February 4, 2025 • 44 mins
Janice Trey, the head of Epoch Times/NTD Network, and Ying Chen, conductor at Shen Yun Performing Arts, join program host Dr. Chris Meek in this installment of Next Steps Forward to discuss their experiences with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), communist history and to highlight the ongoing human rights abuses of numerous groups in China. Janice Trey will detail her experiences in a CCP labor camp, where she lived until she was 9 years old, and her inside view of the two vastly different worlds of communism and freedom. She discusses why her commitment to spread true information and accurate unbiased journalism is important, not just for her but for everyone. As the conductor of Shen Yun Performing Arts, Ying Chen shares her personal experiences defying the CCP’s attempts to cancel Shen Yun, the difficulties the company has faced in light of the CCP’s global campaign to cancel it and what fuels her sense of empowerment in the face of adversity. Both Janice and Ying’s journeys and work underscore the necessity to keep people informed.
Janice Trey: Janice Trey’s thirst for truth sprouted from a Chinese labor camp. She was born in the middle of the Cultural Revolution—one of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Mao Zedong’s campaigns that targeted traditional Chinese culture, killing an estimated millions. Living her first 9 years in the camp and making it out has given her an inside view of two vastly different worlds and a commitment to spread true information and accurate unbiased journalism as the head of the Epoch Times/NTD Network. During the Communist Cultural Revolution, authorities labeled people like her parents, college educated engineers as an inferior class and sent them (and the entire family) to a labor camp in a remote southern Chinese village. The living conditions were brutal. When she came to the United States her quest for learning led her to the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School where she excelled. She also holds a Management and Leadership certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Janice Trey, is a Certified Public Accountant, has held various executive roles at Fortune 500 companies. Her healthcare experience includes leadership roles in global health tech, consumer lifestyle, medical device, life science, and technology companies. Ms. Trey is passionate about boosting well-being, and saving and improving lives. She is a strong advocate of human rights, free speech, free press and freedom of religion. In that regard, she encourages excellence from her team of journalists and on-air broadcasters to provide the accurate news and information that is critical to the world.
Ying Chen: Since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006, Ying Chen has served as conductor, principal flutist, piccoloist, orchestra manager, and stage manager. She was born into a family of elite musicians in Beijing, and studied flute at the Music Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory. After graduating with the highest honors, she relocated to the United States, where she attended Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University on scholarship and studied with the principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She composed pieces for New Tang Dynasty Television’s Global Chinese New Year Gala and Holiday Wonders performances in 2004 and 2005.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
There are few things that make people successful.
(00:08):
Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some
time to get there.
How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?
Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.
Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.
(00:30):
Now here is Chris Meek.
Hello.
You've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek.
As always, it's a pleasure and honor to have you with us.
Next Step Forward is committed to helping others achieve more than ever while experiencing
greater personal empowerment and wellbeing.
Our guests today, Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, embody personal empowerment and resilience.
(00:52):
Janice Trey is the head of the Epoch Times and NTD TV, two prominent media organizations
dedicated to free press, tradition, and hope.
She has consistently advocated for journalistic integrity, free speech, and the protection
of fundamental freedoms.
Her relentless pursuit of truth and freedom began in her childhood, shaped by her early
years spent in a Chinese labor camp.
Yi Cheng was born into a family of elite musicians in Beijing, China, and studied flute at the
(01:16):
Music Middle School affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory.
After graduating with the highest honors, she relocated to the United States where she
attended Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University on scholarship and studied
with a principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
She's been performing with Shen Yun Performing Arts since 2006 and has served as conductor,
principal flutist, orchestra manager, and stage manager.
(01:38):
Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you, Dr. Chris Meek, for having me on your show and for all you have done for 9-11
families, the veterans, and your audience.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
But we're going to get into your stories today.
And before we get into your individual stories, a number of other topics, including the persecution
of the practitioners of Falun Gong.
(01:58):
Janice, would you share with us your connection with Ying and the Shen Yun Performing Arts?
I met Ying through my husband, who is a physician and a musician who is dedicated to use music
to promote wellness.
And the Epoch Times is a media sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts since its inception
from 2006.
And Janice, your family's sentencing to a Chinese labor camp obviously was a profoundly
(02:22):
difficult experience.
Would you share the circumstances that led to your family's imprisonment and when it
all took place?
I was born during the Cultural Revolution, during the Mao Zedong time, and my parents
were college graduate engineers.
So they were sent to labor camps in a very remote part of China.
So I spent my whole childhood and went to school when I was in my labor camps.
(02:47):
So I was a forced child labor, growing sugar canes on the top of the hill to finance the
school and also pick up crops during the harvest season, four hours every day on the crop fields
because they use hand tools.
So I have to fill up a full plastic bag of crops every day.
That was the requirement to return to school next day.
(03:09):
And describe life in the Chinese labor camp and how you managed to endure such conditions.
The condition was really harsh.
There was no refrigerators, no private bathrooms, and there was no kindergarten.
In fact, I babysit my younger brother and we have limited food.
(03:31):
My father hunted birds and we even ate small animals, but we survived.
And how did this experience shape your family's perspective on freedom and resilience and
how does it shape your values and your pursuit of justice today?
I received the balloons from Taiwan with slips in a balloon that stated that they have televisions,
(03:56):
they have refrigerator and have private cars rather than riding on bicycles.
None of those exist in the labor camps.
And until I went to Hong Kong, I saw everything that was described on the slip was true in Hong Kong.
And I started comparing the textbooks for the same historical periods, described China,
(04:19):
from China, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The description were totally different.
So that spurred my interest in seeking the truth.
And how did you finally escape the Chinese labor camp and eventually reach America?
My grandfather owned a bank before communism and the Communist Party took his bank,
(04:44):
robbed his antiques and art collections, so he fled to Hong Kong.
When he got sick, we went to Hong Kong to take care of him.
But the Chinese Communist Party separated our family.
First, my father went, and then later I went alone, and then later on my mom and my younger brother.
So there was a very long journey over a couple of years that we finally got reunited in Hong Kong.
(05:11):
And what do you think the average American doesn't know, misunderstands, or needs to know about China's labor camps?
And what message would you share with others who have faced or are currently enduring oppression?
What I experienced was a labor camp, but in a small level.
But in a macro level, the entire China under communist rule is like a labor camp.
(05:35):
There's no freedom of speech, there's no freedom of expressions, there are no religious freedoms.
And that's why when finally my father sent me to Christian school in Hong Kong,
because he did not have any chance to learn Christianity in China.
And Ying, I mentioned that you come from a family of elite musicians.
(05:57):
Did you feel any pressure as a child to continue that tradition?
Not really pressure. And looking back, I really appreciate that I had the chance
to be raised in a cultural and musical environment.
So it's more like the family business?
My parents were both members of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in China.
So we actually live in a community of musicians.
(06:21):
Amazing.
Ying, you've served in a number of roles with the Shen Yun Performing Arts over the past 19 years.
First, tell us about the organization, its history and its annual reach.
And then next, what is your current role and what responsibilities does it involve?
Thank you. I really love to talk about Shen Yun because we're very proud of how we've
(06:42):
been able to build it up to be the fastest growing performing arts company in this country, probably.
But the origin of the story was actually both tragic and heroic.
For those of you who have, first of all, just a little bit more about Shen Yun,
for those of you who have been to a Shen Yun performance, you've seen the gorgeous costumes
(07:06):
and the amazing dances, the athleticism and also the music.
You know, we have a live orchestra at every performance that permanently combines
traditional Chinese instruments and Western instruments and also our digital backdrop.
It's patented in that it allows infinite storytelling by extending the stage
(07:29):
and having interactions with the dancers on stage.
So it's really, for people who've seen it, I think you know what I mean.
It's really a spectacular production with a big cast of dancers.
