Kennedy Center Bomb Threat as Shen Yun Prepares for First of Many Nights
As the CPAC show kicked off at the Gaylord National in the nation’s Capital, the Shen Yun performing arts was preparing for the first of 12 shows to take place there. On the morning of the first scheduled show, authorities evacuated the entire building due to a bomb threat. is scheduled to do 12 shows at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Leeshai Lemish, who travels with the group and emcees the performances, said that everyone had been forced to evacuate and hadn’t been allowed back into the center for three hours (and counting). Making matters worse for the group are the freezing temperatures.
As news of the threat broke, multiple outlets published stories about it. As of this writing, more than three hours after the threat, a report from the New York Times about the threat is conspicuously absent. It is conspicuous because the Times has almost feverishly been publishing hit pieces against Shen Yun. In so doing, it has been doing the bidding of China’s Communist Party (CCP).
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Q&A:
- Can you walk us through what happened when the bomb threat was announced and how it affected Shen Yun’s performers and staff?
- How did the evacuation and the freezing temperatures impact your ability to prepare for the performance?
- Do you believe this bomb threat was an isolated incident, or do you suspect there may be a larger effort to disrupt Shen Yun’s shows?
- Shen Yun has faced ongoing criticism from major media outlets like The New York Times, which some say aligns with the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda. What’s your response to these reports?
- Have Shen Yun performances in other cities faced similar disruptions or threats in the past?
- What do you want audiences to know about Shen Yun’s mission and why the Chinese Communist Party has taken such an interest in your performances?
- How have authorities responded to the situation, and have they provided any updates on the investigation?
- Despite this setback, what message does Shen Yun hope to share with audiences at the Kennedy Center and beyond?What role do you think artistic performances like Shen Yun play in countering CCP propaganda and educating audiences about China’s true cultural heritage?
- Where can we learn more about the beautiful art of Shen Yun, and how it motivates others?
- The official website can be found here. Tickets to shows are also available there for purchase.
ABOUT LEVI BROWDE…
Levi Browde serves as the Executive Director with the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center – an organization dedicated to ending the human rights abuses against people who practice Falun Gong in China.
A career software entrepreneur, Levi’s life changed dramatically in 1999 when his best friend came to the office one morning and announced the Chinese Communist Party had taken away his mother in Beijing to be tortured and “brainwashed.” This marked the beginning of his volunteer work to defend human rights in China. Two years later, Levi himself was detained in a Chinese jail outside Beijing for secretly meeting with Western reporters and protesting on Tiananmen Square.
Over the past 20 years, Browde has been interviewed and quoted by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, the Associated Press, TIME Magazine, BBC, AFP, and other media outlets. He has spoken about Falun Gong and human rights in China at briefings on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, at the United Nations human rights sessions in Geneva, Switzerland.
Browde studied East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University and is an avid supporter of traditional Chinese culture. He founded several software start-ups, and lives in New York with his wife and two sons.
Samples of Levi on camera:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS3RS4vJguI
https://tv.faluninfo.net/unmasking-chinas-gestapo-610-office/
https://tv.faluninfo.net/levi-browde-exposes-the-new-york-times-distorted-coverage-of-human-rights/
ABOUT LEESHAI LEMISH…
Leeshai Lemish has been with Shen Yun for 18 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Chinese history and language from Pomona College, California, and his master’s in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He has spent extended periods studying, working, and conducting research throughout East Asia, and has authored articles on Chinese current affairs in both English and Chinese. He joined Shen Yun Performing Arts as an MC when the company was founded in 2006 and has since emceed close to two thousand performances with the company, taking the stage with Shen Yun at prestigious theaters such as Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, the London Coliseum, Tokyo Opera City, and many others worldwide. In addition to his performance role, he has tracked and documented on his website over 100 cases of the Chinese Communist Party and its agents trying to sabotage Shen Yun internationally. He has testified on transnational repression in front of Congress, has been a featured guest on television and radio shows around the world, and is the host of the podcast Shen Yun Voices.
ABOUT JARED MADSEN…
Jared was one of the first students from Iowa to study in China where he fell in love with Chinese culture. For the past 18 years, Jared has served as MC for Shen Yun Performing Arts.
Samples of Jared on camera:
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