Taiwan in #Metoo turmoil as festival chief quits
NewsThe US violinist Cho Liang Lin has resigned as artistic director of the Taipei Music Festival, which he founded.
He has been accused by two women of sexual harrassment, allegations that he strongly denies and will legally contest. However, he felt his presence at the August festival would detract from its core musical purpose and he has asked Leonard Slatkin to replace him.
Slatkin says: ‘I have known Jimmy Lin for more than forty years and a finer and more giving person does not exist. His contributions to music and arts education have made him one of the most outstanding musicians alive. In particular, Jimmy’s passion for the culture in Taiwan has been shown to have made a tremendous impact on the world-wide musical scene. It is my hope that he returns to the Festival as well as his other activities, as soon as possible.’
No one from the festival’s teaching faculty has withdrawn and all of the invited artists have confirmed their participation.
Mr. Lin is also the Artistic Director of Hong Kong’s Beare’s Premiere Music Festival (formerly Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival) since 2012. The festival’s local organizer has not made any announcement yet.
What Leonard says would be echoed by hundreds, if not thousands, of our musical colleagues, myself included.
It is perfectly possible to generally seem to be a wonderful person, to be an outstanding musician and be an abuser. That is precisely how so many get away with it. Jumping in with these comments before the facts are judged either way makes it harder for victims to come forward.
[This is no judgement on this particular case but a general comment.]
I first engaged Jimmy way back around 1981. Since then he has given a few concerts for me. I have become a good friend and so I know him personally as well as professionally. I echo Leonard Slatkin’s comments totally. He is Taiwanese and proud of that. We’ve chatted frequently about his wife and daughter. I can think of no-one less deserving of what has been alleged against him and absolutely do not believe it.
Are you Jon Kimura Parker at Rice? Lol, good for you for showing us your name.
I can’t speak to any of these issues but having worked with Mr Lin on 4 or 5 occasions as an orchestral player, the guy is a total asshole as a conductor and as a soloist.
Not that that really means anything one way or another pertaining to his guilt or innocence, but any time I have the opportunity to call out his awful attitude and horrendous rehearsal process, I’m happy to do so.
Your pettiness and jealousy rings forth loud and clear. He’s great and you aren’t – get it?
I didn’t get that at all: speaking from experience, the author seems to indicate a personality and leader that is at odds with experiences mentioned by other writers. Not unusual at all for peers such as Slatkin to see one side and regular musicians to get an entirely different view.
While I choose to reserve judgement on these allegation until all the facts come out….I don’t need any more information regarding his professional deportment. He’s got a very bad reputation as a professional colleague. That’s just a fact. He’s a great talent though.
Innuendo, that’s all you spread, my snowflake.
You make vacuous comments on his “awful attitude” and “horrendous rehearsal process,” and you describe him as a “total – vs partial? – asshole” – yet provide no explanation of what behaviours drive you to these conclusions. Nor is there proof that this isn’t just a viewpoint of one individual (in which case, who cares?).
We live in a time when anyone can slander everyone. Frightening.
So “A violinist’, like Mr. Lin, has won several Grammy nominations for his performances as well as Gramophone magazine’s Recording of the Year Award for the Sibelius and Nielsen concertos? If he hasn’t, his comments are merely vindictive!
C’mon now Mr. Slatkin, a Leonard Slakin is not exactly the type of person Mr. Lin would sexually harass would he now? (Not unless Lin is into old white men, which, you know, does exist, not that I’m judging, to each his kink), so for Leonard Slatkin to wish Lin’s swift return is to say that the women are lying, which is a hell of a position to take if you know nothing about the facts.
Whatever facts Leonard Slatkin knows are going to carry a hell of a lot more weight than your “facts” and armchair judgement about his statement, and what it “means” about the veracity of the women’s assertions. What’s YOUR authority in the matter? Reading Slipped Disc? But then, it seems fashionable to find everyone guilty until proven innocent in these matters. At this point, nobody knows.
And why do your wild, conclusion-jumping comments and conclusions – not knowing anything either about the facts or the individuals involved – take a more appropriate “position?”
The truth will out, but in my Juilliard years I had a number of obviously sleazy coaches. Jimmy Lin was not one of them. He seemed like a standup guy to me. I was just a kid, and it’s just instinct, but I’ll be surprised if this one is true.
Usually, abuse of this kind is target towards people who are the perpetrators “type” , and/or people who are vulnerable because they have few allies, are naive, have poor native language skills and etc..
Always remember that perpetrators need to look good to most people in order to remain undetected. This is common with sexual predators.
But yes, let us wait for verified facts to come out before making a judgment.
In summary, a perp looking like a non-perp only makes them more likely a perp. Good nonsense!
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4927506
At this point, the alleged incidences have been in social and not professional situations. Unless there are a bunch of complaints from the students that he has been teaching and coaching all these years or colleagues, these will remain all that they are; Facebook posts. Anyone can post anything on facebook.