But, you know, it hasn't been an easy journey to get to where we are today.
In the very beginning, if we want to talk about how we started this performing arts company,
(07:55):
it actually started with the persecution of Falun Gong.
What is Falun Gong?
That is a spiritual discipline, a Buddhist-based spiritual discipline.
And it also involves gentle exercises like Tai Chi, you know, like meditation and gentle exercises.
But there's also a spiritual component to it.
(08:18):
In the 1990s, it became so popular in China due to its health benefits and it was taught for free.
So a lot of people started to practice it to the extent that by the late 1990s,
it was estimated by the government that there were about 70 to 100 million people practicing.
(08:39):
And that caused an alarm to the communist regime.
To them, the biggest thing, of course, is mind control.
And also that number far exceeded the communist membership.
So they started to ban the practice.
But because of the spiritual component and those of us who practice,
(08:59):
we feel that, you know, you're lying about us.
You're not telling the real story about us.
So there have been a resilient resistance to this persecution for the last 25 years.
During this process, the government continued to escalate it.
Because in the past, one political campaign after another,
(09:22):
they were always able to squash it in a very short time, but not with Falun Gong.
Because of the spiritual component, people really hold on to their faith
and want to raise awareness of what's happening in China.
My whole family, my parents and my brother, when they were in Beijing,
(09:43):
they also experienced the persecution firsthand.
My brother was tortured in a labor camp for 18 months and
on many instances, he almost lost his life.
So all these things are things that we personally experienced.
And we know that the government is not telling people.
The government in China, in case you don't know, they control all of the media.
(10:07):
So once the government wants to ban something,
all you can hear is just the government's propaganda.
And they fabricated a lot of lies about Falun Gong.
So that actually, because it impacts millions of people
that have been imprisoned and tortured and even killed during this process.
(10:29):
So those of us who practice Falun Gong really want to have an avenue
to raise awareness of this to the world.
And so the people who, there are some artists who are also Falun Gong practitioners
outside of China decided to, in 2006, form a performing arts company.
(10:51):
But we have two major missions.
In addition to raising awareness of the persecution, we also see,
we come to realize that how the authentic traditional culture has
been lost and destroyed actually, systematically by the regime,
the totalitarian regime in China, in order to gain control of people's mind.
(11:15):
Arts in China has been heavily censored.
And everything has to go through the government
and there cannot be anything that's outside of the control.
Here we have a chance in America, the land of freedom,
to revive and to showcase our traditional Chinese culture
and share it with the world and teach it to the next generation.
(11:38):
So I really, we're very, very thankful for how America,
you know, this place of liberty has given us the opportunity to do that.
And in the beginning, it was very, very difficult
because the communist regime has always targeted us
(11:58):
and tried to destroy us from day one.
So it has been really difficult through all these,
it's been, what, 19 years now since 2006.
But we actually managed to grow from one company to eight companies
and, you know, overcoming all the hardship in the beginning.
So it's, yeah, so we're very proud of what we've managed to build.
(12:24):
So I'm going to go off script a little bit here.
And if you don't have a prepared answer, that's fine as well.
But Ying, I want to highlight two things you just mentioned.
First, you talked about mind control.
And then you mentioned how the government wants to control the media.
Last week, we quickly learned about China and the DeepSeek AI platform they created.
(12:46):
And it clearly shot shockwaves through the U.S. technology market.
But then the Wall Street Journal did a research on over the next couple of days.
And they were trying to see exactly what it would generate from an AI perspective.
And there were three specific things about China.
And I can't remember the third one.
The first one was what happened in Tiananmen Square.
The second one was what about Dalai Lama.
(13:08):
And I forget the third one.
But the first one, Tiananmen Square, it said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.
The second one about who is the Dalai Lama, it started to answer.
And all of a sudden, it retracted the answer and said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.
I mean, that's exactly how they operate, right?
I mean, it's real time.
And I mean, how do people who are there now with the same, I'll say,
(13:29):
mindset as the two of you in terms of searching for that freedom,
searching for that, pursuing your lifelong dream and doing what you want,
as opposed to being told what you can do and told what is real and what's not real.
How do folks there, A, cope with it?
And B, are they thinking about immigrating out?
I think everybody there, they are aware of the censorship, of course.
(13:52):
And if you try to type in Falun Gong and try to search that online,
you'll probably get a knock on the door pretty soon.
So people know through all these political campaigns,
one after another, every time targeting different groups,
it's to create this scare tactic.
It's using these scare tactics so that people don't dare to touch anything
(14:15):
that the government might oppose.
So when it comes to subjects like the Tiananmen Massacre, the Falun Gong, Dalai Lama,
people just don't want to touch it.
But they know that it's being censored.
However, before I came to the States,
I just really didn't realize the magnitude of the issues.
(14:39):
And it was after the persecution of Falun Gong started that we start to learn about,
wow, all these Christians have actually, the Uyghurs, the Tibetan Buddhists,
they have been persecuted for decades.
And we never heard about that in China.
So I think people realize what they're missing,
(15:00):
but they don't know the scale
and how the media is manipulating public opinion and everything
because of the governments behind it.
JAN MARKELLIENFELD
Janice, the Epoch Times has been a vital supporter of the Shen Yun Performing Arts.
How and when did that relationship start?
And how has it changed through its lifetime?
(15:21):
JANICE WU
Truth, tradition, and hope are the cornerstones of the Epoch Times.
And Shen Yun Performing Arts focus on reviving the 5,000-year civilizations.
So it aligns very well with our mission to bring truth, tradition, and hope.
And we've been very pleased to interview audience from the Shen Yun Performing Arts.
(15:45):
And let me give you one of those.
It's with Kate Blanchard.
And she describes Shen Yun as an extraordinary experience,
exquisitely beautiful, and great for the children.
So even production designers for Avatar describe it as
you find new inspiration for the next Avatar.
(16:08):
So it was really helpful to connect our readers
who are not as familiar with Shen Yun to hear from the audience feedback.
So as Shen Yun grew from one trip to eight trips,
we have more reporters traveling to cover the various performances,
like a million audience a year.
(16:29):
It's really amazing.
American dream, American successful stories.
I don't think any performing arts company in the world has achieved such a success.
And in particular, with the values and the storylines about courage,
about loyalty, fidelity, all the great values, as you know, Chris,
(16:51):
in the entertainment industry, a lot of darkness.
Whereas Shen Yun provides hope and inspiration,
and also the embedded wisdom from 5,000 years of civilization.
It's a real treat.
And our readers appreciate what we have connected them with Shen Yun.
And the Epoch Times has a unique approach to journalism
(17:12):
with your focus on traditional values, as you just mentioned,
such as upholding truth, moral integrity,
and framing stories focused on traditional ethics and principles.
Its coverage focuses extensively on the Chinese Communist Party
and its conduct, such as censorship, religious persecution,
and other human rights abuses.
Who is your audience?
And what about your mission draws them to your product?
(17:33):
Most of our audience are Christians,
and also some Jewish and people from all walks of life.
And we have coverage in 35 countries,
22 languages, and 12 languages in print.
And we are the largest Chinese editions, widely spread outside China.
(17:57):
And in fact, people from mainland China use all sorts of anti-censorship tools,
like the free gates, you know, to come and access our information.
And many of our readers find our timely information sometimes save their lives.
Let me give you two examples.
The SARS-CoV-2 disease back in 2003,
(18:19):
we reported three weeks before Beijing admitted the pandemic.
And the COVID, we start reporting in December 2019.
And some of our readers changed their flights,
avoided the lockdowns,
when their colleagues on the initial scheduled flights never make home.
(18:40):
So a lot of heartwarming stories.
And we have over 14,000 articles on Epoch Health articles to bring holistic health.
And so it's a very rewarding journey.
