The director of the theater that hosts the Shen Yun dance group in Sydney says the company would not be intimidated into withdrawing shows by “outrageous” anonymous threats and that publicity had increased interest in the show.
On Monday, the Shen Yun performance venue on the Gold Coast was forced to evacuate after a bomb threat, and a similar threat forced the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s official residence, The Lodge, in Canberra the following day.
Graeme Kearns, chief executive of Foundation Theaters – the operator of the Sydney Lyric and Capitol theaters – told The Guardian that public interest in the production has intensified despite the alarming nature of the two threats.
He said Foundation Theaters had not received any threats but would not be intimidated into shutting down the production.
He declined to say whether Lyric would beef up its security presence for Sydney shows in March, which it expected to sell out. The Lyric, which has 2,000 spectators, will host 11 performances scheduled over 10 days, starting on March 20.
“Our job in the theater is to absolutely defend the right to tell stories about culture and yes, some of those stories reflect recent history,” Kearns said.
“That’s what artistic endeavor is supposed to do.”
Threats against the prime minister’s residence
According to an Epoch Times translation of Mandarin threats sent to the parent entity of Shen Yun, the Falun Gong religious movement, the prime minister’s Canberra residence, the Lodge, would be “blown into ruins and blood would flow like a river” if the performing arts troupe’s performances in Australia were allowed to continue. The Epoch Times is linked to the Falun Dafa religious movement.
Lucy Zhao, president of the organization that brought the show to Australia – the Falun Gong Association of Australia – said there had been a 20% increase in ticket sales for the Melbourne and Adelaide shows in the past 24 hours.
But the organization had also received several calls from ticket holders expressing concern for their safety and “some, not many” requests for refunds.
Additional security personnel have been hired to guard the three locations at the expense of the Falun Gong Association of Australia, he said.
A statement posted on the website of the Falun Dafa Australia information center accused the Chinese Communist Party of making the threats, alleging that they are part of a “growing campaign of transnational repression” targeting Shen Yun Performing Arts and Falun Gong practitioners around the world.
“The coordinated pattern of bomb threats, death threats, and systematic intimidation constitutes more than harassment: it reflects tactics consistent with state-sponsored intimidation designed to silence dissent beyond China’s borders,” the statement said.
‘Anti-China narratives’
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canberra dismissed Falun Gong’s claims.
“We have noted relevant reports but have no knowledge of what happened,” the embassy statement said.
“China always opposes all forms of violent attacks.”
China also opposes Falun Gong, describing the movement as a “notorious anti-human, anti-society and anti-science sect,” hence its legal ban in mainland China. Falun Gong strongly denies the CCP’s claim that it is a cult and says it is used to persecute the group.
“The so-called ‘Shen Yun’ is a political tool used by ‘Falun Gong’ to spread anti-China cult narratives and ideologies, seek to expand its influence, and accumulate financial gains under the pretext of promoting traditional Chinese culture,” the embassy statement said.
“This constitutes a distortion and desecration of Chinese culture and represents deception, manipulation and harm to the public. We believe that the Australian people are capable of knowing right from wrong.”
The Australian Falun Gong statement said that more than 150 bomb and death threats have targeted performances by Shen Yun and members of the Falun Gong community in the United States, Canada, Europe, Taiwan and other democratic societies in the past two years.
“Some of these threats have been traced to sources in China,” the statement said.
“The scale, repetition and global coordination of these threats raise serious concerns about foreign interference operations aimed at suppressing protected freedoms in democratic nations.”
According to a 2024 New York Times investigation into the finances of Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, its Shen Yun dance and acrobatics group had contributed more than a quarter of a billion US dollars to the movement by 2023.
As Shen Yun travels the world, local Falun Dafa associations reserve venues, print flyers, buy advertising and sell tickets, sometimes going into debt to cover the initial costs, the NYT found.
Volunteers are refunded once all tickets are sold and any remaining profits are sent back to the 173-acre high-security complex in Deerpark in upstate New York, which serves as the group’s world headquarters and Shen Yun training base.
