Giving A Voice to the Voiceless w/ Janice Trey & Ying Chen

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There are few things that make people successful.

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Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some

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time to get there.

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How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?

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Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.

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Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.

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Now here is Chris Meek.

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Hello.

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You've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek.

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As always, it's a pleasure and honor to have you with us.

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Next Step Forward is committed to helping others achieve more than ever while experiencing

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greater personal empowerment and wellbeing.

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Our guests today, Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, embody personal empowerment and resilience.

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Janice Trey is the head of the Epoch Times and NTD TV, two prominent media organizations

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dedicated to free press, tradition, and hope.

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She has consistently advocated for journalistic integrity, free speech, and the protection

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of fundamental freedoms.

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Her relentless pursuit of truth and freedom began in her childhood, shaped by her early

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years spent in a Chinese labor camp.

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Yi Cheng was born into a family of elite musicians in Beijing, China, and studied flute at the

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Music Middle School affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory.

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After graduating with the highest honors, she relocated to the United States where she

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attended Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University on scholarship and studied

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with a principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

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She's been performing with Shen Yun Performing Arts since 2006 and has served as conductor,

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principal flutist, orchestra manager, and stage manager.

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Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, welcome to Next Steps Forward.

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Thank you, Chris.

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Thank you, Dr. Chris Meek, for having me on your show and for all you have done for 9-11

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families, the veterans, and your audience.

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Thank you.

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I appreciate that.

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But we're going to get into your stories today.

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And before we get into your individual stories, a number of other topics, including the persecution

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of the practitioners of Falun Gong.

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Janice, would you share with us your connection with Ying and the Shen Yun Performing Arts?

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I met Ying through my husband, who is a physician and a musician who is dedicated to use music

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to promote wellness.

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And the Epoch Times is a media sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts since its inception

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from 2006.

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And Janice, your family's sentencing to a Chinese labor camp obviously was a profoundly

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difficult experience.

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Would you share the circumstances that led to your family's imprisonment and when it

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all took place?

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I was born during the Cultural Revolution, during the Mao Zedong time, and my parents

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were college graduate engineers.

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So they were sent to labor camps in a very remote part of China.

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So I spent my whole childhood and went to school when I was in my labor camps.

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So I was a forced child labor, growing sugar canes on the top of the hill to finance the

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school and also pick up crops during the harvest season, four hours every day on the crop fields

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because they use hand tools.

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So I have to fill up a full plastic bag of crops every day.

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That was the requirement to return to school next day.

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And describe life in the Chinese labor camp and how you managed to endure such conditions.

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The condition was really harsh.

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There was no refrigerators, no private bathrooms, and there was no kindergarten.

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In fact, I babysit my younger brother and we have limited food.

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My father hunted birds and we even ate small animals, but we survived.

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And how did this experience shape your family's perspective on freedom and resilience and

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how does it shape your values and your pursuit of justice today?

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I received the balloons from Taiwan with slips in a balloon that stated that they have televisions,

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they have refrigerator and have private cars rather than riding on bicycles.

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None of those exist in the labor camps.

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And until I went to Hong Kong, I saw everything that was described on the slip was true in Hong Kong.

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And I started comparing the textbooks for the same historical periods, described China,

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from China, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.

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The description were totally different.

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So that spurred my interest in seeking the truth.

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And how did you finally escape the Chinese labor camp and eventually reach America?

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My grandfather owned a bank before communism and the Communist Party took his bank,

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robbed his antiques and art collections, so he fled to Hong Kong.

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When he got sick, we went to Hong Kong to take care of him.

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But the Chinese Communist Party separated our family.

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First, my father went, and then later I went alone, and then later on my mom and my younger brother.

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So there was a very long journey over a couple of years that we finally got reunited in Hong Kong.

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And what do you think the average American doesn't know, misunderstands, or needs to know about China's labor camps?

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And what message would you share with others who have faced or are currently enduring oppression?

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What I experienced was a labor camp, but in a small level.

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But in a macro level, the entire China under communist rule is like a labor camp.