And sharing the information, you know, truthful information, accurate information.
And we are known as the most courageous media
(19:01):
that the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid of.
I'd love to hear that.
What recent stories or issues involving the Chinese Communist Party or the CCP
have stood out to you as being especially significant or meaningful to cover?
Well, recently, we got information about Xi Jinping.
(19:21):
He personally ordered the exportation of the Falun Gong persecutions.
To American soil and overseas.
You know, using U.S. lawfare, using the U.S. legal systems.
And so, and also the legacy media and YouTubers.
(19:41):
And this is a transnational repression.
Something is really serious.
And Epoch Times published the nine commentaries on the Communist Party 20 years ago.
And since its publication, it inspired 440 million people.
We drew from the Chinese Communist Party memberships and affiliated organization.
(20:04):
I spoke at U.S. Congress at Harvard and also in Chinatown in Flushing.
Other scholars and China experts all echoed their concerns.
The serious concern of the transnational repression that's happening today on American soil.
And Ying, traditional Chinese culture has a rich history.
(20:25):
How does Shen Yun decide which stories or aspects of history to highlight in its performances?
Yeah, in the Shen Yun performance, we usually have about 20 pieces.
A lot of them are dances.
And the stories draw from like great works of literature, the classical literature.
And also from diverse ethnic and folk dances.
(20:47):
And also some legendary tales from our rich spiritual roots.
Taoism, Buddhism, and including also some stories about what Falun Gong,
usually one or two stories about what Falun Gong is facing in modern day China.
Because that really shows the tyranny of the current regime toward all the spiritual practices
(21:14):
and all the human rights atrocities that they continue to perpetrate to its own people.
It's, you really don't hear it enough in other, you know, other places.
Other than maybe Epoch Times, you just don't hear that enough.
So we include all these stories.
And so that each performance, each year we have a brand new program.
(21:41):
And this program selects pieces that represent different dynasties or ethnic backgrounds.
So that it's very versatile.
And that's why we say that it's a cultural and historical journey for people.
But at the same time, it's very entertaining.
Because if you've seen classical Chinese dance, it's very, it's a thrill to watch.
(22:04):
It combines a lot of acrobatic things and maybe gymnastic, you know, routines and a lot of flips
and spins.
And so it really keeps people entertained as well at the same time.
While, you know, learning about our authentic culture.
That's the thing, you know, we want this to be free of censorship.
(22:25):
We want people to see China without communism in the past and how it can be in the future as well.
And as a result, of course, we have been thrown on the side of the CCP.
You mentioned the performances are deeply rooted in spiritual and cultural themes.
You talked about gymnastics and flippings.
You know, what is the process for choreographing the dances and composing music that is unique
(22:46):
to Shen Yun?
Yes, because we have a different show every single year.
And we actually have original pieces every single year.
You know, they're all choreographed and the music is composed from scratch.
Where the choreographer works with the composer, you know, come up with a rough,
I guess, idea of the conception of the piece.
(23:09):
And then we continue to refine it.
You know, once the dancers start to execute those and we look at how it can be improved,
including the musical part too, you know, how every moment of the music,
how is it supporting the story on stage and help creating that atmosphere?
And of course, our backdrop and even our costumes.
(23:29):
And if you've been to our show, you see the costume very, a lot of times echo,
you know, the style and the, you know, the objects in the backdrop.
So all of that have to be fine-tuned.
And we really get it to a level of perfection every time before we started even, you know,
(23:50):
touring.
So, yeah, so it takes a lot of hard work every year, but we really enjoy that process.
I believe it's a very unique process.
I don't know how many other performing arts companies do that.
And one more for you, Ying.
Why is it so important for Shen Yun to focus on themes such as virtue,
morality, and traditional values?
Well, we believe we're, you know, we actually are, I'm a practitioner of Falun Dafa and Falun Gong.
(24:16):
And we believe that, you know, the morality and, you know, virtues and integrity, honesty,
these are the fabric of society.
You know, it really brings people together instead of dividing people, like the class
struggle, you know, advocated by the, you know, totalitarian regimes.
(24:37):
So we, the values that we show as part of our program also seek to bring harmony and
show, bring inspiration to people and bring people together.
Because art, you know, is a universal language and without, you know, without words.
So through just music and dance, we tour around the world.
(25:00):
And yeah, you'll be surprised.
I mean, maybe not surprised how people just react, have the exact same reaction.
They, you know, despite of their different cultural backgrounds, we get the same people
laugh at the same places, cry at the same places, applaud at the same places.
And it's really great.
And I'm one of the conductors.
(25:22):
And as I mentioned, we have eight companies now and everyone, every company has a live
orchestra touring with them.
So I'm one of the eight conductors and I get to be so close to the audience.
I can hear people's reaction right behind me, you know?
So it's one of the things that I really enjoy and just, you know, keep us going because
(25:43):
we can see how people resonate with it.
And Janice, earlier we were talking about the Chinese Communist Party, again, the CCP,
and its persecution of religious sects, other human rights violations and censorship.
Is the Epoch Times focused solely on the CCP or is it focused on exposing other authoritarian
regimes and repression in other countries as well?
(26:03):
Well, we certainly cover human rights abuses around the world.
And we believe religious freedoms, internet freedom, and press freedoms.
You know, we cover the Sudan, we cover, you know, Tibetans, you know, their atrocity
and the Uyghurs and, you know, all walks of life.
You know, we believe, you know, injustice, the threat of justice everywhere.
(26:27):
And we have a program called Finding Many, which is a story about the Holocaust survivor.
And so it is really important.
We believe in creator and we believe everybody should have a chance to be connected to divinity.
And our focus on truth, tradition, and hope.
(26:49):
The traditional and classical culture is a path for others to connect with divinity.
And in our newspapers, you know, we have very extensive coverage on arts and culture.
And on the NDTV sites, we sponsor nine different competitions,
including classical pianos, vocal competitions, traditional martial arts.
(27:12):
And so all those traditional cultures, something to be treasured
and to be passed on to the next generations.
And we hope that's another way to connect people.
Ying, earlier you gave some background on Falun Gong.
What drew each of you to learn more about Falun Gong?
And how has it shaped your understanding of spirituality or resilience?
(27:33):
And do you both practice it?
I practice it.
And my whole family practiced it.
And my parents and my brother started to practice in 1995, I want to say.
94, actually.
And I was in the US.
They were still in Beijing at the time.
And they introduced it to me.
(27:54):
And I was just really amazed by the real changes that it has made in their lives.
I mean, you can listen to all kinds of good theories or theoretical things.
But to see the real changes, the positive changes that it can make on people.
(28:17):
For example, my brother was starting to form some bad habits.
And he was a college student at the time.
And my parents were starting to get a little bit worried about
that he wasn't focused on the study.
But after he practiced the Falun Gong, he felt that he found the meaning of life.
(28:41):
And because it's something that it guides us and brings us hope and light inside of us.
And teaches us the three tenets of Falun Gong is truthfulness, compassion, and it's forbearance.
And it's actually all these three words, Zhen Shan Ren, in Chinese are very rich.
(29:03):
But when it's translated to English, it's often a little bit narrowed.
For example, Zhen is like being true, being genuine, being true to yourself, being honest.
Integrity has all those meanings in it.
And Shan is being good, being compassionate.
And yeah, Ren is a lot of times translated as tolerance or forbearance and resilience.
(29:30):
But it also includes like patience and self-restraint.
Handle ourself properly, embracing goodness, those good things.
So it has been a constant on a daily basis, a constant inspiration for all of us to how to do
better.
(29:51):
So it's not just about a theory, something that's theoretical, but something we try to
incorporate in our day-to-day actions.
And as we engage with people, anyone in society, we should always keep that goodness in our heart.
So it's after I see, and my parents used to argue a lot.
