10/30/2009 • 4:37 am 0
You can hear the Epoch Times podcast, updated daily, here:
Or you can go to the Epoch Times home page and listen to that day’s podcast as live streaming audio:
Filed under: Culture , Epoch Times, Epoch Times podcast, media news, Rich Crankshaw
10/07/2009 • 1:52 pm 0
See more from my Foreign Policy Association blog about Media and Foreign Policy here
PEN American Center will host what promises to be an engaging, eye-opening, and interesting event (regardless of one’s political ideology) about the U.S.’s so-called war on terror.
Reckoning with Torture: Memos and Testimonies from the “War on Terror” will include Matthew Alexander, Jonathan Ames, K. Anthony Appiah, Paul Auster, Ishmael Beah, Don DeLillo, Eve Ensler, Jenny Holzer, A.M. Homes, Jameel Jaffer, Susanna Moore, Jack Rice, Amrit Singh, and Art Spiegelman. Guests are writers, artists, lawyers, a former U.S. interrogator, and others.
Co-hosted by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the event will look at acts of abuse and torture during the war on terror. Event participants will read from the recently-released secret documents that have brought these abuses to light—memos, declassified communications, and testimonies by detainees—and respond with thoughts about how the U.S. can move forward.
When: Tuesday, October 13
Where: The Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th St., NYC
What time: 7 p.m.
Tickets: $15/$10 for PEN/ACLU Members and students with valid ID at www.smarttix.com. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.
Filed under: Culture, Current Affairs , Afghanistan, PEN American Center, War on Terror
05/27/2009 • 2:07 am 0
by Genevieve Long for The Epoch Times
See Tim Hetherington in NYC on Dec. 8, 2009, click here for more details
NEW YORK—Close on the heels of the New York Photo Festival, VII photography agency hosted two provocative events at their studio in Brooklyn. Both events featured discussions with photojournalists and documentary photographers on the state of their craft locally and around the world.
The events on May 21 and 22 were both co-sponsored by dispatches, a journal created by veteran journalists and photojournalists. The journal is a book-like quarterly publication centered on a different theme in each publication, and includes photo essays and reportage (reporting underwritten with personal insight). The most recent edition, “Out of Poverty,” looks at issues related to poverty around the world.
“It [was created] out of a frustration that I was being asked to look at things in an increasingly banal way,” said Gary Knight, editor and art director of dispatches. Knight, who is also co-founder of VII, has photo essays on global poverty featured in the current issue of dispatches.
He says he tries to bring something human and hopeful to people with his photographs.
“You don’t want to leave people in despair,” said Knight, who showed an audience of about 50 a slideshow of his photographs of poverty from dispatches at the May 21 event. “There always has to be some sense of hope.”
Shots from Brazil, India, and Ohio were included and will be on display at the VII gallery through June 16. Audience members were also invited to print their own photos of poverty and add them to a wall in the gallery. About 25 audience photographs were displayed.
Filed under: Culture , Ashley Gilbertson, Brian Rose, dispatches, Gary Knight, New York Photo Festival, Sleeping Soldiers, Tim Hetherington, VII
05/26/2009 • 10:16 am 0
by Genevieve Long for The Epoch Times
New York City is one of the safest places to be in the post-9/11 world, believe it or not. Just look at the foiled terrorist plot on May 20 uncovered through a joint NYPD-FBI sting operation. Homegrown terrorists wanted to use surface-to-air missiles to blow up a synagogue. But instead of getting their wish of punishing Americans, they got booked by police for their insidious plot.
The reason these and other terrorists have not attacked New York since 9/11 can be found in journalist Christopher Dickey’s new book, Securing the City: Inside America’s Best Counterterrorism Force—the NYPD.
Through meticulous research and exhaustive interviews, Dickey, who is Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek, explains how New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and NYPD counterterrorism division head David Cohen created an elite counterterrorism force from among the ranks of the NYPD.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the bureaucracy of the CIA, FBI, DHS, DIA, and NSA (the “three-letter guys,” as police call them) proved to have cumbersome processes for warding off future attacks. Kelly was of this opinion, and after being reinstated as New York Police Department Commissioner in 2002, he found NYPD cops who could go inside the world of potential terrorists—in New York and cities around the world. The road to creating that elite force and the impact on public security since is described in Dickey’s book.
