2014 Shen Yun World Tour Kicks Off in Houston with Resounding Success

(Minghui.org) Shen Yun Performing Arts launched its 2014 world tour with 10 performances at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas. The premiere performance was held on December 23.

As in previous years, show-goers were enchanted by the beauty of Shen Yun’s signature choreography, colors and costumes. Many were pleased to discover a deeper layer of spirituality within the performance, with allusions to the meaning of life and divine ancient culture permeating the music and dance programs.

With a brand-new production each year, Shen Yun’s ability to transcend the boundaries of language, culture and race continues to bring inspiration and hope to diverse audiences across the globe. Robust ticket sales worldwide reflect how people from all walks of life yearn for an experience that some have described as “a slice of heaven here on Earth.” People in Houston were no exception.

Meaning of Life Made Relevant

Luis Delgado (left), investor, with Ana Rico, jewelry and graphic designer

“The philosophical part, the universal objective is that which everybody can relate to… To seek the truth of what the meaning of life is,” said Luis Delgado, who makes a living as an investor.

Mr. Delgado attended the matinee performance on December 24 with Ana Rico, a jewelry and graphic designer. Both were blown away by the artistry through which the history was displayed.

“It’s amazing… It’s modern, but you feel it is ancient also,” commented Ms. Rico.

“I think everyone can relate to it. It’s great… It’s the last standing civilization that’s been standing after so many years, thousands of years—that’s amazing that they [Shen Yun] are showing it to the rest of the world, not only to China,” Mr. Delgado added. “I’ve never seen something like this… Vivid, colorful, engaging.”

Traditions from Heaven

Dr. Gonzalo Uribe-Botero acknowledged the divine aspect of the performance and spoke highly of the Chinese traditions.

Dr. Gonzalo Uribe-Botero, a physician, spoke highly of Shen Yun’s efforts to bring back the Chinese traditions through music and dance.

“This is something that we cannot lose. You cannot lose this kind of tradition… This is coming from heaven!” he said.

Dr. Uribe-Botero also described the performance as “very coordinated, very musical, very accurate,” “beautiful” and “wonderful.”

Brad Mitchell and his family

After watching the performance at the Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in Houston, Brad Mitchell, general manager and CEO of Quality Oil Tools, said his family thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

“I thought it was really well choreographed into the dance and the presentation, especially the consistent message of the connection between heaven and Earth and people… It was really well done, well choreographed. The music was excellent, and the costumes were very impressive,” Mr. Mitchell said.

Mr. Mitchell also praised Shen Yun’s unique orchestra: “I like the music a great deal… I thought the conductor and the orchestra were really well done, especially with the traditional Chinese instruments blended with the Western instruments. Fabulous job!”

Shen Yun’s Spirituality Speaks to Everyone

Mr. and Mrs. Scott Mackey

Mr. Scott Mackey, a banker at Wells Fargo, thought Shen Yun speaks to everybody on a spiritual level.

“Spiritually touched everybody, regardless of whether they realized it or not,” he said. “God set eternity in our heart. When spirituality is brought out in any kind, it speaks to everybody. There’s something in these [Shen Yun] pieces for everyone, especially when it talked about spirituality.”

The stories presented by Shen Yun through classical Chinese dance have “a deep, long sense of history” and “ancient quality” and are inspiring, noted Mr. Mackey.

Rosalie Jerome (left), TV producer, with daughter Rachel Towns, doctor and former dancer

Ms. Rosalie Jerome’s family lived through the Holocaust. She commented about the fact that Shen Yun is not able to perform in China: “We were just discussing a famous person, I can’t remember the name, saying, ‘The way you destroy a nation is by stealing their past and their culture…’ Obviously, it is happening in China today— you can’t show this beauty [of Shen Yun there]. The same thing happened with the Nazis in Germany—they were burning the books, destroying the arts.”

“We know about the persecution there [in China],” added Ms. Jerome, referring to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Christians. “Friends of ours know about the church over there in China—gone underground, growing like crazy. You can’t squelch the spirit of God. You can’t stop God!”