(30:16):
But after they practiced this, our family actually got more harmonious and my father
quit smoking even miraculously just by attending one of the lectures.
It was just really amazing.
And so after I started to practice, also found it to just really be something like that.
(30:37):
It's like my North Star that guides me to always steer on the right path and no matter what
happens.
So it has given us a lot of strength to face the challenges that we have to deal with.
For example, when my brother was tortured for 18 months in labor camp, what we could hold
(31:00):
on to is that he's not done anything right.
He has to live an honest life and he doesn't want to lie and say things that he didn't
actually experience.
He wants to stay true to what we believe and what we actually experienced.
So it has given us a lot of strength to allow us to remain resilient despite all sorts of
(31:30):
challenges that come our way.
Janice, how about you?
Well, Falun Dafa has helped 70 to 100 million people around the world.
Let me talk about the health benefits.
There have been four major large health surveys.
Each of those have more than 10,000 sample size.
(31:51):
The health improvement rate has been between 96 to 98 percent, very significant.
And I personally have seen friends, family members who really benefit from it.
And for those who don't have any illnesses and they actually felt able to concentrate
(32:12):
in the study, able to do well in their work, and integrating true compassion, forbearance
into the daily life, it's a way of life.
And in fact, those are universal values.
Think of in Daoism, maybe it's truth.
In Buddhism, maybe compassion.
And so those are universal values.
(32:35):
Maybe in Bible, we talk about love.
And so I would say those universal values, actually the world needs more true compassion
tolerance.
And it's very sad that the Chinese Communist Party persecuted people who follow those
principles.
And America is a place where religious freedoms is so important.
(33:02):
It's in the founding of the Americas.
So I hope Americans will speak up and the U.S.
government will also speak up to protect people, practice true compassion, forbearance on American
soil and around the world.
And Janice, what is the Epoch Times connection to Falun Gong and does the Epoch Times promote
(33:25):
it?
So the several founders of Epoch Times, like 24 years ago, they were Falun Gong practitioners.
But some of the founders of Epoch Times, because they experienced cultural revolutions, they
experienced the Tiananmen Square Massacre, either they practiced Falun Gong or they had
(33:47):
family members or relatives from France practice.
And so the information blockage, that was how drive them to produce Epoch Times, to
break the censorship and bring information in and out of China and tell stories about
the persecution when most of the media in the world have either self-censored or recycled
(34:11):
the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.
And our readers, many of those are Christians, and they found that true compassion, forbearance,
they feel like those are also good values.
Those are really universal values, and we certainly have people from all walks of life.
And I think the true compassion, forbearance values actually help some of our staff members
(34:39):
who practice, and of course, we have a lot of staff members who are non-practitioners
too, but it is a very harmonious workplace, and it's a wave of life that help all of us,
and I think the world needs more of that.
The next question is for both of you, but maybe a little bit more for Janice.
Social media, the consolidation of traditional media, the demise of many publications,
(35:03):
billionaires buying up news outlets, and what has become a nonstop stream of attacks on the
media by our own politicians have drastically changed the media landscape.
Some people see America headed down the same path as China.
What's the future objective journalism in America, and is objective journalism going
to die out soon and be replaced by censorship?
Unfortunately, you see traditional journalism almost come to an extinction because there are
(35:29):
people with the money, the power, and to push certain agenda.
At Epoch Times, we focus on true, accurate reporting, and we are a 501c3 non-profit.
Our business model is based on subscription, so we only answer to the readers, our subscribers,
(35:52):
so we're not influenced by governments or by a single individual billionaire, but by the readers,
and so we're able to hold on to that, and in addition to that, we have our own journalism
school to train the next generations of journalists, and also we provide internships
for those study journalism, so we believe in the traditional journalism, and it is like
(36:18):
the four pillars of the government, and it's really important, and as I mentioned earlier,
timely information could save lives, and we hope more and more people will
resist those media who rule their success by focusing on things that may be
(36:44):
exaggerating and not fact-checked and so on and so forth, and I think facts really matter.
What a novel idea, facts matter. Hopefully everyone in the media hears you saying that.
Ying, you contend that part of China's deliberate and relentless campaign to
oppress free speech involves pressure to silence the Shen Yun performing arts,
(37:04):
including vandalism, bob threats, and intimidation of performance venues around the world.
Would you share details of what's happening on that front, and especially in the past year?
Yeah, I think what Janice was just talking about, what I would like to add is
journalistic freedom, independence is really, really important coming from the communist
(37:27):
regime, where it's about centralizing state power to suppress its people and manipulating them to
believe what they want them to believe, so related to that is why the communist regime has tried to
attack Shen Yun all these years. So what they've done, they've always,
(37:55):
for a number of years now, we have to watch when we tour the Shen Yun buses and trucks,
we have to watch them around the clock because there have been several incidents where our buses
are slashed, and that could really cause serious harm and injury to our performers,
(38:15):
and that's just one example. They've also used diplomatic pressure, they try to send
theater letters, or the Chinese diplomats have tried to give pressure to local government,
local officials and theaters, and try to stop or get our shows canceled there,
and most recently they have really escalated the amount of attack.
(38:38):
Just on a weekly basis, we receive now about two or three bomb threats to the theaters that we
perform in. These have been prank ones, they have, none of them are real, but it causes the local
police to have to do a full check, it causes, you know, there may be delay to the shows because
everybody has to get into the theater, you know, go through some security scans, and it's just
(39:04):
outrageous what they're trying to do to stop us. Of course, you know, these are all pranks,
and even the wording of all the emails that they send are very much just copy and paste,
but they're sending it to many different theaters and to our headquarters, and there have been
threats to our email, email threats to our headquarters that our female members will be
(39:31):
raped, you know, near the campus, or all kinds of crazy things. So, there have been,
but these things are really coordinated. I think Janice mentioned that earlier as well.
Started last year, we have seen a lot of YouTubers and social, and also on other social media
(39:52):
platforms that use, you know, selected people's narrative and to instigate and spread misinformation
through, you know, the social media, but also now, you know, in some of the legacy media
outlets. So, all of these are really coordinated attacks that just matches too eerily to the
(40:16):
information that we received in advance about what the central Chinese government was planning
about attacking us. On top of that is, you know, starting groundless lawsuits and trying to get
the U.S. government to investigate us, again, you know, on groundless accusations.
(40:40):
We think that they're basically extending the persecution of Falun Gong internationally now,
you know, not just the U.S., but internationally. They're trying to manipulate public opinion here
on U.S. soil and try to, you know, cause confusion and turn the American people and
maybe even the government against us. So, I think it's really outrageous and we need to
(41:05):
really see through, you know, the evil nature of that regime and what they're trying to do here
and not be fooled. Yeah. And as a follow-up, this question is for both of you. Are you
concerned about your own safety and well-being because of your work?
Well, go ahead. I have no fear because fear is what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to
(41:33):
instigate and trying to stop us. In fact, it strengthens our determinations
to eliminate communism from the face of earth. Communism is anti-Christ. Communism is anti-
cultures, anti-traditions. And think of, like, China, 5,000 years, there were no communisms.
(41:56):
How communism started was, you know, they promised their farmers they would distribute
the land. They never did, but took away the lands and their food center. And then they have the
cultural revolutions, educated people persecuted. And then the Tiananmen Square Massacre, remember,
the students stood in front of the tanks, students had no weapons. And then they targeted
(42:18):
the Falun Gong practitioners just because they practiced true compassion tolerance.
And they targeted them for their organs because they don't drink, they don't smoke.
And so they make tons and tons of money, you know, from killing them on demand for their organs.
So if you look at the Chinese history, every decade or so,
an innocent group are being singled out and put people under censorship.
