

The Radio City event “is kind of a P.R. front to try to normalize Falun Gong’s image, so that people don’t think of it as some kind of a wacko cult,” said Maria Hsia Chang, a professor of political science, emerita, at the University of Nevada, Reno, who wrote a book about Falun Gong.

But, she added, “I can only speculate as to why they’d put in these elements without declaring as much ahead of time, because it doesn’t help their image much.”

A New Tang network spokeswoman, and several members of the production troupe who agreed to be interviewed, said that they did not think publicizing Falun Gong’s connection to the show was necessary. “If we advertise Falun Gong, then why don’t we also say the show has Tibetan dancing and Mongolian dancing and Korean dancing?” said Vina Lee, a choreographer and a principal dancer. “Chinese culture is more than dragons and firecrackers.”

MSG Entertainment, which owns Radio City as well as Madison Square Garden, said in a statement: “When booking a rental, MSG Entertainment does not discriminate on the basis of political, religious, cultural, or ethnic viewpoints or beliefs.”

Aside from the references to Falun Gong’s plight, the two-hour performance was an elaborately stitched homage to Chinese traditions. Complementing the dance routines were solos from two sopranos, two tenors, a contralto and a woman playing the erhu, sometimes known as a Chinese fiddle. A giant video screen put forth majestic background images of Chinese landscapes.

But audience members who filed out of Radio City before and during intermission said they were troubled by the material. “I had no idea it was Falun Gong until now that it’s too late, and it really bums me out,” said Steven, a Chinese immigrant living in New Jersey who, along with his family, was among the first to leave and asked that his last name not be published.

“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.”

Tickets cost $58 to $150, though one woman, a Chinese immigrant visiting from Dallas, said that as she was walking by Rockefeller Center just before showtime, a man offered her a free ticket. She also left the show early. “I didn’t like the torture stuff so much,” said the woman, who refused to give her name.

Cary Chiang, a father from New Jersey, said that his wife had objected to the Falun Gong material, but that as for their three children in tow, “It went right over their heads.”

Ms. Levy, the children’s book author, said, “I don’t particularly like being accosted on the street by Falun Gong, and I don’t like it happening to me here.”

Charles Wyne, a computer systems manager who sat happily through the entire performance, said he enjoyed the program. “I don’t know much about Falun Gong, but I don’t like the way the Communists treated the people,” he said, adding that freedom of speech was among his reasons for leaving China.

John Campi, vice president for promotion and community affairs at The Daily News, one of the listed sponsors, said the newspaper’s sponsorship involved trading a one-page ad in the paper for a Daily News ad on the back cover of the program. “I had heard that they were connected with a political group, and I said if this show is political, I’m not getting into it,” he said. “And they said it wasn’t.”

Joe Wei, national editor of the World Journal, a Chinese-American newspaper that is based in Queens and that takes no position on the practice and its teachings, said he saw one of the group’s shows about one year ago and detected no Falun Gong imagery. “This would be a major change,” he said. “I don’t know why they want to do this.”

神韻藝術團在台灣Yahoo奇摩知識上的一些評論

知識問題 | 已解決

有人有看過神韻舞團的表演嗎 (很急捏)

發問者: 匿名
發問時間: 2007-04-16 12:07:27
解決時間: 2007-04-26 11:30:12
解答贈點: 5 ( 共有 0 人贊助 )
回答:
3 評論: 0 意見: 2
網友正面評價 75% ( 共有 8 人評價 )
[ 檢舉 ]
我們的期中報告 有人看過神韻舞團的演出嗎
我沒去看 需要看過的人的意見 所以有看過的人嗎
可以詳細敘述內容流程及感想嗎 非常感謝呦

最佳解答

  • 發問者自選
回答者: 戴眼鏡的斑馬 ( 初學者 3 級 )
回答時間: 2007-04-22 00:31:26
[ 檢舉 ]

剛看完嘉義場回來, 有被騙的感覺.
號稱表演有多出神入化, 以名人的推薦做為晃子.
整體而言, 只有二胡拉的很好, 服裝亮麗這二項優點.
三場聲樂表演平平.

