Sweden: The Chinese Communist Regime’s Interference with the Chinese Spectacular Becomes an Advertisement for the Show

After the Chinese Embassy pressured the Swedish authorities to block the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular in Sweden, it turned out that the venue for the show at Linkoping (on March 27th, 2008) were met with an unprecedented rise in ticket demand. According to the organisers, the tickets were sold out two weeks before the show started.

Some audience members said that the Chinese Spectacular in Linkoping was very successful. After ‘The Power of Awareness’ was performed, warm applause for the artists erupted and lasted for a long while, and the performers answered two curtain calls.

Sweden is a democratic country famous for its dedication to freedom and human rights. Judging from the audience’s enthusiastic feedback, one can tell that the Swedish people have a sense of justice. In response to the Chinese Communist regime’s despicable practices, they booked tickets to see the Chinese Spectacular. Among them were seven Members of Parliament from Östergötlands province, who came to see the show together. Many people from various circles also voiced their support for the show, including MP from the Swedish Centre Party Staffan Danielsson and his wife. The following is the text of the interview with Mr. Staffan Danielsson.

Member of Parliament: "The Chinese Spectacular has diversified traditional Chinese culture"

After seeing the Chinese Spectacular, MP Staffan Danielsson praised the show, “The programme was awesome, with the connotations of diversified traditional Chinese culture. I am very pleased to see the show here in Sweden.”

Swedish MP Staffan Danielsson said that he was delighted to see the Chinese Spectacular in Sweden.Talking about the Chinese Embassy’ interference with the performance of the Chinese Spectacular in Sweden, Mr. Staffan Danielsson expressed that freedom of speech is something necessary for a nation, and it is his duty to defend freedom and democracy. He added, “China is an autocratic regime controlled by only one party. Moreover, it tried to threaten the Swedish authorities to follow its instruction on what should be seen by Swedish people. Thereby the Parliament resolved that we should come to see the show, so as to let the Chinese autocrat know that it is wrong to deprive people of freedom of speech and freedom of culture.”

When asked about his feelings of the show, he said, “This is a small world, and we all have a lot to learn from each other. I really appreciate these artists’ magnificent performances. I hope that the Chinese Spectacular can be performed in China someday.”

Retired engineer: “We came to support the show due to the Chinese Communist regime’s interference”

Retired aircraft engineer Mr. Curl Ojurstrom went to see the show along with his wife on the evening of March 27th. He expressed that he knew the show because of the Chinese Communist regime’s interference, saying “We come here to support the show, and we were happy to be here as the Chinese Spectacular did do some good for me. I know some programmes are not liked by the Chinese regime, but we like them.”

Mr. Ojurstrom liked the drum dance and the Mongolian Bowl Dance the most, and he was very much impressed with the overall performances. His wife Lena, a therapist, commented that she was amazed that dancers formed beautiful formations so quickly. She said, “It is indeed magnificent to form beautiful formations time and again while dancing. I enjoyed all the programmes and hoped that this kind of performances is able to help people further understand traditional Chinese culture.”

The organisers said, “The Chinese regime’s interference with the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular in Sweden has aroused Swedish people’s awareness of up-holding justice, which contributed to their buying the tickets to see the show. After seeing the performance, they highly praised the show and looked forward to seeing it again. This series of reactions seem to be delicate arrangements that the Chinese regime had never thought of.