Filed under: Culture, Current Affairs , Christopher Dickey, David Cohen, FBI, NYPD, Ray Kelly, Securing the City, terrorism
05/25/2009 • 10:36 am 0
by Genevieve Long for The Epoch Times
NEW YORK—With 32,000 police, the New York Police Department is the country’s largest police force and has been hardest-hit by terrorist attacks. It’s an operation that needs to have more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
One of these is the NYPD’s Intelligence Unit—an elite group of 600 officers and analysts stationed in New York City and throughout the world. The work of the unit, which was created after 9/11, is detailed in the new book “Securing the City” by Christopher Dickey. Dickey is the Paris Bureau Chief and Middle East Regional Editor for Newsweek magazine.
The book, which was released this month, was written with the close cooperation of the NYPD and police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who says the specialized unit was created because information from the federal government was too slow in coming. After 9/11, he realized the NYPD could no longer rely on the CIA, FBI, and NSA to keep New York City safe.
“Everything is bureaucratized, everything is slowed down in the federal government,” said Kelly during a recent discussion with Dickey at the Overseas Press Club in Manhattan. Kelly says in the years since 9/11, the NYPD has focused on how to create a highly skilled and versatile unit with members who not only understand the world of terrorists, but who speak their language and even their slang.
Kelly says these basic communication skills are vital to the work they do.
“We took all of the speakers of the sensitive languages and sent them to Berlitz [language schools],” said Kelly. Many of those used for the special assignment are foreign-born immigrants who the federal government will not clear to do counterterrorism work. Kelly thinks that such an exclusion is a mistake, and understanding subtle linguistic nuances can make for truly useful intelligence. “They know the slang of the back streets of Karachi because they are from the back streets of Karachi,” said Kelly about the members of the unit.
Filed under: Culture , Christopher Dickey, counterterrorism, NYPD
05/14/2009 • 10:18 am 0
Read an excerpt from a recent interview with Dexter Filkins here
by Genevieve Long
If you read only one book about Iraq and Afghanistan this year, make it “The Forever War”, by New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins. It is full of insightful, lyrical vignettes about the war in Iraq from 2003 to 2006, when Filkins was living there and reporting for the Times. It also includes about forty pages about Afghanistan just prior to the beginning of the war in Iraq.
What Filkins’ book accomplishes, in the short term, is to make a war on the other side of the world come to vivid life. Sometimes it is done in a manner that is startling and unnerving. In fact, when I was reading “The Forever War” for a book review, it gave me nightmares. But it also gave me a deeper understanding about an incredibly complex situation.
Within its pages, the book manages to cover the vast expanse of human experiences encountered in the face of a war like that in Iraq. It moves seamlessly from being so accustomed to suicide car bombings that a human being’s spinal cord on the ground is easily recognizable, to recognizing frustrated indignation in an Iraqi woman’s eyes when she insists on voting day that democracy is “just talking”. You can read my full review of the book at The Epoch Times.
Filkins’ book has won acclaim from readers and reviews. One such review, by George Packer, author of “The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq”, perfectly encapsulates the essence of why “The Forever War” is so timeless and a must-read for any American who wants to understand the impact that the war in Iraq has had.
Packer’s review reads, in part:
“The Forever War is already a classic—it has the timeless feel of all great war literature. A lot has been written about Iraq and Afghanistan, but no one has seen as much, survived as much, and registered the horror with such sad eloquence as Dexter Filkins. His combination of courage and sensitivity is so rare that books like his come along only once every major war. This one is ours.”
Filkins, who spent the fall of 2008 on tour as his newly-published book climbed the New York Times’ bestseller list, recently returned from spending about six weeks on assignment in Afghanistan. His articles from that trip are must-reads for understanding the deepening crisis there.
Filed under: Culture, Iraq , Dexter Filkins, Iraq, The Forever War
05/10/2009 • 12:14 am 0
by Genevieve Long for The Epoch Times
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—This June, just when the heat index in New York City begins to rise, a heat of another kind will pay a visit.
It’s called the Big Apple BBQ,
Bo Collier, Manager of Martin's Bar-B-Que Restaurant in Nolensville, TN, outside of the restaurant. (Genevieve Long, all rights reserved)
and for barbecue restaurant owners, it’s considered a high honor to be invited.
“It’s a big deal,” says Patrick Martin, owner of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in Nashville, Tennessee. “In the barbecue world it’s as big as you can get.” 2009 will be Martin’s first year to attend the festival, and he and his crew will bring the only barbecue from Tennessee.