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There's no freedom of speech, there's no freedom of expressions, there are no religious freedoms.

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And that's why when finally my father sent me to Christian school in Hong Kong,

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because he did not have any chance to learn Christianity in China.

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And Ying, I mentioned that you come from a family of elite musicians.

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Did you feel any pressure as a child to continue that tradition?

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Not really pressure. And looking back, I really appreciate that I had the chance

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to be raised in a cultural and musical environment.

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So it's more like the family business?

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My parents were both members of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in China.

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So we actually live in a community of musicians.

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Amazing.

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Ying, you've served in a number of roles with the Shen Yun Performing Arts over the past 19 years.

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First, tell us about the organization, its history and its annual reach.

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And then next, what is your current role and what responsibilities does it involve?

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Thank you. I really love to talk about Shen Yun because we're very proud of how we've

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been able to build it up to be the fastest growing performing arts company in this country, probably.

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But the origin of the story was actually both tragic and heroic.

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For those of you who have, first of all, just a little bit more about Shen Yun,

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for those of you who have been to a Shen Yun performance, you've seen the gorgeous costumes

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and the amazing dances, the athleticism and also the music.

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You know, we have a live orchestra at every performance that permanently combines

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traditional Chinese instruments and Western instruments and also our digital backdrop.

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It's patented in that it allows infinite storytelling by extending the stage

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and having interactions with the dancers on stage.

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So it's really, for people who've seen it, I think you know what I mean.

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It's really a spectacular production with a big cast of dancers.

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But, you know, it hasn't been an easy journey to get to where we are today.

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In the very beginning, if we want to talk about how we started this performing arts company,

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it actually started with the persecution of Falun Gong.

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What is Falun Gong?

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That is a spiritual discipline, a Buddhist-based spiritual discipline.

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And it also involves gentle exercises like Tai Chi, you know, like meditation and gentle exercises.

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But there's also a spiritual component to it.

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In the 1990s, it became so popular in China due to its health benefits and it was taught for free.

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So a lot of people started to practice it to the extent that by the late 1990s,

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it was estimated by the government that there were about 70 to 100 million people practicing.

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And that caused an alarm to the communist regime.

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To them, the biggest thing, of course, is mind control.

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And also that number far exceeded the communist membership.

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So they started to ban the practice.

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But because of the spiritual component and those of us who practice,

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we feel that, you know, you're lying about us.

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You're not telling the real story about us.

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So there have been a resilient resistance to this persecution for the last 25 years.

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During this process, the government continued to escalate it.

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Because in the past, one political campaign after another,

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they were always able to squash it in a very short time, but not with Falun Gong.

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Because of the spiritual component, people really hold on to their faith

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and want to raise awareness of what's happening in China.

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My whole family, my parents and my brother, when they were in Beijing,

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they also experienced the persecution firsthand.

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My brother was tortured in a labor camp for 18 months and

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on many instances, he almost lost his life.

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So all these things are things that we personally experienced.

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And we know that the government is not telling people.

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The government in China, in case you don't know, they control all of the media.

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So once the government wants to ban something,

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all you can hear is just the government's propaganda.

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And they fabricated a lot of lies about Falun Gong.

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So that actually, because it impacts millions of people

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that have been imprisoned and tortured and even killed during this process.

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So those of us who practice Falun Gong really want to have an avenue

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to raise awareness of this to the world.

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And so the people who, there are some artists who are also Falun Gong practitioners

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outside of China decided to, in 2006, form a performing arts company.

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But we have two major missions.

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In addition to raising awareness of the persecution, we also see,

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we come to realize that how the authentic traditional culture has

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been lost and destroyed actually, systematically by the regime,

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the totalitarian regime in China, in order to gain control of people's mind.

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Arts in China has been heavily censored.

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And everything has to go through the government

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and there cannot be anything that's outside of the control.

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Here we have a chance in America, the land of freedom,

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to revive and to showcase our traditional Chinese culture

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and share it with the world and teach it to the next generation.

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So I really, we're very, very thankful for how America,

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you know, this place of liberty has given us the opportunity to do that.

