Hundreds of Shen Yun Artists March in New York, Warn of CCP’s Repression in America
NEW YORK CITY—Shen Yun Performing Arts, the group long considered a thorn in the Chinese communist regime’s side, joined thousands of Falun Gong practitioners on July 20 in a parade through Manhattan’s Chinatown to condemn the Beijing’s persecution of faith and warn Americans about the regime’s growing reach on U.S. soil.
“This is a different way to use my voice … and exercise my freedom of religion,” Angelia Wang, a principal dancer with Shen Yun, told the Epoch Times.
Today, the CCP has its sights set on Shen Yun, which was founded by Falun Gong practitioners, but tomorrow it could be another group, Wang and other artists said.
“We’ve seen a systematic increase in attacks on Falun Gong practitioners on American soil, including [targeting] Shen Yun,” said Piotr Huang, a principal dancer with Shen Yun. “Before we thought the persecution was only in China—now we can feel it on our doorstep.”
In 2007, the CCP sent some 60 performing arts troupes overseas in an effort to drown out Shen Yun’s message—a costly failure.
The cause for the regime’s obsession with Shen Yun is fear, said Leeshai Lemish, an emcee with Shen Yun.
“Shen Yun is showing the world what China was like before communism, what China is like under communism, and what China could be like without communism,” he told The Epoch Times.
To Stop the Suffering
The anniversary is close to Shen Yun’s performers’ hearts.
Lemish said a company survey found that 92 performers had been affected by the persecution.
That includes Sun Hung-wei, a dancer who was 6 years old when police raided his family home in China. His father put him and his older brother into a small room, telling them not to leave. Then, as the brothers cried, the police took their mother away. They sentenced her to seven years in prison because she practiced Falun Gong.
Sun said, at that moment, his mind turned blank. There was nothing he could do, Sun told The Epoch Times.
After his mother got out from prison, the authorities continued to pressure her to sign papers promising to renounce her faith. The officers threatened to stop his schooling if she didn’t sign. Left with no other option, Sun’s family sent him to Taiwan to protect him, and he eventually made his way to the United States.
For Sun, July 20 is a day to raise awareness to help stop the suffering of more families like him in China, and to commemorate the lives lost, he said.
Ethan Guo, another Shen Yun principal dancer, lost his grandfather when he was 1 due to the persecution of Falun Gong.
On American Soil
Angela Lin grew up watching Shen Yun performances and joined the dance company in hopes to help shine a light on the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong for audiences around the world.
She has many friends who were bullied in China or lost their parents, grandparents, cousins, or aunts because of the persecution, and the fact that this repression is spreading into a free society is “very concerning,” she said.
“That’s very scary because it’s attacking America at its very core values—freedom of speech and religion,” she said. “We have to stand up and speak out about this.”
Lemish said that by joining the parade, the Shen Yun members are also defending the fundamental freedoms of America.
Shen Yun members and their families aren’t the only ones receiving threats from the CCP, he said.
As the regime continues to infiltrate U.S. society and manipulate democratic systems, “we should stand shoulder to shoulder on this, to defend our freedom, defend the freedoms of Chinese people, to try to help them get back as much of it as they can, and stop the human cost, which has been going on for way too long,” he said.
‘God Is Watching Over Them’
Parade onlookers expressed their support for Falun Gong and its stand for freedom.
Fu Shuai, a Chinese man from Chicago watching the parade in New York on July 20, said he’s seen Shen Yun several times and thought it “insane” that the CCP could threaten these artists overseas.
“Even in China, it shouldn’t repress Shen Yun,” he said, “Its performances express truth, compassion, and tolerance, and tells you about how the CCP persecutes Falun Gong, and I’ve seen how Western audiences applaud from the bottom of their hearts.”
A man who shared his surname Ye said he admires the Falun Gong practitioners for turning out in Chinatown to raise awareness of the CCP’s persecution year after year, without fail.
Originally from China, Ye saw Falun Gong’s rise in popularity in the 1990s, and how it was never extinguished, despite the CCP’s violent persecution and propaganda.
“Look, after 26 years, there are more and more practitioners, and more young practitioners. People know what Falun Gong is about, no matter how much the CCP tries to slander them,” he said.
“God is watching over them,” he said.
