編者按：2月25日，英國《電訊報(bào)》發(fā)表署名文章，對(duì)法輪功的所謂“神韻”演出發(fā)表公開批評(píng)，當(dāng)日英主流媒體《衛(wèi)報(bào)》也同時(shí)刊發(fā)文章，指出“神韻”是“怪異的宣傳與光怪陸離的組合”。原文編譯如下：
【英國《衛(wèi)報(bào)》2008年2月25日，作者：Judith Mackrell】神韻在倫敦演出時(shí)間的選擇可謂別有用心。在北京2008年奧運(yùn)會(huì)的準(zhǔn)備階段，英國各地場館正在用舉辦中國現(xiàn)代藝術(shù)展的形式展示著當(dāng)代中國。與之針鋒相對(duì)，在紐約組建的以流亡中國藝術(shù)家為主組成的神韻演出團(tuán)，也在這里舉辦集傳統(tǒng)舞蹈、滑稽劇和音樂于一體的晚會(huì)。在晚會(huì)上，長期流亡海外的男高音滿懷思鄉(xiāng)情，但他們所展示的卻不是當(dāng)代中國，而是過去的中國，或者說是中國應(yīng)有的樣子。
'Something creepy' about Falun Gong performers
By: Judith Mackrell
The timing of Shen Yun's appearance in London could not be more interesting. In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, venues around Britain are hosting China Now, a showcase for the country's contemporary art. In marked contrast, Shen Yun is a programme of traditional dance, mime and music, performed by exiled Chinese artists based in New York. The tenor of this production is deeply nostalgic and deeply ex-pat. Not China Now, but China Past, or China As It Ought to Be.
We are introduced to the material through comperes Mei Zhou and Leeshai Lemish, who deliver bright, smiling links between the show's 20 items. Useful details are supplied concerning narrative sources and ethnic style, but what fundamentally emerges from this joint show-and-tell is the production's mission to stage a protest against China's communist regime.
The majority of the cast (members of the Divine Arts organisation) turn out to be practitioners of the oppressed spiritual movement Falun Gong. As the comperes make clear, not only are most of the numbers slanted to embody the movement's creed (truthfulness, compassion, tolerance), but some of them explicitly dramatise scenes from its struggles within mainland China, with background images magically depicting the swelling multitudes of Falun Gong followers and choreographed conflicts showing heroic battles with brutal party goons.
Even if you are sympathetic to the Falun Gong cause, there is something creepy about the evangelical tone with which this is delivered. It is also made worse by the fact that the show's visual style is like a Disney production, with the cast dressed in gaudy, glittery updates of traditional costumes backed by scenes of soft-focus landscape created by computer animation.
There are some authentic pleasures to be seen on stage fierce demonstrations of drumming; a haunting Chinese violin solo; choreographed set pieces in which the sinuous calligraphy of the dancers' bodies is elaborated with rippling silks and fans. But too much of it goes against the troupe's stated commitment to preserve the heritage of classical China.
One tableau - Descent of the Celestial Kings - includes a pair of improbably western-looking angels with tinsel halos and wings. Another - The Risen Lotus Flower - shows Falun Gong prisoners being tortured but who are illuminated by a spiritual light that pirouettes around them like a digital Tinkerbell. It is all too weird a mix of propaganda and bling.
(The Guardian, Monday February 25, 2008)