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And in the beginning, it was very, very difficult

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because the communist regime has always targeted us

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and tried to destroy us from day one.

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So it has been really difficult through all these,

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it's been, what, 19 years now since 2006.

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But we actually managed to grow from one company to eight companies

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and, you know, overcoming all the hardship in the beginning.

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So it's, yeah, so we're very proud of what we've managed to build.

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So I'm going to go off script a little bit here.

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And if you don't have a prepared answer, that's fine as well.

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But Ying, I want to highlight two things you just mentioned.

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First, you talked about mind control.

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And then you mentioned how the government wants to control the media.

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Last week, we quickly learned about China and the DeepSeek AI platform they created.

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And it clearly shot shockwaves through the U.S. technology market.

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But then the Wall Street Journal did a research on over the next couple of days.

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And they were trying to see exactly what it would generate from an AI perspective.

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And there were three specific things about China.

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And I can't remember the third one.

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The first one was what happened in Tiananmen Square.

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The second one was what about Dalai Lama.

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And I forget the third one.

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But the first one, Tiananmen Square, it said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.

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The second one about who is the Dalai Lama, it started to answer.

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And all of a sudden, it retracted the answer and said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.

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I mean, that's exactly how they operate, right?

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I mean, it's real time.

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And I mean, how do people who are there now with the same, I'll say,

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mindset as the two of you in terms of searching for that freedom,

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searching for that, pursuing your lifelong dream and doing what you want,

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as opposed to being told what you can do and told what is real and what's not real.

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How do folks there, A, cope with it?

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And B, are they thinking about immigrating out?

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I think everybody there, they are aware of the censorship, of course.

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And if you try to type in Falun Gong and try to search that online,

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you'll probably get a knock on the door pretty soon.

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So people know through all these political campaigns,

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one after another, every time targeting different groups,

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it's to create this scare tactic.

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It's using these scare tactics so that people don't dare to touch anything

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that the government might oppose.

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So when it comes to subjects like the Tiananmen Massacre, the Falun Gong, Dalai Lama,

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people just don't want to touch it.

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But they know that it's being censored.

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However, before I came to the States,

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I just really didn't realize the magnitude of the issues.

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And it was after the persecution of Falun Gong started that we start to learn about,

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wow, all these Christians have actually, the Uyghurs, the Tibetan Buddhists,

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they have been persecuted for decades.

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And we never heard about that in China.

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So I think people realize what they're missing,

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but they don't know the scale

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and how the media is manipulating public opinion and everything

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because of the governments behind it.

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JAN MARKELLIENFELD

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Janice, the Epoch Times has been a vital supporter of the Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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How and when did that relationship start?

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And how has it changed through its lifetime?

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JANICE WU

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Truth, tradition, and hope are the cornerstones of the Epoch Times.

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And Shen Yun Performing Arts focus on reviving the 5,000-year civilizations.

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So it aligns very well with our mission to bring truth, tradition, and hope.

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And we've been very pleased to interview audience from the Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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And let me give you one of those.

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It's with Kate Blanchard.

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And she describes Shen Yun as an extraordinary experience,

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exquisitely beautiful, and great for the children.

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So even production designers for Avatar describe it as

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you find new inspiration for the next Avatar.

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So it was really helpful to connect our readers

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who are not as familiar with Shen Yun to hear from the audience feedback.

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So as Shen Yun grew from one trip to eight trips,

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we have more reporters traveling to cover the various performances,

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like a million audience a year.

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It's really amazing.

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American dream, American successful stories.

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I don't think any performing arts company in the world has achieved such a success.

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And in particular, with the values and the storylines about courage,

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about loyalty, fidelity, all the great values, as you know, Chris,

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in the entertainment industry, a lot of darkness.

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Whereas Shen Yun provides hope and inspiration,

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and also the embedded wisdom from 5,000 years of civilization.

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It's a real treat.

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And our readers appreciate what we have connected them with Shen Yun.

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And the Epoch Times has a unique approach to journalism

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with your focus on traditional values, as you just mentioned,

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such as upholding truth, moral integrity,

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and framing stories focused on traditional ethics and principles.