The second published incident by the cellist was a professional situation (so she thought) – Mr. Lin invited her to discuss an upcoming concert at his hotel.
According to the complaint, he commented on how she looked in a bikini. Was that a poolside meeting? I’m confused on that one.
That whole story is illogically and absurdly related and does not pass the sniff test. Sounds like the writer of it was drunk. However, so many people are SO quick to believe crap like THAT rather than look at the possibility that some parties are looking to create trouble to further their own agenda. Do I know? Do you know? NO, we don’t…..but the SOURCE needs to be heavily scrutinized in this matter. So far, to me, it smells very strongly of BS.
It was referred to the photos on her facebook. This was explained in her post in Chinese. The English news story was poorly written.
Yet, here we are, reading this drunken, poorly written English story, and passing judgement like we know what’s going on. That’s just par for the course with this kind of stuff, and all the more the reason none of us should be taking sides based on the joke of the way these supposed incidents have been related to us in the manner of a poorly dubbed HK martial arts movie.
It is absolutely astonishing with this #METOO movement how vulnerable ANY successful male could be these days! Your entire career could be in Jeopardy from any female with just a simple and single facebook post or accusation. It used to be that any accuser of this type would need to file police report and/or have physical evidence in order to prove her case. But now, the accused must quit everything that he worked for his entire life in order to deal with any allegation whatsoever! Wondering when it would be my turn next?
Re-read what you wrote. You really think it’s “simple” for the multiple women who have accused Lin for sexual assault? They basically gave up their musical career by accusing him on Facebook. They are clearly in a weak position in this situation. Lin targeted them because they are vulnerable and he is now condemning them through posts through his lawyers. Your point on the accuser needing to file a police report for this matter proves that you are an old, outdated person. Don’t embarrass yourself on the internet.
“Gave up their musical career”? Don’t make me laugh! SHOW me what this has done to their career. Assuming there was one to begin with. Probably gave it a boost, the way things seem to go these days. Social media is the last refuge of the lazy vindictive souls who sit back and take pot shots at their victims to assuage their own frustrations and insecurities. And show me what’s “weak” in their position? They’ve already derailed much of what Lin was going to do this summer, and who knows what beyond that. To me, that’s pretty goddamn powerful stuff, and shows how LITTLE it takes these days for anyone to launch this kind of unsubstantiated attack, with apparently no consequences if they have done it all out of jealousy and spite. But it’s been amply demonstrated that there are large hordes of similarly petty, jealous, vindictive riders of the “flavor of the month” political wave who are eager to eat every morsel up of the latest accusation and say “I told you so”….regardless of the notion of trying to ascertain the truth of the matter.
Please don’t misunderstand me….IF one has done what is claimed by the accuser, there will be consequences, and the truth will be known. But as far as the power, well, over and over we’ve seen it’s in the hand of the accuser. That this is beyond your comprehension SHOULD embarrass you, but you’re the problem…..you don’t CARE to find out the truth.
Are you okay Nelson? Why do you care so much?
I have very conflicted feelings on this, because as a female musician who has been in uncomfortable situations, I would never want victims to feel that it is unsafe to speak out. However, as a former student of Jimmy’s who had a tough time during my years of studies with him, I still would never imagine him being capable of harassment. I can only speak for myself of course but I never experienced anything remotely uncomfortable in that way.
I have known Mr. Lin for years in the context of his charitable work in Houston, and have heard from many students and colleagues-both men and women- of the inspiration and mentorship he gave over decades at La Jolla, TMAF, and universities- always on a professional basis.
I have observed Mr. Lin to be warm and charming but professional in social situations, straightforward in judgments about music, loyal to his community , and deeply devoted to his mother, wife and daughter. He and his wife Dr. Lin are earnest about developing the talent of rising musical stars. They have spent countless hours working -for free – to underwrite and develop an unsurpassed educational opportunity for students and a splendid cultural experience for Taiwan. A mark of their moral compass is that they are continuing to urge success for TMAF and their students despite innuendo amplified from a Facebook post. Let us hope that we all continue to be strong in our support of the good in the world -and exercise more care, thought and compassion in our actions, words and judgment.
Amen. I couldn’t agree more. ❤️
Do you really understand the issue here? Why are you talking about his professionalism and his work in music? The point is that he has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault and these women basically have given up their music career for these accusations. It’s not easy if impossible to be accused of sexual assault by “multiple” women if there were no actions in the past.
I, myself, was in very similar situations, at least once, but I was dismissed of any wrong doing, only after going thru hell and back. Trust me, once accuser’s medical records become public, you will see why all this is happening. Where is the proof of anything other than a simple post on the facebook and accusation? Is there a video tape of this accused event? Is there even DNR evidence involved? so the alleged event took place back in 2018, then why did it took 5 years for her to come out? BTW, I was asked to settled out of court for a large amount of sum.. which I did not comply. I am glad I did because it all make sense now
Just think of this whole event as #MEWhore$$ movement, then you will realize what this is all about