(42:41):
So I do believe by eliminating communism, we'll free Cuba, we'll free China,
we'll free North Korea, and it will be a truly peaceful world for everybody.
Ying, how about you? Any closing comments?
For me, too. I think, you know, our faith has given us the strength, again, to face
(43:02):
these adversities and all these threats that I mentioned about before. We definitely have
performers whose families in China are being imprisoned or being, you know, have to exile,
leave their home and become homeless in their own country. We have many performers with this kind of
stories in China. So from the day that we decided to stand up against this, I have firmed up my
(43:32):
determination to just let the truth out. That's really important for not just my community,
but for everyone to know what's happening.
Chia-Hsieh and Ying-Chen, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate
your time and your insights. Thank you for sharing everything.
Thank you so much for having us.
(43:52):
I'm Chris Meek. We're out of time. We'll see you next week, same time, same place.
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward. Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show
next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and 1 p.m. Eastern Time
(44:14):
on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, make things happen in your life.
See you next week.
There are few things that make people successful.
(00:08):
Taking a step forward to change their lives is one successful trait, but it takes some
time to get there.
How do you move forward to greet the success that awaits you?
Welcome to Next Steps Forward with host Chris Meek.
Each week, Chris brings on another guest who has successfully taken the next steps forward.
(00:30):
Now here is Chris Meek.
Hello.
You've tuned to this week's episode of Next Steps Forward, and I'm your host, Chris Meek.
As always, it's a pleasure and honor to have you with us.
Next Step Forward is committed to helping others achieve more than ever while experiencing
greater personal empowerment and wellbeing.
Our guests today, Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, embody personal empowerment and resilience.
(00:52):
Janice Trey is the head of the Epoch Times and NTD TV, two prominent media organizations
dedicated to free press, tradition, and hope.
She has consistently advocated for journalistic integrity, free speech, and the protection
of fundamental freedoms.
Her relentless pursuit of truth and freedom began in her childhood, shaped by her early
years spent in a Chinese labor camp.
Yi Cheng was born into a family of elite musicians in Beijing, China, and studied flute at the
(01:16):
Music Middle School affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory.
After graduating with the highest honors, she relocated to the United States where she
attended Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University on scholarship and studied
with a principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
She's been performing with Shen Yun Performing Arts since 2006 and has served as conductor,
principal flutist, orchestra manager, and stage manager.
(01:38):
Janice Trey and Yi Cheng, welcome to Next Steps Forward.
Thank you, Chris.
Thank you, Dr. Chris Meek, for having me on your show and for all you have done for 9-11
families, the veterans, and your audience.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
But we're going to get into your stories today.
And before we get into your individual stories, a number of other topics, including the persecution
of the practitioners of Falun Gong.
(01:58):
Janice, would you share with us your connection with Ying and the Shen Yun Performing Arts?
I met Ying through my husband, who is a physician and a musician who is dedicated to use music
to promote wellness.
And the Epoch Times is a media sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts since its inception
from 2006.
And Janice, your family's sentencing to a Chinese labor camp obviously was a profoundly
(02:22):
difficult experience.
Would you share the circumstances that led to your family's imprisonment and when it
all took place?
I was born during the Cultural Revolution, during the Mao Zedong time, and my parents
were college graduate engineers.
So they were sent to labor camps in a very remote part of China.
So I spent my whole childhood and went to school when I was in my labor camps.
(02:47):
So I was a forced child labor, growing sugar canes on the top of the hill to finance the
school and also pick up crops during the harvest season, four hours every day on the crop fields
because they use hand tools.
So I have to fill up a full plastic bag of crops every day.
That was the requirement to return to school next day.
(03:09):
And describe life in the Chinese labor camp and how you managed to endure such conditions.
The condition was really harsh.
There was no refrigerators, no private bathrooms, and there was no kindergarten.
In fact, I babysit my younger brother and we have limited food.
(03:31):
My father hunted birds and we even ate small animals, but we survived.
And how did this experience shape your family's perspective on freedom and resilience and
how does it shape your values and your pursuit of justice today?
I received the balloons from Taiwan with slips in a balloon that stated that they have televisions,
(03:56):
they have refrigerator and have private cars rather than riding on bicycles.
None of those exist in the labor camps.
And until I went to Hong Kong, I saw everything that was described on the slip was true in Hong Kong.
And I started comparing the textbooks for the same historical periods, described China,
(04:19):
from China, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
The description were totally different.
So that spurred my interest in seeking the truth.
And how did you finally escape the Chinese labor camp and eventually reach America?
My grandfather owned a bank before communism and the Communist Party took his bank,
(04:44):
robbed his antiques and art collections, so he fled to Hong Kong.
When he got sick, we went to Hong Kong to take care of him.
But the Chinese Communist Party separated our family.
First, my father went, and then later I went alone, and then later on my mom and my younger brother.
So there was a very long journey over a couple of years that we finally got reunited in Hong Kong.
(05:11):
And what do you think the average American doesn't know, misunderstands, or needs to know about China's labor camps?
And what message would you share with others who have faced or are currently enduring oppression?
What I experienced was a labor camp, but in a small level.
But in a macro level, the entire China under communist rule is like a labor camp.
(05:35):
There's no freedom of speech, there's no freedom of expressions, there are no religious freedoms.
And that's why when finally my father sent me to Christian school in Hong Kong,
because he did not have any chance to learn Christianity in China.
And Ying, I mentioned that you come from a family of elite musicians.
(05:57):
Did you feel any pressure as a child to continue that tradition?
Not really pressure. And looking back, I really appreciate that I had the chance
to be raised in a cultural and musical environment.
So it's more like the family business?
My parents were both members of the Central Philharmonic Orchestra in China.
So we actually live in a community of musicians.
(06:21):
Amazing.
Ying, you've served in a number of roles with the Shen Yun Performing Arts over the past 19 years.
First, tell us about the organization, its history and its annual reach.
And then next, what is your current role and what responsibilities does it involve?
Thank you. I really love to talk about Shen Yun because we're very proud of how we've
(06:42):
been able to build it up to be the fastest growing performing arts company in this country, probably.
But the origin of the story was actually both tragic and heroic.
For those of you who have, first of all, just a little bit more about Shen Yun,
for those of you who have been to a Shen Yun performance, you've seen the gorgeous costumes
(07:06):
and the amazing dances, the athleticism and also the music.
You know, we have a live orchestra at every performance that permanently combines
traditional Chinese instruments and Western instruments and also our digital backdrop.
It's patented in that it allows infinite storytelling by extending the stage
(07:29):
and having interactions with the dancers on stage.
So it's really, for people who've seen it, I think you know what I mean.
It's really a spectacular production with a big cast of dancers.
But, you know, it hasn't been an easy journey to get to where we are today.
In the very beginning, if we want to talk about how we started this performing arts company,
(07:55):
it actually started with the persecution of Falun Gong.
What is Falun Gong?
That is a spiritual discipline, a Buddhist-based spiritual discipline.
And it also involves gentle exercises like Tai Chi, you know, like meditation and gentle exercises.
But there's also a spiritual component to it.
(08:18):
In the 1990s, it became so popular in China due to its health benefits and it was taught for free.
So a lot of people started to practice it to the extent that by the late 1990s,
it was estimated by the government that there were about 70 to 100 million people practicing.
(08:39):
And that caused an alarm to the communist regime.
To them, the biggest thing, of course, is mind control.
And also that number far exceeded the communist membership.
So they started to ban the practice.
But because of the spiritual component and those of us who practice,
(08:59):
we feel that, you know, you're lying about us.
You're not telling the real story about us.
So there have been a resilient resistance to this persecution for the last 25 years.
During this process, the government continued to escalate it.
Because in the past, one political campaign after another,
(09:22):
they were always able to squash it in a very short time, but not with Falun Gong.