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Its coverage focuses extensively on the Chinese Communist Party

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and its conduct, such as censorship, religious persecution,

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and other human rights abuses.

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Who is your audience?

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And what about your mission draws them to your product?

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Most of our audience are Christians,

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and also some Jewish and people from all walks of life.

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And we have coverage in 35 countries,

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22 languages, and 12 languages in print.

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And we are the largest Chinese editions, widely spread outside China.

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And in fact, people from mainland China use all sorts of anti-censorship tools,

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like the free gates, you know, to come and access our information.

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And many of our readers find our timely information sometimes save their lives.

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Let me give you two examples.

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The SARS-CoV-2 disease back in 2003,

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we reported three weeks before Beijing admitted the pandemic.

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And the COVID, we start reporting in December 2019.

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And some of our readers changed their flights,

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avoided the lockdowns,

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when their colleagues on the initial scheduled flights never make home.

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So a lot of heartwarming stories.

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And we have over 14,000 articles on Epoch Health articles to bring holistic health.

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And so it's a very rewarding journey.

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And sharing the information, you know, truthful information, accurate information.

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And we are known as the most courageous media

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that the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid of.

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I'd love to hear that.

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What recent stories or issues involving the Chinese Communist Party or the CCP

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have stood out to you as being especially significant or meaningful to cover?

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Well, recently, we got information about Xi Jinping.

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He personally ordered the exportation of the Falun Gong persecutions.

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To American soil and overseas.

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You know, using U.S. lawfare, using the U.S. legal systems.

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And so, and also the legacy media and YouTubers.

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And this is a transnational repression.

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Something is really serious.

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And Epoch Times published the nine commentaries on the Communist Party 20 years ago.

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And since its publication, it inspired 440 million people.

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We drew from the Chinese Communist Party memberships and affiliated organization.

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I spoke at U.S. Congress at Harvard and also in Chinatown in Flushing.

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Other scholars and China experts all echoed their concerns.

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The serious concern of the transnational repression that's happening today on American soil.

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And Ying, traditional Chinese culture has a rich history.

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How does Shen Yun decide which stories or aspects of history to highlight in its performances?

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Yeah, in the Shen Yun performance, we usually have about 20 pieces.

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A lot of them are dances.

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And the stories draw from like great works of literature, the classical literature.

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And also from diverse ethnic and folk dances.

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And also some legendary tales from our rich spiritual roots.

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Taoism, Buddhism, and including also some stories about what Falun Gong,

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usually one or two stories about what Falun Gong is facing in modern day China.

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Because that really shows the tyranny of the current regime toward all the spiritual practices

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and all the human rights atrocities that they continue to perpetrate to its own people.

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It's, you really don't hear it enough in other, you know, other places.

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Other than maybe Epoch Times, you just don't hear that enough.

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So we include all these stories.

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And so that each performance, each year we have a brand new program.

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And this program selects pieces that represent different dynasties or ethnic backgrounds.

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So that it's very versatile.

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And that's why we say that it's a cultural and historical journey for people.

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But at the same time, it's very entertaining.

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Because if you've seen classical Chinese dance, it's very, it's a thrill to watch.

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It combines a lot of acrobatic things and maybe gymnastic, you know, routines and a lot of flips

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and spins.

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And so it really keeps people entertained as well at the same time.

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While, you know, learning about our authentic culture.

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That's the thing, you know, we want this to be free of censorship.

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We want people to see China without communism in the past and how it can be in the future as well.

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And as a result, of course, we have been thrown on the side of the CCP.

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You mentioned the performances are deeply rooted in spiritual and cultural themes.

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You talked about gymnastics and flippings.

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You know, what is the process for choreographing the dances and composing music that is unique

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to Shen Yun?

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Yes, because we have a different show every single year.

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And we actually have original pieces every single year.

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You know, they're all choreographed and the music is composed from scratch.

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Where the choreographer works with the composer, you know, come up with a rough,

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I guess, idea of the conception of the piece.

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And then we continue to refine it.

