Anastasia Lin

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Hearing in the United States Congress (2015)
National Press Club (USA) (2015)

Anastasia Lin ( Chinese  林耶 凡 , Pinyin Lín Yēfán ; born January 1, 1990 in Hunan Province , People's Republic of China ) is a Sino-Canadian actress and former beauty queen . Lin won the Miss World Canada title in 2015 and was supposed to represent Canada in the Miss World election in China , but her visa was rejected by the Chinese authorities after she was declared a persona non grata . The news of this rejection and their subsequent attempt to enter China via Hong Kong generated great media interest for several weeks. The New York Times reported about Lin on the front page. In addition, there was great media interest through comments and many articles in major newspapers. Most of the reports praised Lin's brave "resistance to tyranny" with the novel form of a beauty contest, and she was the acclaimed "advocate for freedom of conscience". Lin represented Canada in the 2016 Miss World Pageant in Washington, DC

Observers suggested that the reason for the refusal to enter was due to her advocacy for human rights in China and the nature of her roles in films. The refusal to take part in the contest sparked widespread discourse about the ability of authoritarian China to exert its influence well beyond its own borders.

Lin is a Bachelor of Arts graduate from the University of Toronto with a minor in History and Political Science. Her film career is based on roles related to human rights issues in her country of origin. In January 2016 she was among the "Top 25 under 25" of the MTV Fora . In June 2016, she won the Leo Awards for Best Female Leading Role in The Bleeding Edge .

Life

Anastasia Lin grew up in Changsha . She left China in 2003 with her mother who had worked there as a professor. Her father stayed in China and continued to manage a medical device sales department. Anastasia Lin became a Canadian citizen at the age of 15 .

Lin studied theater, history and political science at the University of Toronto. She starred in television and film productions that deal with the humanitarian situation in China. Lin works as a model and performed at New York Fashion Week .

In 2013 she took part in the national Miss World competition and took second place. In 2015 she won the national title of Miss World Canada, which she qualified for the Miss World competition in Hunan, People's Republic of China . She was declared a persona non grata by the Chinese government and was denied entry.

Lin used the worldwide attention around her person to continue to draw attention to the problematic human rights situation in China .

Lin is a follower of Falun Gong and sees Falun Gong as "a kind of Chinese yoga movement." According to Lin, the exercises were seen all over China 20 years ago. She was involved in a documentary film about organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China .

Acting career

Anastasia Lin began acting at the age of seven. Since then she has appeared in over 20 film and television productions and is considered the most prominent leading actress in several Toronto film productions on human rights.

In Lin's first film role, she played a student who died in a school built with inferior materials during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake . In 2011, she played the role of a lover in Beyond Destiny , whose love went unrequited. Beyond Destiny won a Golden Palm Awards at the Mexico International Film Festival , and an Award of Merit at the California Independent Film Festival. In 2014, Lin played a CCTV news reporter on the satirical series Big Shorts . In the same year she took the lead role in Red Lotus , a Swedish production about the persecution of Falun Dafa . Her latest film, The Bleeding Edge , from the producers of the Peabody Award winning film Human Harvest , is a true-story thriller in which Lin plays a Falun Gong practitioner. The film was released in 2016.

Competitions

Anastasia Lin participated in beauty contests for several years. The highlight was the Miss World Canada 2015 election. In 2013, Lin took second place in the same competition. When Lin first entered the Miss World Canada election, she dedicated a piano composition to "those who have lost their lives for their beliefs and the millions of people who are still fighting for their beliefs today." In 2015, her performance included a video designed to “give light and courage to those who are still in the dark”.

Rejection in the Miss World 2015 election

In late November, after Lin failed to receive the Chinese government's invitation letter in support of her visa application for Miss World 2015, she believed that she had actually been denied the right to vote. She and others suspected the reason for this was that she was direct and blunt public criticism of Chinese human rights violations.

Her being banned from entering China was confirmed after she was referred to as persona non grata by Chinese embassy staff in Ottawa on her way to Hong Kong. Lin had originally hoped to benefit from Hainan's special visa policy for Canadian nationals and tried to travel to Sanya on a Cathay Pacific flight from Canada . On November 26, 2015, Hong Kong Airport staff informed Lin that she would not be given a landing visa in Sanya and confirmed that she had been denied entry to China. The Chinese immigration officials gave no reason for their refusal. In an email to The Globe and Mail regarding Lin's status, the Chinese Embassy in Canada stated that "China will not allow persona non grata to come to China."