Because of the spiritual component, people really hold on to their faith
and want to raise awareness of what's happening in China.
My whole family, my parents and my brother, when they were in Beijing,
(09:43):
they also experienced the persecution firsthand.
My brother was tortured in a labor camp for 18 months and
on many instances, he almost lost his life.
So all these things are things that we personally experienced.
And we know that the government is not telling people.
The government in China, in case you don't know, they control all of the media.
(10:07):
So once the government wants to ban something,
all you can hear is just the government's propaganda.
And they fabricated a lot of lies about Falun Gong.
So that actually, because it impacts millions of people
that have been imprisoned and tortured and even killed during this process.
(10:29):
So those of us who practice Falun Gong really want to have an avenue
to raise awareness of this to the world.
And so the people who, there are some artists who are also Falun Gong practitioners
outside of China decided to, in 2006, form a performing arts company.
(10:51):
But we have two major missions.
In addition to raising awareness of the persecution, we also see,
we come to realize that how the authentic traditional culture has
been lost and destroyed actually, systematically by the regime,
the totalitarian regime in China, in order to gain control of people's mind.
(11:15):
Arts in China has been heavily censored.
And everything has to go through the government
and there cannot be anything that's outside of the control.
Here we have a chance in America, the land of freedom,
to revive and to showcase our traditional Chinese culture
and share it with the world and teach it to the next generation.
(11:38):
So I really, we're very, very thankful for how America,
you know, this place of liberty has given us the opportunity to do that.
And in the beginning, it was very, very difficult
because the communist regime has always targeted us
(11:58):
and tried to destroy us from day one.
So it has been really difficult through all these,
it's been, what, 19 years now since 2006.
But we actually managed to grow from one company to eight companies
and, you know, overcoming all the hardship in the beginning.
So it's, yeah, so we're very proud of what we've managed to build.
(12:24):
So I'm going to go off script a little bit here.
And if you don't have a prepared answer, that's fine as well.
But Ying, I want to highlight two things you just mentioned.
First, you talked about mind control.
And then you mentioned how the government wants to control the media.
Last week, we quickly learned about China and the DeepSeek AI platform they created.
(12:46):
And it clearly shot shockwaves through the U.S. technology market.
But then the Wall Street Journal did a research on over the next couple of days.
And they were trying to see exactly what it would generate from an AI perspective.
And there were three specific things about China.
And I can't remember the third one.
The first one was what happened in Tiananmen Square.
The second one was what about Dalai Lama.
(13:08):
And I forget the third one.
But the first one, Tiananmen Square, it said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.
The second one about who is the Dalai Lama, it started to answer.
And all of a sudden, it retracted the answer and said, sorry, I can't answer that right now.
I mean, that's exactly how they operate, right?
I mean, it's real time.
And I mean, how do people who are there now with the same, I'll say,
(13:29):
mindset as the two of you in terms of searching for that freedom,
searching for that, pursuing your lifelong dream and doing what you want,
as opposed to being told what you can do and told what is real and what's not real.
How do folks there, A, cope with it?
And B, are they thinking about immigrating out?
I think everybody there, they are aware of the censorship, of course.
(13:52):
And if you try to type in Falun Gong and try to search that online,
you'll probably get a knock on the door pretty soon.
So people know through all these political campaigns,
one after another, every time targeting different groups,
it's to create this scare tactic.
It's using these scare tactics so that people don't dare to touch anything
(14:15):
that the government might oppose.
So when it comes to subjects like the Tiananmen Massacre, the Falun Gong, Dalai Lama,
people just don't want to touch it.
But they know that it's being censored.
However, before I came to the States,
I just really didn't realize the magnitude of the issues.
(14:39):
And it was after the persecution of Falun Gong started that we start to learn about,
wow, all these Christians have actually, the Uyghurs, the Tibetan Buddhists,
they have been persecuted for decades.
And we never heard about that in China.
So I think people realize what they're missing,
(15:00):
but they don't know the scale
and how the media is manipulating public opinion and everything
because of the governments behind it.
JAN MARKELLIENFELD
Janice, the Epoch Times has been a vital supporter of the Shen Yun Performing Arts.
How and when did that relationship start?
And how has it changed through its lifetime?
(15:21):
JANICE WU
Truth, tradition, and hope are the cornerstones of the Epoch Times.
And Shen Yun Performing Arts focus on reviving the 5,000-year civilizations.
So it aligns very well with our mission to bring truth, tradition, and hope.
And we've been very pleased to interview audience from the Shen Yun Performing Arts.
(15:45):
And let me give you one of those.
It's with Kate Blanchard.
And she describes Shen Yun as an extraordinary experience,
exquisitely beautiful, and great for the children.
So even production designers for Avatar describe it as
you find new inspiration for the next Avatar.
(16:08):
So it was really helpful to connect our readers
who are not as familiar with Shen Yun to hear from the audience feedback.
So as Shen Yun grew from one trip to eight trips,
we have more reporters traveling to cover the various performances,
like a million audience a year.
(16:29):
It's really amazing.
American dream, American successful stories.
I don't think any performing arts company in the world has achieved such a success.
And in particular, with the values and the storylines about courage,
about loyalty, fidelity, all the great values, as you know, Chris,
(16:51):
in the entertainment industry, a lot of darkness.
Whereas Shen Yun provides hope and inspiration,
and also the embedded wisdom from 5,000 years of civilization.
It's a real treat.
And our readers appreciate what we have connected them with Shen Yun.
And the Epoch Times has a unique approach to journalism
(17:12):
with your focus on traditional values, as you just mentioned,
such as upholding truth, moral integrity,
and framing stories focused on traditional ethics and principles.
Its coverage focuses extensively on the Chinese Communist Party
and its conduct, such as censorship, religious persecution,
and other human rights abuses.
Who is your audience?
And what about your mission draws them to your product?
(17:33):
Most of our audience are Christians,
and also some Jewish and people from all walks of life.
And we have coverage in 35 countries,
22 languages, and 12 languages in print.
And we are the largest Chinese editions, widely spread outside China.
(17:57):
And in fact, people from mainland China use all sorts of anti-censorship tools,
like the free gates, you know, to come and access our information.
And many of our readers find our timely information sometimes save their lives.
Let me give you two examples.
The SARS-CoV-2 disease back in 2003,
(18:19):
we reported three weeks before Beijing admitted the pandemic.
And the COVID, we start reporting in December 2019.
And some of our readers changed their flights,
avoided the lockdowns,
when their colleagues on the initial scheduled flights never make home.
(18:40):
So a lot of heartwarming stories.
And we have over 14,000 articles on Epoch Health articles to bring holistic health.
And so it's a very rewarding journey.
And sharing the information, you know, truthful information, accurate information.
And we are known as the most courageous media
(19:01):
that the Chinese Communist Party is most afraid of.
I'd love to hear that.
What recent stories or issues involving the Chinese Communist Party or the CCP
have stood out to you as being especially significant or meaningful to cover?
Well, recently, we got information about Xi Jinping.
(19:21):
He personally ordered the exportation of the Falun Gong persecutions.
To American soil and overseas.
You know, using U.S. lawfare, using the U.S. legal systems.
And so, and also the legacy media and YouTubers.
(19:41):
And this is a transnational repression.
Something is really serious.
And Epoch Times published the nine commentaries on the Communist Party 20 years ago.
And since its publication, it inspired 440 million people.
We drew from the Chinese Communist Party memberships and affiliated organization.
(20:04):
I spoke at U.S. Congress at Harvard and also in Chinatown in Flushing.
Other scholars and China experts all echoed their concerns.
The serious concern of the transnational repression that's happening today on American soil.
And Ying, traditional Chinese culture has a rich history.
(20:25):
How does Shen Yun decide which stories or aspects of history to highlight in its performances?
