They were supposed to be white-hatted by Tourism Calgary, but about 100 performers of a pro-Falun Gong cultural show will leave town without the city’s honorary symbol atop their heads — and the show’s producers say the Chinese consulate-general in Calgary is directly responsible for forcing the change in plans and should be expelled from the country.
Caylan Ford of the Chinese-language station New Tang Dynasty TV (NTDTV), which produces the world-travelling show, says the Chinese government has tried to interfere in “nearly every city” where the song-and-dance troupe has performed since it started touring in 2004. “They’ve threatened performers, sponsors, venues, elected officials, even national governments, telling them not to support this show or not to allow it to perform,” says Ford.
The show, called the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular, depicts traditional Chinese culture and legends, as well as current human rights struggles like the persecution of Falun Gong adherents who’ve been targeted by the Chinese government in recent years because of their spiritual practice.
Tourism Calgary and Travel Alberta — marketing organizations funded by the municipal and provincial governments, respectively — had both arranged to support the show, which is in Calgary from April 30 to May 2. In exchange for advertising on NTDTV, Travel Alberta had organized a trip to Banff for the performers before their next show in Edmonton on May 5.
However, in an e-mail sent to NTDTV in April (and recently forwarded to media), a Travel Alberta employee said the agency had to “rescind all services” for the group’s visit. “Our managing director has received implicit instruction for full co-operation from [Calgary Chinese consulate-general] Wu Xinjian,” says the e-mail. In another e-mail, the same employee wrote that “perhaps in the future we may be able to work on a different project with less religious overtones.”
Travel Alberta managing director Derek Coke-Kerr told Fast Forward he did get a phone call from Xinjian “asking for clarification as to what Travel Alberta was doing.” Coke-Kerr says Xinjian also “said [the performers] were Falun Gong, and he said that they don’t approve of the Falun Gong — and Canada’s relationships with China could be jeopardized.”
However, Coke-Kerr says Xinjian’s complaints weren’t the reason the ad deal fell through. New York-based NTDTV broadcasts into mainland China via satellite, and Coke-Kerr says that because Canada doesn’t have approved destination status in China, Travel Alberta is forbidden from advertising directly to Chinese consumers. “That was never anything [the consulate] brought up,” says Coke-Kerr. “…We’re a marketing group. We’re not political, and I just have to follow the rules of marketing into other countries.”
Tourism Calgary also cancelled a reception and white-hatting on opening night for the show, citing Travel Alberta’s withdrawal of support in an e-mail. (When contacted by Fast Forward, Tourism Calgary said it wouldn’t comment on the matter.) The Tourism Calgary cancellation especially stings, says Ford, because former Chinese president Jiang Zemin got white-hatted when he came to Calgary in 1997. Pro-democracy Chinese activist Wei Jingsheng got snubbed when he came to town the following year.
“Jiang Zemin orchestrated this particular persecution against Falun Gong,” says Ford. “He’s been terrible on freedom of press in China, among other things. So I think it really sends the wrong message — that the city of Calgary is willing to treat, as honourary citizens, people who are orchestrating crimes against humanity, and they’re not willing to extend the same honour to people who are fighting peacefully, through artistic expression, for freedom in China.”
Ford says she doesn’t buy Travel Alberta’s explanation. “I don’t think it’s valid,” she says. “This is something that’s happened all across the board. It’s not an isolated incident.” Travel Alberta’s rationale also doesn’t explain Tourism Calgary’s cancellation, says Ford. “Why can’t they give a white hat to the performers? It certainly has nothing to do with with mainland China’s advertising laws.”
However, Ford says NTDTV doesn’t “lay the blame” on Tourism Calgary and Travel Alberta. “We think that they’re being put in a very difficult position,” she says. “We suspect that the Chinese consulate may have threatened their ability to get travel visas to go to China…. I think the real blame here lies with the Chinese regime, which is extending its long arm into Canada [and] once again trying to interfere with free artistic discourse in this country and our internal affairs in Canada.”
NTDTV is calling on the Canadian government to consider expelling Xinjian from the country. “If they get away with this, it sends a message to the Chinese government that the West will be complicit, that they can keep doing this with no repercussions,” says Ford. “So we want to send a clear message that this is not tolerable in Canada.” (Fast Forward unsuccessfully tried to reach the Chinese consulate for comment for this story.)