Every year since 2002, barbecue aficionados and lovers alike have gathered for the festival, which lasts all weekend. This year’s festival will run on June 13 to 14, from noon to 6 p.m. both days. 14 pitmasters—barbecue chefs—representing their respective restaurants will cook out and serve up the best of pulled pork shoulder, hog with sweet pickles, baby back ribs, beef brisket, beans, coleslaw, and more.
Several pitmasters from New York City will also participate—including Blue Smoke, Hill Country, and Dinosaur Bar-B-Q. Other participants will include pitmasters from Alabama, North and South Carolina, Connecticut, and Texas.
Filed under: Culture , barbecue, BBQ, Bo Collier, Martin's Bar-B-Que, Pat Martin, Patrick Martin, Tennessee BBQ
01/28/2009 • 8:40 pm 0
Yungchia Chen speaks and moves with the quiet grace of a dancer who has been training for a lifetime. His long list of awards, honors and accolades during his 27-year career reflects his rich artistic background.
Just three years ago, Chen thought he was finished competing and was even considering going into retirement. A torn tendon in his Achilles’ heel area from a performance in 2004 had slowed him down and made him feel his age as a performer.
But when Chen was recruited for a dance competition in New York, he had one last chance to be back on center stage—and he took it.
In 2005, while teaching dance at Taiwan Arts University, Chen was spotted by Tia Zhang, a graduate of the renowned Beijing Dance School and a dancer with Divine Performing Arts, a performing arts group in New York. Zhang eventually convinced him to compete in the 2007 New Tang Dynasty Television Dance Competition in New York City. He won first place.
For Chen, the surprise was not winning the competition—he has won numerous awards in his career—it was the fact that he could still take to the stage and deliver.
“I was surprised during the competition that I could still dance—I could still participate and get an award,” recalls Chen. “I had already decided pretty much that I wasn’t going to dance anymore.”
Now an instructor at Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, Chen is a choreographer and principal dancer with Divine Performing Arts. Mr. Chen sees his life’s work as a way to preserve classical Chinese culture for generations to come.
“I think Chinese dancing has many layers of meaning for human beings,” says Chen about his craft.
Early Beginning
Chen’s career as a dancer began as a child in China. He was fascinated with dance, but what he saw lacked the inner meaning he longed to express.
“When I was a little boy, during the Cultural Revolution in China, there was nothing to watch but propaganda from the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” says Chen.
At age 11, Chen joined Guizhou College’s Dance Department, and by age 16, in 1984, he became a member of the Guizhou Dancing Troupe.
Chen’s passion for his craft has led to a storied career as a dancer and a long list of illustrious awards, including recognition for passing on the essence of classical Chinese dance to future generations for a protégé’s award. He was given the “Gardener Award” as a dance teacher/choreographer for his student winning second place at the 8th National Peach & Plum Cup Art College Dance Competition last August in China.
The Peach & Plum Cup Dance Competition, referred to as the “Oscar Award of Chinese Dancers,” is revered among dance and other performing arts institutions. It is the largest competition in the country and the only dance competition with multiple categories.
While in Taiwan, he was also showered with awards, including the Formosa Award in 2004, Taiwan’s highest award given in a national dance competition. The same year, he was given a lifetime achievement award called the “Dance Flying Phoenix Dancer’s Achievement Award.”
In 1995 he married a Taiwanese woman and moved to Taiwan, where he continued his dance career. Now 38, he is passing on the tradition to his family—both of his sons are learning Chinese dance.
A New Beginning
Chen’s life almost immediately took another unexpected turn after moving his family to the U.S. last year. He started practicing Falun Dafa, or Falun Gong, a meditation practice that is banned and persecuted in his homeland of Mainland China, which the Chinese Communist Party feels threatened by because of its popularity.
In one year of practicing Falun Gong, more than the hue of Chen’s once sallow-looking complexion has changed.
“Before, even if I don’t go and argue with a person, I would be unhappy in my heart,” says Chen. “Like why does this person get more than I have? I felt a little envious, a little unhappy. Now, I’ve learned to let go.”
Chen was in three performances in last year’s Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year’s show, which included a 15-performance run on Broadway at Radio City Music Hall.
As a dancer, being on stage requires absolute focus to avoid making mistakes. He says one way he focuses is to put all of his attention into the role that he is playing, to become that person. The sacrifices he makes are enormous, but in his eyes, so are the benefits.
“Dance is training, is learning, it really has to do with suffering, enduring hardship,” says Chen. “In this process, in this suffering, you have to find joy.”