Yeah, in the Shen Yun performance, we usually have about 20 pieces.
A lot of them are dances.
And the stories draw from like great works of literature, the classical literature.
And also from diverse ethnic and folk dances.
(20:47):
And also some legendary tales from our rich spiritual roots.
Taoism, Buddhism, and including also some stories about what Falun Gong,
usually one or two stories about what Falun Gong is facing in modern day China.
Because that really shows the tyranny of the current regime toward all the spiritual practices
(21:14):
and all the human rights atrocities that they continue to perpetrate to its own people.
It's, you really don't hear it enough in other, you know, other places.
Other than maybe Epoch Times, you just don't hear that enough.
So we include all these stories.
And so that each performance, each year we have a brand new program.
(21:41):
And this program selects pieces that represent different dynasties or ethnic backgrounds.
So that it's very versatile.
And that's why we say that it's a cultural and historical journey for people.
But at the same time, it's very entertaining.
Because if you've seen classical Chinese dance, it's very, it's a thrill to watch.
(22:04):
It combines a lot of acrobatic things and maybe gymnastic, you know, routines and a lot of flips
and spins.
And so it really keeps people entertained as well at the same time.
While, you know, learning about our authentic culture.
That's the thing, you know, we want this to be free of censorship.
(22:25):
We want people to see China without communism in the past and how it can be in the future as well.
And as a result, of course, we have been thrown on the side of the CCP.
You mentioned the performances are deeply rooted in spiritual and cultural themes.
You talked about gymnastics and flippings.
You know, what is the process for choreographing the dances and composing music that is unique
(22:46):
to Shen Yun?
Yes, because we have a different show every single year.
And we actually have original pieces every single year.
You know, they're all choreographed and the music is composed from scratch.
Where the choreographer works with the composer, you know, come up with a rough,
I guess, idea of the conception of the piece.
(23:09):
And then we continue to refine it.
You know, once the dancers start to execute those and we look at how it can be improved,
including the musical part too, you know, how every moment of the music,
how is it supporting the story on stage and help creating that atmosphere?
And of course, our backdrop and even our costumes.
(23:29):
And if you've been to our show, you see the costume very, a lot of times echo,
you know, the style and the, you know, the objects in the backdrop.
So all of that have to be fine-tuned.
And we really get it to a level of perfection every time before we started even, you know,
(23:50):
touring.
So, yeah, so it takes a lot of hard work every year, but we really enjoy that process.
I believe it's a very unique process.
I don't know how many other performing arts companies do that.
And one more for you, Ying.
Why is it so important for Shen Yun to focus on themes such as virtue,
morality, and traditional values?
Well, we believe we're, you know, we actually are, I'm a practitioner of Falun Dafa and Falun Gong.
(24:16):
And we believe that, you know, the morality and, you know, virtues and integrity, honesty,
these are the fabric of society.
You know, it really brings people together instead of dividing people, like the class
struggle, you know, advocated by the, you know, totalitarian regimes.
(24:37):
So we, the values that we show as part of our program also seek to bring harmony and
show, bring inspiration to people and bring people together.
Because art, you know, is a universal language and without, you know, without words.
So through just music and dance, we tour around the world.
(25:00):
And yeah, you'll be surprised.
I mean, maybe not surprised how people just react, have the exact same reaction.
They, you know, despite of their different cultural backgrounds, we get the same people
laugh at the same places, cry at the same places, applaud at the same places.
And it's really great.
And I'm one of the conductors.
(25:22):
And as I mentioned, we have eight companies now and everyone, every company has a live
orchestra touring with them.
So I'm one of the eight conductors and I get to be so close to the audience.
I can hear people's reaction right behind me, you know?
So it's one of the things that I really enjoy and just, you know, keep us going because
(25:43):
we can see how people resonate with it.
And Janice, earlier we were talking about the Chinese Communist Party, again, the CCP,
and its persecution of religious sects, other human rights violations and censorship.
Is the Epoch Times focused solely on the CCP or is it focused on exposing other authoritarian
regimes and repression in other countries as well?
(26:03):
Well, we certainly cover human rights abuses around the world.
And we believe religious freedoms, internet freedom, and press freedoms.
You know, we cover the Sudan, we cover, you know, Tibetans, you know, their atrocity
and the Uyghurs and, you know, all walks of life.
You know, we believe, you know, injustice, the threat of justice everywhere.
(26:27):
And we have a program called Finding Many, which is a story about the Holocaust survivor.
And so it is really important.
We believe in creator and we believe everybody should have a chance to be connected to divinity.
And our focus on truth, tradition, and hope.
(26:49):
The traditional and classical culture is a path for others to connect with divinity.
And in our newspapers, you know, we have very extensive coverage on arts and culture.
And on the NDTV sites, we sponsor nine different competitions,
including classical pianos, vocal competitions, traditional martial arts.
(27:12):
And so all those traditional cultures, something to be treasured
and to be passed on to the next generations.
And we hope that's another way to connect people.
Ying, earlier you gave some background on Falun Gong.
What drew each of you to learn more about Falun Gong?
And how has it shaped your understanding of spirituality or resilience?
(27:33):
And do you both practice it?
I practice it.
And my whole family practiced it.
And my parents and my brother started to practice in 1995, I want to say.
94, actually.
And I was in the US.
They were still in Beijing at the time.
And they introduced it to me.
(27:54):
And I was just really amazed by the real changes that it has made in their lives.
I mean, you can listen to all kinds of good theories or theoretical things.
But to see the real changes, the positive changes that it can make on people.
(28:17):
For example, my brother was starting to form some bad habits.
And he was a college student at the time.
And my parents were starting to get a little bit worried about
that he wasn't focused on the study.
But after he practiced the Falun Gong, he felt that he found the meaning of life.
(28:41):
And because it's something that it guides us and brings us hope and light inside of us.
And teaches us the three tenets of Falun Gong is truthfulness, compassion, and it's forbearance.
And it's actually all these three words, Zhen Shan Ren, in Chinese are very rich.
(29:03):
But when it's translated to English, it's often a little bit narrowed.
For example, Zhen is like being true, being genuine, being true to yourself, being honest.
Integrity has all those meanings in it.
And Shan is being good, being compassionate.
And yeah, Ren is a lot of times translated as tolerance or forbearance and resilience.
(29:30):
But it also includes like patience and self-restraint.
Handle ourself properly, embracing goodness, those good things.
So it has been a constant on a daily basis, a constant inspiration for all of us to how to do
better.
(29:51):
So it's not just about a theory, something that's theoretical, but something we try to
incorporate in our day-to-day actions.
And as we engage with people, anyone in society, we should always keep that goodness in our heart.
So it's after I see, and my parents used to argue a lot.
(30:16):
But after they practiced this, our family actually got more harmonious and my father
quit smoking even miraculously just by attending one of the lectures.
It was just really amazing.
And so after I started to practice, also found it to just really be something like that.
(30:37):
It's like my North Star that guides me to always steer on the right path and no matter what
happens.
So it has given us a lot of strength to face the challenges that we have to deal with.
For example, when my brother was tortured for 18 months in labor camp, what we could hold
(31:00):
on to is that he's not done anything right.
He has to live an honest life and he doesn't want to lie and say things that he didn't
actually experience.
He wants to stay true to what we believe and what we actually experienced.
So it has given us a lot of strength to allow us to remain resilient despite all sorts of
(31:30):
challenges that come our way.
Janice, how about you?
Well, Falun Dafa has helped 70 to 100 million people around the world.
Let me talk about the health benefits.
There have been four major large health surveys.
Each of those have more than 10,000 sample size.
(31:51):
The health improvement rate has been between 96 to 98 percent, very significant.
And I personally have seen friends, family members who really benefit from it.