Reactions

Lin's rejection of the contest drew global media attention and comment. The Washington Post wrote that “we […] think that the regime really feels threatened by anyone who doesn't stick to its line. Secretary-General Xi Jinping and his Politburo say they want market-based reform, but at the same time they are tightening the screws on civil society, internet debates, the media, independent churches, or anything that could challenge the Communist Party . "He added added that this approach "can only harm China itself in the long term, as the regime is becoming more and more fragile, isolated and fearful."

Minxin Pei, a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College in California, said the way the government of the People's Republic of China treated Anastasia Lin was an example of their realism because “they know that people hold their noses and keep going will cuddle them because they have a big checkbook ”and“ part of a larger strategy to deter alleged critics: the proverbial slaughter of the chicken that is killed to scare all these monkeys ”.

Wall Street Journal's David Feith called the matter "a window into Beijing's oppression and paranoia." Calling the Chinese government's response to Lin "official rip-off," he added that this, along with "Ms. Lin's courage and pain, is now the legacy of an otherwise forgotten contest that is meant to convey cosmopolitan glamor."

The Global Times , a nationalist People's Daily newspaper in China, said Lin was "misled by her values" and "has no reasonable understanding of the country she was born in." This was refuted by an editorial in The Globe and Mail newspaper : "China sees a beauty queen and is running away." The authors argued, "It is extremely unfair that Ms. Lin is unable to participate in the election because of her belief in her chosen calling. but that the mere threat of their presence is enough to put a world power in fear, should they console them. "

Jeff Jacoby wrote in The Boston Globe : “Totalitarian regimes are unscrupulous and will stop at nothing - not political manipulation of international beauty pageants, not criminalizing silent meditations, not even blackmailing a father into breaking his daughter's mind. It is not easy to find the courage to oppose such regimes. Canada's beauty queen is so gallant that China is afraid of letting her speak from a Chinese stage. Another young woman may be crowned Miss World, but it is Anastasia Lin who was ennobled. "

Human rights activities

Lin's activism began in part in response to what she termed "lifelong indoctrination" by China's political authorities. In China, Lin was a member of the Young Pioneers, a Communist Party organization. She was on the student council and helped spread anti-Falun Gong propaganda. “As a high school student, I was brainwashed by the state. The first song we sang in kindergarten was about the 'glorious' Communist Party. I was a proud little communist. I trained my classmates how to hand over traitors. "

In an interview with the New York Times , she said, "One of the first songs we learn in kindergarten is: The Communist Party is closer to me than my mother". When she came to Canada, her mother encouraged her to explore alternative points of view. "My mother showed me a lot of things that are not shown in China, such as the Tian'anmen massacre , the persecution of Falun Gong and the Tibet issue," said Lin, "I felt so betrayed. I felt like my life had been in a smear campaign for 13 years. "

Because of her activism, Chinese State Security officials visited and threatened her father in China and tried to get him to cut off all contact with her. "Shortly after my victory, my father received threats from Chinese security officials complaining about my human rights defenses." Lin wrote in a comment in the Washington Post: "There was no doubt that my father feared for his livelihood and business, so asked me to no longer stand up for human rights. He told me that if I didn't stop, we'd have to go our separate ways. "

In July 2015, Lin was invited to testify before the US Congress and discuss the subject of Religion With "Chinese Features": Persecution and Control in China by Xi Jinping . Speaking to the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Lin said the intimidation and threats her father received are widespread. “Good people like my father, a law abiding [...] citizen, an honest businessman who is now too afraid to speak to his daughter, who once supported her in everything she did ... now she has to be on her own to the world ... Mr. Chairperson, I hope you understand that this is a shared experience for so many American and Canadian citizens. Those Chinese who dare to speak their minds know that those who are still within reach of the regime in China could pay the price. "

In subsequent interviews, Lin advocated freedom of expression in China. In 2016 she was a speaker at the Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy.

As a public figure

Soon after Lin was expelled from China, "the media around the world went to Lin to discuss their views on China's abuse of the freedoms and rights of its citizens," wrote Quartz . "Google News shows 31,000 results for the search terms 'Anastasia Lin' and 'Interview'."

The New York Times wrote that the controversy immediately gave her the seal of approval. “Ms. Lin, it turns out, has become a public relations nightmare for Beijing. [...] She is also charismatic, clever and media savvy. Her David and Goliath conflict with the Chinese government has caught the attention of the media and legions of supporters around the world, providing an even greater platform for her to discuss the detention and torture of Falun Gong practitioners in China to speak."

