Editor's note: Just before the Spring Festival in 2006, CCTV musical show named "The Same Song" set foot on the North American Continent for the first time and gave overseas Chinese the care and regards of their mother country. Chinese people both at home and abroad spoke highly of the performance after it had been broadcasted. At 3:00 pm on February 20, Meng Xin, General Director of the program, and Li Guyi, a famous singer visited Sina chatroom and chatted freely with netpals about the past, the present and the future. They, inter alia, talked about Falun Gong's disturbance of "The Same Song" show.
Host: A netpal said he also learned that a number of Falun Gong members had attempted to disturb this show. And it was also said that the Falun Gong organization abroad had issued an investigation order for Ms. Li Guyi. Is that true?
Li Guyi: Yes, that's the case. Before I went abroad, a ringleader (writer's note: Guan Guimin) phoned me and said something, which exerted pressure on me because I had never faced such kind of things before. I frequently went to the U.S. in the past, with several times last year, but such kind of things had never happened. It shocked me all of a sudden. Before my departure, they released an open letter to me titled "Li Guyi as its head", which could also be found on the Internet. Now I have become a global criminal wanted by that organization.
Host: Why?
Li Guyi: I don't know. That letter could be read online and my netpals told me about it. I feel it has hurt me and stressed me spiritually. We sing songs for the country and the art, which is natural and there's nothing wrong. With the coming of the Spring Festival, CCTV organized us to give a greeting performance for the overseas Chinese and spend the festival with them. Nonetheless, those people created rumors about us and called me a criminal fugitive. I don't know why they list me as wanted? I have sung these songs for decades, why they list me as wanted? I have never scolded them, why they try to hurt me and disturb my work and mind? I felt stressed out while in Canada. I even feel depressed now and think the whole thing as inexplicable. Later, I think that there should be a veteran artist, and I'm the starring singer in CCTV. We have said so much. A lot of overseas Chinese including students abroad and many organizations have watched our show, and 95% percent of them love their motherland and wish to see a strong and prosperous mother country and hope we Chinese people can be united together. Of course that kind of things seldom happened, I think. So I felt stressed at that time and I even feel like that at present. You can see, I've become so-called "global criminal fugitive". It's so inexplicable, I think. Surely I felt I should go and take part in the show even under the pressure, because it was an assignment. I'm still unhappy now, though.
Li Guyi: I've sung in all my life and I will not stop singing these songs until my death in spite of being listed as wanted. We are always very happy whenever we participate in shows. You know, I began to sing "Lovely Homeland" in 1984, "Home Sickness" also in 1980s and "Velvet Flowers" in 1970s. We have been to Singapore to give a performance, too. We go abroad mainly to have a get-together with overseas Chinese, especially the children.
Li Guyi: I feel a bit sad. It seems meaningless for our overseas compatriots to fight against each other, though it seems that there are only few of them involved and they don't represent the majority of Chinese. By doing this, in my opinion, it will have counter-productive effects on those people. In fact they didn't need to do that. We are all Chinese and should have got together and acted as one instead of doing that kind of things.
Li Guyi: Director Meng, it won't be a big deal any more if we face such problems in other countries in the future, I think.
Host: The netpals say there are astonished to know Ms. Li is wanted by Falun Gong and think it ridiculous. They hope you can relax and not be affected by it. Please don't care for it.
Li Guyi: After all there're just a handful of them. The majority of people love their motherland and it's the expectation of most people. Further more, we performers were too busy to care for it due to the time difference, health, programs and arrangement, along with coordination with the American and Canadian sides about theatres. Every day, we didn't go to bed till 5:00 am. Sometimes we even didn't sleep all the night or still stayed up till breakfast time.
(Kaiwind, January 15, 2008)