And for those who don't have any illnesses and they actually felt able to concentrate
(32:12):
in the study, able to do well in their work, and integrating true compassion, forbearance
into the daily life, it's a way of life.
And in fact, those are universal values.
Think of in Daoism, maybe it's truth.
In Buddhism, maybe compassion.
And so those are universal values.
(32:35):
Maybe in Bible, we talk about love.
And so I would say those universal values, actually the world needs more true compassion
tolerance.
And it's very sad that the Chinese Communist Party persecuted people who follow those
principles.
And America is a place where religious freedoms is so important.
(33:02):
It's in the founding of the Americas.
So I hope Americans will speak up and the U.S.
government will also speak up to protect people, practice true compassion, forbearance on American
soil and around the world.
And Janice, what is the Epoch Times connection to Falun Gong and does the Epoch Times promote
(33:25):
it?
So the several founders of Epoch Times, like 24 years ago, they were Falun Gong practitioners.
But some of the founders of Epoch Times, because they experienced cultural revolutions, they
experienced the Tiananmen Square Massacre, either they practiced Falun Gong or they had
(33:47):
family members or relatives from France practice.
And so the information blockage, that was how drive them to produce Epoch Times, to
break the censorship and bring information in and out of China and tell stories about
the persecution when most of the media in the world have either self-censored or recycled
(34:11):
the propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.
And our readers, many of those are Christians, and they found that true compassion, forbearance,
they feel like those are also good values.
Those are really universal values, and we certainly have people from all walks of life.
And I think the true compassion, forbearance values actually help some of our staff members
(34:39):
who practice, and of course, we have a lot of staff members who are non-practitioners
too, but it is a very harmonious workplace, and it's a wave of life that help all of us,
and I think the world needs more of that.
The next question is for both of you, but maybe a little bit more for Janice.
Social media, the consolidation of traditional media, the demise of many publications,
(35:03):
billionaires buying up news outlets, and what has become a nonstop stream of attacks on the
media by our own politicians have drastically changed the media landscape.
Some people see America headed down the same path as China.
What's the future objective journalism in America, and is objective journalism going
to die out soon and be replaced by censorship?
Unfortunately, you see traditional journalism almost come to an extinction because there are
(35:29):
people with the money, the power, and to push certain agenda.
At Epoch Times, we focus on true, accurate reporting, and we are a 501c3 non-profit.
Our business model is based on subscription, so we only answer to the readers, our subscribers,
(35:52):
so we're not influenced by governments or by a single individual billionaire, but by the readers,
and so we're able to hold on to that, and in addition to that, we have our own journalism
school to train the next generations of journalists, and also we provide internships
for those study journalism, so we believe in the traditional journalism, and it is like
(36:18):
the four pillars of the government, and it's really important, and as I mentioned earlier,
timely information could save lives, and we hope more and more people will
resist those media who rule their success by focusing on things that may be
(36:44):
exaggerating and not fact-checked and so on and so forth, and I think facts really matter.
What a novel idea, facts matter. Hopefully everyone in the media hears you saying that.
Ying, you contend that part of China's deliberate and relentless campaign to
oppress free speech involves pressure to silence the Shen Yun performing arts,
(37:04):
including vandalism, bob threats, and intimidation of performance venues around the world.
Would you share details of what's happening on that front, and especially in the past year?
Yeah, I think what Janice was just talking about, what I would like to add is
journalistic freedom, independence is really, really important coming from the communist
(37:27):
regime, where it's about centralizing state power to suppress its people and manipulating them to
believe what they want them to believe, so related to that is why the communist regime has tried to
attack Shen Yun all these years. So what they've done, they've always,
(37:55):
for a number of years now, we have to watch when we tour the Shen Yun buses and trucks,
we have to watch them around the clock because there have been several incidents where our buses
are slashed, and that could really cause serious harm and injury to our performers,
(38:15):
and that's just one example. They've also used diplomatic pressure, they try to send
theater letters, or the Chinese diplomats have tried to give pressure to local government,
local officials and theaters, and try to stop or get our shows canceled there,
and most recently they have really escalated the amount of attack.
(38:38):
Just on a weekly basis, we receive now about two or three bomb threats to the theaters that we
perform in. These have been prank ones, they have, none of them are real, but it causes the local
police to have to do a full check, it causes, you know, there may be delay to the shows because
everybody has to get into the theater, you know, go through some security scans, and it's just
(39:04):
outrageous what they're trying to do to stop us. Of course, you know, these are all pranks,
and even the wording of all the emails that they send are very much just copy and paste,
but they're sending it to many different theaters and to our headquarters, and there have been
threats to our email, email threats to our headquarters that our female members will be
(39:31):
raped, you know, near the campus, or all kinds of crazy things. So, there have been,
but these things are really coordinated. I think Janice mentioned that earlier as well.
Started last year, we have seen a lot of YouTubers and social, and also on other social media
(39:52):
platforms that use, you know, selected people's narrative and to instigate and spread misinformation
through, you know, the social media, but also now, you know, in some of the legacy media
outlets. So, all of these are really coordinated attacks that just matches too eerily to the
(40:16):
information that we received in advance about what the central Chinese government was planning
about attacking us. On top of that is, you know, starting groundless lawsuits and trying to get
the U.S. government to investigate us, again, you know, on groundless accusations.
(40:40):
We think that they're basically extending the persecution of Falun Gong internationally now,
you know, not just the U.S., but internationally. They're trying to manipulate public opinion here
on U.S. soil and try to, you know, cause confusion and turn the American people and
maybe even the government against us. So, I think it's really outrageous and we need to
(41:05):
really see through, you know, the evil nature of that regime and what they're trying to do here
and not be fooled. Yeah. And as a follow-up, this question is for both of you. Are you
concerned about your own safety and well-being because of your work?
Well, go ahead. I have no fear because fear is what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to
(41:33):
instigate and trying to stop us. In fact, it strengthens our determinations
to eliminate communism from the face of earth. Communism is anti-Christ. Communism is anti-
cultures, anti-traditions. And think of, like, China, 5,000 years, there were no communisms.
(41:56):
How communism started was, you know, they promised their farmers they would distribute
the land. They never did, but took away the lands and their food center. And then they have the
cultural revolutions, educated people persecuted. And then the Tiananmen Square Massacre, remember,
the students stood in front of the tanks, students had no weapons. And then they targeted
(42:18):
the Falun Gong practitioners just because they practiced true compassion tolerance.
And they targeted them for their organs because they don't drink, they don't smoke.
And so they make tons and tons of money, you know, from killing them on demand for their organs.
So if you look at the Chinese history, every decade or so,
an innocent group are being singled out and put people under censorship.
(42:41):
So I do believe by eliminating communism, we'll free Cuba, we'll free China,
we'll free North Korea, and it will be a truly peaceful world for everybody.
Ying, how about you? Any closing comments?
For me, too. I think, you know, our faith has given us the strength, again, to face
(43:02):
these adversities and all these threats that I mentioned about before. We definitely have
performers whose families in China are being imprisoned or being, you know, have to exile,
leave their home and become homeless in their own country. We have many performers with this kind of
stories in China. So from the day that we decided to stand up against this, I have firmed up my
(43:32):
determination to just let the truth out. That's really important for not just my community,
but for everyone to know what's happening.
Chia-Hsieh and Ying-Chen, thank you so much for being with us today. I really appreciate
your time and your insights. Thank you for sharing everything.
Thank you so much for having us.
(43:52):
I'm Chris Meek. We're out of time. We'll see you next week, same time, same place.
Until then, stay safe and keep taking your next steps forward.
Thanks for tuning in to Next Steps Forward. Be sure to join Chris Meek for another great show
next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and 1 p.m. Eastern Time
(44:14):
on the Voice America Empowerment Channel. This week, make things happen in your life.
See you next week.
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