The performances are so detailed and rich with color, intricate choreography, and inner meaning that they take him and audience members back to the roots of traditional Chinese culture.
“This performance is more traditional, and so it’s a more righteous kind of culture for the audience,” says Chen. “I think they relate to it—this traditional culture.”
Despite his achievements, Chen does not see his dancing career cooling down anytime soon. In the next 5-10 years, he says he’d like to train students and promote Chinese dance internationally.
“I think that traditional Chinese dance promotes very pure and traditional culture, and it is quite comprehensive,” says Chen.
Filed under: Culture, Current Affairs , China, Chinese culture, dance, Divine Performing Arts, Yungchia Chen
01/21/2009 • 1:45 am 0
by Genevieve Long
Peirong Hsieh has been surrounded by music, dance, arts and culture her entire life. Although a long road, it’s led her to her current job as a stage manager and piano accompanist with Divine Performing Arts.
Hsieh, a resident of Seacaucus, is the daughter of a famous Taiwanese ballerina, and studied dance, piano, and viola from a young age.
Since 2007, Hsieh has thrown the full weight of her musical experience into performing in the Divine Performing Arts’ Chinese New Year show that tours around the world. And it’s for a good reason—Hsieh believes in what she is doing.
“The content is to revive the truly traditional Chinese culture,” says Hsieh about the shows. “As artists we want to pass [this culture] on to future generations.”
One of her favorite instruments in the show is the two-stringed Erhu, largely because of the impact it has on the audience.
“Erhu has that kind of melancholy sound, it’s very Chinese—you can feel it,” says Hsieh. “It’s kind of melancholy, it’s kind of aching.”
In fact, to her the entire show is one special act after another, “Each act of our production has meaning, and that meaning can touch people’s hearts.”
The diminutive powerhouse has not only lived a life surrounded by music, arts and culture. She boasts Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance respectively at Boston University and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. She also studied at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford.
Roots of Culture
Growing up in Taiwan, Hsieh feels lucky to have been raised in a part of the world where traditional Chinese culture is relatively well-preserved. It is these roots that give her a sense of gratitude and motivate her to perform. She even illustrates her point by drawing on a classical quote.
“There’s a Chinese expression that says ‘if you give me a papaya, I’ll give you back a jade’—it means if you give me something I will remember your kindness forever,” says Hsiesh. “I remember that because it shows how Chinese people have a big heart.”
As a pianist, she believes who she is as a person is brought to the stage, and to every performance. Even though each performance has its own characteristics, there are moments when the performers and the audience are connected.
“It’s different every time but the spirit is still there,” says Hsieh. “It doesn’t matter if you’re on stage or in the show, it’s part of a picture.”
Through helping to paint that picture, Hsieh realizes how a performer who lives an upright life can benefit a live audience.
“With performing you can never hide your life from the world,” says Hsieh. “Maybe that day because you had a better understanding of life and of the world it comes out better [when you perform].”
A Spiritual Outlook on Life
Hsieh’s perspective is colored deeply by her upbringing and classical training, as well as her personal spiritual practice of Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong. She sees the connections with Falun Gong in Divine Performing Arts shows as a natural progression, since many of the performers also practice it.
“It’s natural for artists to talk about what they believe,” says Hsieh of the elements related to Falun Gong in the shows. “They want to share what they believe in. Just like Mozart, Braham, they all wrote requiems with Christian elements. When you go to a performance…you’ll just appreciate how they’re created.”
The contents of Divine Performing Arts shows are classical in nature, but also reflect what’s happening in China, which Hsieh sees as an artistic responsibility.
She adds that lyrics in the Divine Performing Arts songs include mention of Falun Gong’s principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. They also explain the government-sponsored persecution of the practice, which has been ongoing since 1999.
“Everything existing in the world, everything is within truthfulness, compassion, tolerance,” observes Hsieh. “As a pianist, when I practice I will find these principles. You find the balance—the balance and the respect.”
The demanding touring schedule of Divine Performing Arts runs from December through approximately May, although it is extended every year. But Hsieh says that no matter whether the performers suffer from jet lag or physical pain, or have conflicts, they always do their best to give it their all once on stage.
“It’s all beyond description,” she says, sighing and smiling. “If you’re touched by it, that will become part of you.”
Filed under: Culture , arts, China, Chinese, Culture, Divine Performing Arts, erhu, music, Peirong Hsieh, piano