但占整個表演80%的舞蹈, 實在水準有待加強.
多人舞蹈不算很整齊, 而且說真的, 從頭到尾多場的舞蹈表演,
招式幾乎就那幾套, 後空翻竟是表演內最難的招式, 且二個半小時的表演, 只有單人翻過三次. 而且其中的二場戰爭舞蹈 (岳飛/花木蘭), 表演者一點力道都沒有,花拳繡腿, 真的不好看.
另外, 舞蹈的故事內容, 唉, 沒什麼深度.

最重要的是, 去看表演的, 很多都是法輪功的人. 在節目開始前, 我座位前後左右的人, 談的都是和法輪功相關的話題. 這使我當時相當疑惑.

果不其然, 整個表演有一半以上都和法輪功有關. 聲樂歌詞直接就唱出 "大法弟子". 我朋友中場就說看不去下, 就先回家了.

若是法輪功團體的表演, 怎麼年代售票的節目介紹內沒有提到? 若知道這是場和宗教有關的表演, 我跟本就不會買了. 總之, 看完表演之後, 真的是非常非常後悔. 真是花錢來被洗腦的嗎?

節目結束, 我走出中正大學禮堂, 看到十多台大巴士等著載法輪功的學員, 更讓我確定了這確實是法輪功的表演沒錯. 這也說明了為什麼場場爆滿的原因了吧.

參考資料 親自和朋友去看表演, 被朋友說”找我來看這種表演幹麼的人”
  • 2007-04-22 00:42:52 補充

    忘了說, 整個表演從頭到尾的背景都是使用投影片 ,真的很不專業. 給人隨便的感覺. 我每年花二萬元以上看文藝節目已經近十年了, 實體的背景及擺設是舞台表演絕對必要的, 怎可用投影方式取而代之呢?


002
回答者: Carie ( 初學者 5 級 )
回答時間: 2007-04-23 13:16:12
[ 檢舉 ]
個人也是聽說有多好有多棒而訂票去看了國際會議中心的加演場~
結果也是如同上面大大說的一般,覺得二胡拉得好而已
同行表妹也是舞蹈科班出身,她也說: 我覺得我跳得比他們好!!!
姑且不論票價有多少錢,但看完後只覺得這真是法輪功佈道大會!!!
如果真是這樣,應該一開始就明確表示,不應該對這表演涉及的宗教部分隻字未提~

*附加一提~我後排坐的政治人物也是看了上半場之後就沒再進場了!!! 傻眼~ -_-
參考資料 個人看法


an email to the Falun Gong practitioner I am married to: I don't want you to come back.

What a birthday wish! But I figure that I have resisted working on your resume and cover letter and sending them to my classmates. I ask myself why. Don't I want to have a normal family life and have my dearest son around? Then I know the answer from trying to reveal on the bbs that 神韻藝術團 who is performing in Taiwan is indeed affiliated with falun gong. You not only embarrass me but also provoke me with your religious practices, and you will not stop doing it. Moreover, you push Justin to learn and practice falun gong. Don't tell me that he voluntarily wants to do it. He is only 6 years old. I find that life without you is good. Life without having to fight over religion is even better. I can be so blunt because you never listen to my complaints. You just keep doing it, regardless of the consequences, regardless of whether it is going to hurt your marriage and make your son fatherless. I can be so blunt because you don't care. You don't care about how I feel and what I think. No matter how strongly I object to what you do, you would never change. Why don't you let me go?! You are mentally torturing me. I want either a divorce or a marriage without religion, at least without the religious nonsense, without the political agenda hidden behind a religion. I have had a great day until I realize that my marriage sucks because my wife believes in falun gong and keeps talking shit to a husband who is proud of himself for not talking shit. Then I am reminded that my world is indeed dark and I am stuck. Stuck in an unrewarding relationship, and by a wife who just doesn't feel my pain and doesn't care about my psychological suffering. Anyhow, listen! I don't want you to come back! That is from the bottom of my heart, after a deep soul searching in the midnight of my birthday. Let me go! Get me a divorce. I have had enough of this marriage.