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You know, once the dancers start to execute those and we look at how it can be improved,

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including the musical part too, you know, how every moment of the music,

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how is it supporting the story on stage and help creating that atmosphere?

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And of course, our backdrop and even our costumes.

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And if you've been to our show, you see the costume very, a lot of times echo,

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you know, the style and the, you know, the objects in the backdrop.

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So all of that have to be fine-tuned.

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And we really get it to a level of perfection every time before we started even, you know,

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touring.

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So, yeah, so it takes a lot of hard work every year, but we really enjoy that process.

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I believe it's a very unique process.

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I don't know how many other performing arts companies do that.

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And one more for you, Ying.

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Why is it so important for Shen Yun to focus on themes such as virtue,

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morality, and traditional values?

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Well, we believe we're, you know, we actually are, I'm a practitioner of Falun Dafa and Falun Gong.

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And we believe that, you know, the morality and, you know, virtues and integrity, honesty,

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these are the fabric of society.

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You know, it really brings people together instead of dividing people, like the class

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struggle, you know, advocated by the, you know, totalitarian regimes.

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So we, the values that we show as part of our program also seek to bring harmony and

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show, bring inspiration to people and bring people together.

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Because art, you know, is a universal language and without, you know, without words.

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So through just music and dance, we tour around the world.

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And yeah, you'll be surprised.

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I mean, maybe not surprised how people just react, have the exact same reaction.

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They, you know, despite of their different cultural backgrounds, we get the same people

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laugh at the same places, cry at the same places, applaud at the same places.

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And it's really great.

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And I'm one of the conductors.

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And as I mentioned, we have eight companies now and everyone, every company has a live

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orchestra touring with them.

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So I'm one of the eight conductors and I get to be so close to the audience.

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I can hear people's reaction right behind me, you know?

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So it's one of the things that I really enjoy and just, you know, keep us going because

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we can see how people resonate with it.

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And Janice, earlier we were talking about the Chinese Communist Party, again, the CCP,

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and its persecution of religious sects, other human rights violations and censorship.

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Is the Epoch Times focused solely on the CCP or is it focused on exposing other authoritarian

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regimes and repression in other countries as well?

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Well, we certainly cover human rights abuses around the world.

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And we believe religious freedoms, internet freedom, and press freedoms.

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You know, we cover the Sudan, we cover, you know, Tibetans, you know, their atrocity

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and the Uyghurs and, you know, all walks of life.

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You know, we believe, you know, injustice, the threat of justice everywhere.

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And we have a program called Finding Many, which is a story about the Holocaust survivor.

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And so it is really important.

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We believe in creator and we believe everybody should have a chance to be connected to divinity.

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And our focus on truth, tradition, and hope.

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The traditional and classical culture is a path for others to connect with divinity.

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And in our newspapers, you know, we have very extensive coverage on arts and culture.

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And on the NDTV sites, we sponsor nine different competitions,

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including classical pianos, vocal competitions, traditional martial arts.

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And so all those traditional cultures, something to be treasured

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and to be passed on to the next generations.

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And we hope that's another way to connect people.

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Ying, earlier you gave some background on Falun Gong.

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What drew each of you to learn more about Falun Gong?

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And how has it shaped your understanding of spirituality or resilience?

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And do you both practice it?

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I practice it.

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And my whole family practiced it.

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And my parents and my brother started to practice in 1995, I want to say.

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94, actually.

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And I was in the US.

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They were still in Beijing at the time.

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And they introduced it to me.

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And I was just really amazed by the real changes that it has made in their lives.

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I mean, you can listen to all kinds of good theories or theoretical things.

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But to see the real changes, the positive changes that it can make on people.

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For example, my brother was starting to form some bad habits.

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And he was a college student at the time.

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And my parents were starting to get a little bit worried about

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that he wasn't focused on the study.

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But after he practiced the Falun Gong, he felt that he found the meaning of life.

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And because it's something that it guides us and brings us hope and light inside of us.

401
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:56,080
And teaches us the three tenets of Falun Gong is truthfulness, compassion, and it's forbearance.