Lin was invited to speak at lunch at the National Press Club, an event covered by Forbes and USA Today .

Aside from acting and defending human rights, Lin has become a celebrity in her own way. In January 2016, she was named one of the Top 25 Under 25 by MTV Fora , including Malala Yousafzai , Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner . The magazine Flare drew them as "Top 60 under 30" in the category of activists, and Marie Claire she explained as "The Badass beauty queen" in an interview about her work after a debate at the University of Oxford had attended "Throughout my trip I have met a lot of people who look at me like 'what can she contribute to this debate?'" Lin said in the Marie Claire interview. “But real power comes when you break this stereotype and surprise people who have underestimated you. I do my own research and meet victims of whatever I talk about. "

Lin attended the Oslo Freedom Forum in May 2016 and gave a speech on Falun Gong, organ harvesting, and freedom of belief in China. Jay Nordlinger of the National Review wrote that she was "an extraordinary person" and produced a podcast interview with her.

Filmography (selection)

  • 2011: Destined
  • 2011: Beyond Destiny
  • 2012: Piano Teacher
  • 2014: Red Lotus
  • 2016: The Bleeding Edge
  • 2017 Badass Beaut Queen: The Story of Anastasia Lin
  • 2019: Reunion

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Jacobs Andrew, China Bars Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada (and Rights Advocate) , The New York Times, November 26, 2015, accessed November 11, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Jeff Jacoby, The beauty queen that China is determined to stifle , The Boston Globe, November 29, 2015, accessed November 11, 2017
  3. ↑ Andrea Jacobs, Pageant Silences Beauty Queen, a Critic of China, at US Contest , The New York Times, accessed November 11, 2017
  4. ↑ a b What the saga of Miss World Canada reveals about China's brittle regime , The Washington Post, November 30, 2015, accessed November 11, 2017
  5. ↑ Miss World Canada Anastasia Lin Wins Leo Award , The Epoch Times, June 8, 2015, accessed November 11, 2017
  6. ↑ a b c d Charlotte Theile : Anastasia Lin on human rights . Interview, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 2, 2016, p. 54
  7. ↑ Matthew Little: Newly Crowned Miss World Canada Says Father Threatened in China , in: Epoch Times , May 21, 2015
  8. ↑ A Will Paves Way a ; Taste of Life Mag; December 18, 2014, accessed August 14, 2017
  9. ^ The Bleeding Edge (2016) - IMDb , IMDb, accessed August 14, 2017
  10. ↑ Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada 2015 Delegate , YouTube, February 21, 2015, accessed August 18, 2017
  11. ↑ Olivia Lace-Evans, Miss Canada World denied entry to pageant in China , BBC News Washington, November 20, 2015, accessed August 16, 2017
  12. ↑ Craig Offman, China declares Miss World Canada contestant 'persona non grata' , The Globe And Mail, November 25, 2013, accessed January 24, 2018
  13. ↑ David Feith, Wall Street Journal: China's 'Soft Power' Problem , Chinaaid.org, December 17, 2015, accessed January 24, 2017
  14. ↑ Siu Tyrone, China sees a beauty queen and runs away , The Globe And Mail, March 25, 2017, accessed January 24, 2018
  15. ↑ Malcolm Johnston, Q&A: Anastasia Lin, the Canadian beauty queen on China's black list , Toronto Life, January 28, 2016, accessed January 26, 2018
  16. ↑ Donald Kirk, Anastasia Lin: Banned Miss World beauty queen speaks out on China's human rights record , The Independent, December 20, 2015, accessed November 11, 2017
  17. ^ An international coalition of 25 non-governmental human rights groupsbestowed the prestigious Geneva Summit Courage Award this year on Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma and opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, as two representatives of all Venezuela's 78 currently detained political prisoners. , Geneva Summit for Human rights and democracy, February 24, 2016, accessed November 11, 2016
  18. ^ Richard Macauley: China barred an activist from a world beauty contest — and put her right in the spotlight ( English ) November 27, 2015.
  19. ↑ Jessica Durando, Beauty queen barred from China not watching Miss World pageant , USA Today, December 18, 2015, accessed January 15, 2018
  20. ↑ NPC Luncheon with Anastasia Lin, Miss World Canada , National Press Club, December 18, 2015, accessed January 15, 2018
  21. ↑ Jay Nordlinger, On dictatorships, beauty queens, oil states, Swazis, and more , National Review, June 1, 2016, accessed January 27, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Lin, Anastasia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 林耶 凡 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese-Canadian actress and former beauty queen, human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Hunan