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts was formed in 2006 with the mission to revive 5,000-year traditional Chinese culture, which has been largely destroyed under the communist rule in today’s China. Shen Yun comprises four equally large companies that tour the world simultaneously each year. One of the four companies will embark on the Canadian leg of Shen Yun’s 2014 world tour in Quebec City on December 27.

For more information about Shen Yun, including all of its 2014 tour dates and locations, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.

Chinese version available

Category: Shen Yun Performing Arts

A Suspicious Event: Practitioners Held in Heilongjiang Women’s Prison Forced to Give Blood in 2005

December 30, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Heilongjiang Province, China

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners held in the No. 1 Prison District of Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison were assembled in a small room in March 2005. They were then taken to another room and had blood samples drawn under the coercion of prison guards. The same thing also happened to practitioners in other prison districts.

The small room was on the fifth floor of the prison district. Some of the practitioners who had blood drawn included Ms. Chen Weijun, Ms. Yu Xiuying, Ms. Gao Xiuzhen, Ms. Gao Guizhen, Ms. Zhang Jing, Ms. Guan Shuling, Ms. Xu Jingfeng, Ms. Zhang Xiaobo, Ms. Zhang Linwen, Ms. Zhang Liping, Ms. Zhang Shufen, Ms. Yao Yuming, Ms. Liu Xuewei, Ms. Fan Guoxia and Ms. Xu Jiayu. Ms. Chen Weijun and Ms. Yao Yuming who later died as a result of persecution.

The practitioners were forced to crouch for long periods of time as a form of torture. During an intense crouching session on March 23, 2005, prison guard Yue Xiufeng took Ms. Zhang Shufen and Ms. Yao Yuming out of the room, saying that she wanted to talk to them. After a while, an inmate who was assigned to watch the practitioners went over to Ms. Yu Xiuying and told her to leave to room to talk with a prison guard. Seeing that Ms. Zhang and Ms. Yao had not returned, Ms. Yu refused to leave. The prison guards then got dozens of inmates working in the workshop and ordered them to go into the small room.

Told They Were Drawing Blood to Check Their Health

Prison guards, including Hao Wei, Zhang Fan and Wang Liying then got a hold of Ms. Yu and dragged her out, while the inmates prevented other practitioners from helping her. The inmates then tried to reassure the practitioners that the purpose of the blood tests was to check that they were in good health.

One practitioner said, “We are in good health, so we don’t need such blood tests.” Some inmates, afraid of getting into trouble with the prison guards, pleaded with the practitioners to get their blood tests done. An inmate said, “Go, please! Much work is waiting for us. We cannot go back to work until you agree to go.” Some inmates tried to push the practitioners out of the room, while others pushed practitioners to the ground, grabbed their arms and legs and carried them out by force.

The blood draws were carried out in an office on the sixth floor. The room was crowded with people, including someone in a white medical suit along with prison guard Yue Xiufeng. Nurses from the prison hospital pricked the practitioners’ arms and quickly drew a tube full of blood. If any practitioner tried to resist, they were held down by force. There was blood all over the floor and tables.

Other Prisons Followed Suit

The same thing happened in a number of other prison districts. On March 21, 2005, prison guards Yan Yuhua, Zhang Shuli and Jia Wenjun from the No. 9 Prison District deceived practitioners by telling them to use the toilet, and then tried to get their blood drawn. When the practitioners resisted, prison guards ordered inmates Zhao Xueling, Song Ning, Nie Qing, Xu Shuqing, Zhang Fengling and Bai Lijun to assault them.

According to some inmates, all blood samples were encapsulated in plastic bags and the source of the blood was tagged with labels of the practitioners’ personal details.

Generally, only Falun Gong practitioners are singled out for blood tests within prison and labor camp populations. Since practitioners are routinely physically abused and tortured in detention, it is unlikely that such testing is a sign of concern for their physical wellbeing. It is instead much more likely that the blood draws are related to the Chinese Communist Party’s systematic crimes of harvesting organs from imprisoned practitioners, in which practitioners become part of a massive living organ bank.

