{"id":2433,"date":"2016-12-20T01:01:54","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T01:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2433"},"modified":"2016-12-20T01:01:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T01:01:54","slug":"bittersweet-carnegie-hall-performance-by-littlejohns-daughter-rescued-from-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/bittersweet-carnegie-hall-performance-by-littlejohns-daughter-rescued-from-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Bittersweet Carnegie Hall Performance by Littlejohn’s Daughter Rescued from China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anni

Anni Zhang in front of Carnegie Hall with Reggie Littlejohn and husband Robert<\/p><\/div>\n

NEW YORK:\u00a0 On Sunday, 13-year-old Anni Zhang, rescued from China,\u00a0 was living a dream come true \u2013 she performed piano in Carnegie Hall.\u00a0 What should have been a completely joyous occasion, however was marred.\u00a0 Her father, veteran activist Zhang Lin, was not able to attend because the Chinese government refused to issue him a passport.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reggie Littlejohn, president of <\/span>Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers<\/span><\/a>, played a key role in bringing Anni to the United States from China, where she and her father were under house arrest after she had been detained and denied the right to go to school.\u00a0 Littlejohn and her husband, Robert, have been raising Anni as their own daughter. They flew the family, including Anni\u2019s older sister Ruli, from San Jose, CA to New York to celebrate Anni\u2019s achievement with her.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jing

Jing Zhang (no relation), Ruli Zhang (Anni’s older sister), Reggie Littlejohn, Anni Zhang, Robert (Reggie’s husband), Yao Cheng<\/p><\/div>\n

Littlejohn stated, \u201cMy husband and I are so proud of Anni.\u00a0 She came to the United States without playing an instrument, and after just two years, she won an international competition to perform at Carnegie Hall.\u00a0 That\u2019s got to be some kind of a record.\u00a0 I think she\u2019s a genius!\u00a0 She looked gorgeous in her purple sequined concert gown, and she played brilliantly.\u00a0 But as my heart was bursting with pride for her, it was also aching for her father, who could not be here to enjoy this important moment with his daughter.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Littlejohn continued, \u201cI spoke with Zhang Lin.\u00a0 He told me that he has applied several times for a passport, telling the authorities that he needed one quickly so that he could come to New York and see Anni perform.\u00a0 Each time, they refused him a passport.\u00a0 They once told him it is because of his \u2018history.\u2019\u00a0 What could this statement mean, other than that they are punishing him for his \u2018history\u2019 of pro-democracy activism?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What kind of an inhumane government is this, that would detain a 10-year-old to punish her father, and then would refuse a passport to the father to punish them both?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Activist Chen Guangcheng issued the following warning to the Chinese government:\u00a0 \u201cControlling people’s right to freedom of movement is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.\u00a0 To the Chinese Communist Party: If you want to be recognized as legitimate in the international community, you need to respect the basic rights of citizens.”<\/p>\n

Jing Zhang, president of Women\u2019s Rights in China and colleague of Zhang Lin, also played a major role in bringing Anni to the United States.\u00a0 She stated:\u00a0 \u201cThe Chinese Communist Party\u2019s persecution of pro-democracy activists is unprecedented.\u00a0 Recently family members of activist Peng Ming, who was serving his sentence, received horrible news.\u00a0 Hubei Prison officials claimed that Peng Ming died suddenly of a heart attack. But then Peng Ming\u2019s heart and brain were secretly removed, without permission from his family.\u00a0 Many dissidents and even petitioners seeking justice are imprisoned.\u00a0 The CCP has become desperate.\u00a0 At this time, they will make life more difficult for Zhang Lin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yao Cheng, a close friend of Zhang Lin, who helped Anni escape and paid for it with years of jail time, stated:\u00a0 \u201cI did not expect the Chinese government to issue Zhang Lin a passport.\u00a0 The Chinese government is lying.\u00a0 We cannot expect them to have mercy on him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anni said, \u201cPerforming at Carnegie Hall was one of the most wonderful moments of my life.\u00a0 I only wish my father could have been there to share it with me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anni is known as \u201cChina\u2019s youngest prisoner of conscience.\u201d\u00a0 When she was ten, Anni was kidnapped out of her elementary school, detained overnight, denied the right to go to school and put under house arrest with her father.\u00a0 Learn more about her story here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK:\u00a0 On Sunday, 13-year-old Anni Zhang, rescued from China,\u00a0 was living a dream come true \u2013 she performed piano in Carnegie Hall.\u00a0 What should have been a completely joyous occasion, however was marred.\u00a0 Her father, veteran activist Zhang Lin, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,104,20,1,195,138,139,150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chen-guangcheng","category-jing-zhang","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-uncategorized","category-yao-cheng","category-zhang-anni","category-zhang-lin","category-zhang-ruli"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2436,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2433\/revisions\/2436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}