By Wen Feng

(Clearwisdom.net) From August 23 to 26, Hong Kong held an art exhibition of Australian-Chinese artist Zhang Cuiying's work. However, when the artist arrived on August 22, she was barred from entering Hong Kong. Although the authorities have not given any explanation, since Zhang Cuiying is a Falun Gong practitioner, the reason is obvious. Unlike what other people may think, Hong Kong's blacklist is being implemented on standby, instead of rejecting Falun Gong practitioners' entry for security reasons such as when Jiang Zemin visits Hong Kong. For this, Hong Kong has lost its illustrious name as an international free harbor.

Though this caused quite a commotion, this is just part of the whole picture. Workers in the Leisure and Cultural Service Department, who originally didn't know what was going on, were fearful of losing their jobs, so they repeatedly scrutinized the contents and catalogue of the art exhibition, and sent out two warnings. Even the Secretary for Home Affairs showed up to give warning. Obviously they were all trying very hard to show that they were not involved with Falun Gong and thus show fealty towards Beijing, for fear of being condemned by Jiang Zemin and Tung Chee Hwa [the Governor of Hong Kong]. Chinese newspapers also came out with editorials to attack the art exhibition and achieved the opposite effect, a kind very unusual "reverse promotion," causing some people, originally uninterested in going to the art exhibition, to show up. The organizers of the art exhibition ought to publish a "thank-you statement" to express their gratitude for the free promotion. [...]

Through this, it can be seen that both the Hong Kong Government officials and the warning from Communist China's mouthpiece, are too childish and simple-minded. They claimed that their examination of the art exhibition found two things wrong: one, it featured Mr. Li Hongzhi's poems; two, it featured Falun Gong content which was against Chinese traditions. This kind of criticism is completely groundless. It is precisely traditional Chinese paintings that usually have famous people's writings in poetry. Whoever criticized this poetry in a Chinese painting is the one who has no idea what traditional Chinese painting is. As for having Falun Gong content in the paintings, this is even more of a tradition of both the East and the West. Not only do traditional Chinese paintings have a lot of Buddhist and Taoist content, many famous paintings of the West's Renaissance period have even more religious content. Not to mention that Falun Gong is legal in Hong Kong which practices "one country, two systems." So what is wrong with the art exhibition? According to some sources, due to the disturbance caused by this kind of harassment, some parties will demand compensation for their losses from the Hong Kong Government.

Posting date: 9/6/2002
Original article date: 9/5/2002
Category: Open Forum
Translated on 9/1/2002
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.cc/mh/articles/2002/8/29/35749.html

 Yearly Archive  Printer Version