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

Four Practitioners Arrested, Two Detained for Over 5 Months in Guangdong Province

December 30, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Guangdong Province, China

(Minghui.org) Four Falun Gong practitioners from Guangdong Province were illegally arrested on July 22, 2013. Officers from the Zhongshan City Police Department, Domestic Security Division, and 610 Office broke into their homes, ransacking the properties and making the arrests.

Ms. Huang Xingyao and Mr. Yang are still being held at the Zhongshan City Detention Center. Mr. Huang Peihe and Ms. Chen have been released.

Ms. Huang Xingyao Arrested and Detained Four Times

Ms. Huang Xingyao, a widow in her 40s, shares a home with her son, her 80-year-old mother-in-law, and her elderly uncle. She has been arrested and imprisoned for her belief at least four times in the past 12 years.

In April 2001, she was arrested and held at a brainwashing center for 3 months. In August 2003, she was arrested again and held at the Sanshui Brainwashing Center for another 3 months. In 2007, she was arrested for the third time and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Now, she has been detained at the Zhongshan City Detention Center.

Both of Ms. Huang’s parents practiced Falun Gong. Her mother, Ms. Zheng Hailing, was persecuted to death on May 19, 2002. Her elderly father, Mr. Huang Liande, was held at a forced labor camp twice and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Police ransacked his home six times.

The family has had no peace since the communist regime began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999.

Mr. Yang Zhongping Detained and Subjected to Forced Labor

Mr. Yang Zhongping has also been arrested many times for his belief in Falun Gong. Soon after the persecution began, he went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. He was arrested and sent back to Zhongshan City. In 2000, he was sentenced to 2 years of forced labor and transferred to the Sanshui Forced Labor Camp.

Mr. Yang was arrested again in April 2008 while distributing informational flyers about Falun Gong and the persecution. Police ransacked his home and sent him to a detention center.

Now, he has been detained again, being held at the Zhongshan City Detention Center.

Mr. Huang Peihe Arrested and Detained Three Times

Mr. Huang Peihe began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. In 2001, he was arrested for his faith by Hu Zhaozhou and other officers from the local police department. He was held at a brainwashing center for 45 days.

Mr. Huang was arrested again in September 2008 in his home. Officers from the local police station, 610 Office, and Domestic Security Division barged into and ransacked his home, confiscating Falun Gong books and informational materials. Mr. Huang was held at a detention center for 15 days.

Mou Shupeng, deputy director of the Yanzhou Police Station, and a dozen other officers, including Luo Shaohuang, broke into Mr. Huang’s home on July 22, 2013, and arrested him once more. They ransacked the home and confiscated a computer, Falun Gong books, and informational materials. Mr. Huang was held at a detention center for a month.

The police ransacked Mr. Huang’s home several more times after his arrest, causing his wife to live in fear.

Parties involved in the persecution:

Hu Zhaozhou (胡兆洲): +86-13802693379 Mou Shupeng (缪树彭), deputy director of the Yanzhou Police Station: +86-13715621333 (Cell) Luo Shaohuang (罗少煌), officer from the Yanzhou Police Station of Zhongshan City

Chinese version available at

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

Taiwan: On Human Rights Day, Government Officials and Medical Professionals Call for an End to Forced Organ Harvesting (Photos)

December 16, 2013 | By Minghui correspondent Zheng Yuyan in Taiepei, Taiwan

(Minghui.org) A press conference calling for an immediate end to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) forced organ harvesting was held on Human Rights Day at Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, hosted by the Taiwan International Care Association of Organ Transplants and legislators. The conference was attended by government officials and renowned professionals from the medical community.

Taiwan’s International Care Association of Organ Transplants held a press conference on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

Legislator Tien Chiu-Chin and legislator and attorney Yu Mei-Nu called upon the people of Taiwan not to become complicit in the illegal and unethical organ-harvesting crimes perpetrated in China out of ignorance. Lee Wei-Chiang, head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Medical Affairs, said that the amendment to the “Organ Transplant Act” will provide for legal sanctions against brokers involved in illegal organ transplants.