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00:28:56,080 --> 00:29:02,560
And it's actually all these three words, Zhen Shan Ren, in Chinese are very rich.

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00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:07,280
But when it's translated to English, it's often a little bit narrowed.

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00:29:07,280 --> 00:29:15,280
For example, Zhen is like being true, being genuine, being true to yourself, being honest.

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Integrity has all those meanings in it.

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And Shan is being good, being compassionate.

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00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:29,520
And yeah, Ren is a lot of times translated as tolerance or forbearance and resilience.

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00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:35,120
But it also includes like patience and self-restraint.

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Handle ourself properly, embracing goodness, those good things.

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So it has been a constant on a daily basis, a constant inspiration for all of us to how to do

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better.

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So it's not just about a theory, something that's theoretical, but something we try to

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incorporate in our day-to-day actions.

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And as we engage with people, anyone in society, we should always keep that goodness in our heart.

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So it's after I see, and my parents used to argue a lot.

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But after they practiced this, our family actually got more harmonious and my father

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quit smoking even miraculously just by attending one of the lectures.

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It was just really amazing.

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And so after I started to practice, also found it to just really be something like that.

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It's like my North Star that guides me to always steer on the right path and no matter what

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happens.

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So it has given us a lot of strength to face the challenges that we have to deal with.

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For example, when my brother was tortured for 18 months in labor camp, what we could hold

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on to is that he's not done anything right.

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He has to live an honest life and he doesn't want to lie and say things that he didn't

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actually experience.

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He wants to stay true to what we believe and what we actually experienced.

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So it has given us a lot of strength to allow us to remain resilient despite all sorts of

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challenges that come our way.

430
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:34,000
Janice, how about you?

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00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:41,680
Well, Falun Dafa has helped 70 to 100 million people around the world.

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00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:43,520
Let me talk about the health benefits.

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00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:47,360
There have been four major large health surveys.

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Each of those have more than 10,000 sample size.

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The health improvement rate has been between 96 to 98 percent, very significant.

436
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:05,120
And I personally have seen friends, family members who really benefit from it.

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00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:12,720
And for those who don't have any illnesses and they actually felt able to concentrate

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00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:19,600
in the study, able to do well in their work, and integrating true compassion, forbearance

439
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,160
into the daily life, it's a way of life.

440
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:24,800
And in fact, those are universal values.

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00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,200
Think of in Daoism, maybe it's truth.

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00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,440
In Buddhism, maybe compassion.

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00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,920
And so those are universal values.

444
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:38,240
Maybe in Bible, we talk about love.

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And so I would say those universal values, actually the world needs more true compassion

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00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:44,880
tolerance.

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And it's very sad that the Chinese Communist Party persecuted people who follow those

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00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:53,440
principles.

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And America is a place where religious freedoms is so important.

450
00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,200
It's in the founding of the Americas.

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So I hope Americans will speak up and the U.S.

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00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:18,480
government will also speak up to protect people, practice true compassion, forbearance on American

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00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:19,920
soil and around the world.

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00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:25,040
And Janice, what is the Epoch Times connection to Falun Gong and does the Epoch Times promote

455
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:25,540
it?

456
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:35,760
So the several founders of Epoch Times, like 24 years ago, they were Falun Gong practitioners.

457
00:33:36,800 --> 00:33:43,120
But some of the founders of Epoch Times, because they experienced cultural revolutions, they

458
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:47,120
experienced the Tiananmen Square Massacre, either they practiced Falun Gong or they had

459
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:51,280
family members or relatives from France practice.

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00:33:51,280 --> 00:33:58,880
And so the information blockage, that was how drive them to produce Epoch Times, to

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00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:05,040
break the censorship and bring information in and out of China and tell stories about

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00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:11,440
the persecution when most of the media in the world have either self-censored or recycled

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00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,720
the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.

464
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:21,680
And our readers, many of those are Christians, and they found that true compassion, forbearance,

465
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,320
they feel like those are also good values.

466
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:30,640
Those are really universal values, and we certainly have people from all walks of life.

467
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:39,440
And I think the true compassion, forbearance values actually help some of our staff members

468
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,360
who practice, and of course, we have a lot of staff members who are non-practitioners

469
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:51,920
too, but it is a very harmonious workplace, and it's a wave of life that help all of us,

470
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:53,760
and I think the world needs more of that.

471
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,920
The next question is for both of you, but maybe a little bit more for Janice.

472
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:03,200
Social media, the consolidation of traditional media, the demise of many publications,

473
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,960
billionaires buying up news outlets, and what has become a nonstop stream of attacks on the

474
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:10,640
media by our own politicians have drastically changed the media landscape.

475
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:13,520
Some people see America headed down the same path as China.

476
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:18,080
What's the future objective journalism in America, and is objective journalism going

477
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:20,000
to die out soon and be replaced by censorship?

478
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:29,040
Unfortunately, you see traditional journalism almost come to an extinction because there are

479
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:35,760
people with the money, the power, and to push certain agenda.

480
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:43,600
At Epoch Times, we focus on true, accurate reporting, and we are a 501c3 non-profit.

481
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:52,080
Our business model is based on subscription, so we only answer to the readers, our subscribers,

482
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:59,360
so we're not influenced by governments or by a single individual billionaire, but by the readers,

483
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:04,880
and so we're able to hold on to that, and in addition to that, we have our own journalism

484
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:10,800
school to train the next generations of journalists, and also we provide internships

485
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:18,720
for those study journalism, so we believe in the traditional journalism, and it is like

486
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:25,440
the four pillars of the government, and it's really important, and as I mentioned earlier,

487
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:31,440
timely information could save lives, and we hope more and more people will

488
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:42,240
resist those media who rule their success by focusing on things that may be

489
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:50,880
exaggerating and not fact-checked and so on and so forth, and I think facts really matter.

490
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:56,800
What a novel idea, facts matter. Hopefully everyone in the media hears you saying that.

491
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,720
Ying, you contend that part of China's deliberate and relentless campaign to

492
00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:04,720
oppress free speech involves pressure to silence the Shen Yun performing arts,

493
00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:08,720
including vandalism, bob threats, and intimidation of performance venues around the world.

494
00:37:09,520 --> 00:37:12,400
Would you share details of what's happening on that front, and especially in the past year?

495
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:21,440
Yeah, I think what Janice was just talking about, what I would like to add is

496
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:27,760
journalistic freedom, independence is really, really important coming from the communist

497
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:38,800
regime, where it's about centralizing state power to suppress its people and manipulating them to

498
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:47,520
believe what they want them to believe, so related to that is why the communist regime has tried to

499
00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:53,440
attack Shen Yun all these years. So what they've done, they've always,

500
00:37:55,040 --> 00:38:03,040
for a number of years now, we have to watch when we tour the Shen Yun buses and trucks,

501
00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:08,880
we have to watch them around the clock because there have been several incidents where our buses

502
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:15,520
are slashed, and that could really cause serious harm and injury to our performers,

503
00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:19,760
and that's just one example. They've also used diplomatic pressure, they try to send

504
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:27,360
theater letters, or the Chinese diplomats have tried to give pressure to local government,

505
00:38:27,360 --> 00:38:33,280
local officials and theaters, and try to stop or get our shows canceled there,

506
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:38,000
and most recently they have really escalated the amount of attack.

507
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:46,480
Just on a weekly basis, we receive now about two or three bomb threats to the theaters that we

508
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:52,240
perform in. These have been prank ones, they have, none of them are real, but it causes the local

509
00:38:52,240 --> 00:38:57,680
police to have to do a full check, it causes, you know, there may be delay to the shows because

510
00:38:57,680 --> 00:39:04,000
everybody has to get into the theater, you know, go through some security scans, and it's just

511
00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:11,200
outrageous what they're trying to do to stop us. Of course, you know, these are all pranks,

512
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:16,480
and even the wording of all the emails that they send are very much just copy and paste,

513
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:23,840
but they're sending it to many different theaters and to our headquarters, and there have been

514
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:31,520
threats to our email, email threats to our headquarters that our female members will be

515
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:38,400
raped, you know, near the campus, or all kinds of crazy things. So, there have been,

516
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:43,440
but these things are really coordinated. I think Janice mentioned that earlier as well.