The event was held as NGO Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, DAFOH, delivered nearly 1.5 million signatures collected from 53 countries and regions on four continents to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navanethem Pillay. The signatures were delivered on the eve of International Human Rights Day, and called for an immediate end to forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Dr. Hu Nai-Wen, chairman of the International Care Association of Organ Transplants, reports on the signature collection campaign and the appeals to the UN.

The officially published total number of liver and kidney transplants is far larger than the officially published number of executed prisoners, which suggests that the sources for most transplanted organs are unknown. It is believed that living Falun Gong practitioners are the primary source for such organs. (The chart is from the Epoch Times .)

Joseph Wu (Wu Shu-Min), president of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, hopes that the people in Taiwan will become aware of the human rights abuses taking place in China.

Taiwan Legislator: Forced Organ Harvesting Should Not Be Allowed to Continue

Legislator Tien Chiu-Chin: “We should not turn a blind eye to the CCP’s forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners , and should keep speaking out until the persecution stops.”

Legislator Tien Chiu-Chin recalled witnessing a Falun Gong practitioner several years ago acting as someone who needed an organ for transplant, making phone calls to China’s hospitals to inquire about available organs.

Without a waiting time, foreigners can easily and at any time obtain a matching organ for transplant in China. This fact horrified Ms. Tien and convinced her that an organ supermarket exists in China.

She called upon the CCP to immediately end the forced organ harvesting. She also reminded the Taiwanese government of its responsibility to tell citizens not to go to China for organ transplants, and thereby become accomplices in the heinous crime of forced organ harvesting.

Ms. Tien said that the Taiwanese believe in the existence of gods. She added that having an organ transplant without knowing the source of the organ might result in someone’s death, a sin of unbearable consequences.

Legislator and attorney Yu Mei-Nu asked that the sourcing of organs and related documents be open and transparent.

Legislator and attorney Yu Mei-Nu echoed Legislator Tien’s viewpoint and called upon the Taiwan government to require that the source of all organ transplants and related documents be open and transparent, so that no one will be complicit in the Chinese regime’s forced organ harvesting atrocities.

Wang San-Lang, vice president of the Taiwan Association of Family Medicine, expressed strong opposition to the unethical and illegal organ transplants.

Draft Amendment Will Sanction Brokers Involved in Organ Transplants

Lee Wei-Chiang, head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Medical Affairs, said that after the law is amended, intermediaries involved in organ transplants will be subject to legal sanctions.

Lee Wei-Chiang, head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Department of Medical Affairs, said that the amendment to the Organ Transplant Act requires all organ recipients from outside Taiwan to register the country of all organ sourcing, as well as the name of the hospitals and doctors. Doctors involved in any illegal organ tourism will be punished or have their licenses revoked. The amended law is broad enough to punish brokers involved in such illegal organ transplants with one to five years in prison.

Perpetrators Will Incur Retribution

Tien Ning-Ning, president of Taiwan Association to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

Tien Ning-Ning, president of Taiwan Association to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, said that the Chinese regime has never stopped the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Even those in their eighties and babies just a few months old are not spared. Over the past 14 years, millions of practitioners have been brutalized, disabled, tortured to death, and many families torn apart. Many of the practitioners’ elderly relatives were so worried and sad that they passed away.

“Good is rewarded and evil meets with evil,” said Ms. Tie. “The evildoers cannot imagine what they will have to bear in the future. They will be tried in the international courts.”

Work Together to Stop the CCP Persecution

Lin Shi-Chia, CEO of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, and former legislator, calls for efforts to end the persecution.

Lin Shi-Chia, CEO of the Foundation of Medical Professionals Alliance in Taiwan, and a former legislator, said that if we don’t help today, anyone could be arrested and detained and become a target for forced organ harvesting tomorrow, because Taiwan has frequent contact with a country that is not democratic and doesn’t value human rights.

Legislator Tien concluded by saying that as long as this continues, we will not stop speaking out. “We will keep calling upon governments and legal systems to take action to prevent and deter organ tourism.”

Chinese version available

Category: Organ Harvesting