517
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:52,000
Started last year, we have seen a lot of YouTubers and social, and also on other social media

518
00:39:52,000 --> 00:40:00,960
platforms that use, you know, selected people's narrative and to instigate and spread misinformation

519
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:08,640
through, you know, the social media, but also now, you know, in some of the legacy media

520
00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:16,880
outlets. So, all of these are really coordinated attacks that just matches too eerily to the

521
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:23,680
information that we received in advance about what the central Chinese government was planning

522
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:33,840
about attacking us. On top of that is, you know, starting groundless lawsuits and trying to get

523
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:39,680
the U.S. government to investigate us, again, you know, on groundless accusations.

524
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:46,480
We think that they're basically extending the persecution of Falun Gong internationally now,

525
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:52,560
you know, not just the U.S., but internationally. They're trying to manipulate public opinion here

526
00:40:52,560 --> 00:40:59,120
on U.S. soil and try to, you know, cause confusion and turn the American people and

527
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:04,240
maybe even the government against us. So, I think it's really outrageous and we need to

528
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:10,560
really see through, you know, the evil nature of that regime and what they're trying to do here

529
00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:16,320
and not be fooled. Yeah. And as a follow-up, this question is for both of you. Are you

530
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:18,400
concerned about your own safety and well-being because of your work?

531
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:32,720
Well, go ahead. I have no fear because fear is what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to

532
00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:38,880
instigate and trying to stop us. In fact, it strengthens our determinations

533
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:46,880
to eliminate communism from the face of earth. Communism is anti-Christ. Communism is anti-

534
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:56,480
cultures, anti-traditions. And think of, like, China, 5,000 years, there were no communisms.

535
00:41:56,480 --> 00:42:02,800
How communism started was, you know, they promised their farmers they would distribute

536
00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:07,760
the land. They never did, but took away the lands and their food center. And then they have the

537
00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:13,680
cultural revolutions, educated people persecuted. And then the Tiananmen Square Massacre, remember,

538
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:18,000
the students stood in front of the tanks, students had no weapons. And then they targeted

539
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:22,720
the Falun Gong practitioners just because they practiced true compassion tolerance.

540
00:42:22,720 --> 00:42:26,560
And they targeted them for their organs because they don't drink, they don't smoke.

541
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:32,960
And so they make tons and tons of money, you know, from killing them on demand for their organs.

542
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:36,080
So if you look at the Chinese history, every decade or so,

543
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:41,920
an innocent group are being singled out and put people under censorship.

544
00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:46,960
So I do believe by eliminating communism, we'll free Cuba, we'll free China,

545
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:52,000
we'll free North Korea, and it will be a truly peaceful world for everybody.

546
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,040
Ying, how about you? Any closing comments?

547
00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:01,600
For me, too. I think, you know, our faith has given us the strength, again, to face

548
00:43:02,240 --> 00:43:08,640
these adversities and all these threats that I mentioned about before. We definitely have

549
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:16,160
performers whose families in China are being imprisoned or being, you know, have to exile,

550
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:21,840
leave their home and become homeless in their own country. We have many performers with this kind of

551
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:31,440
stories in China. So from the day that we decided to stand up against this, I have firmed up my

552
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:41,200
determination to just let the truth out. That's really important for not just my community,

553
00:43:41,200 --> 00:43:43,360
but for everyone to know what's happening.

554
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:47,600
Chia-Hsieh and Ying-Chen, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate

555
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:49,600
your time and your insights. Thank you for sharing everything.

556
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:51,920
Thank you so much for having us.

557
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:56,320
I'm Chris Meek. We're out of time. We'll see you next week, same time, same place.

558
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:59,360
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.

559
00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:10,080
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward. Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show

560
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:14,320
next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and 1 p.m. Eastern Time

561
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:20,160
on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, make things happen in your life.

562
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:40,160
See you next week.