8 Members of Shanghai Opera Troupe Defect in S.F.

SAN FRANCISCO — Eight members of the Shanghai Opera, including its leader, apparently defected last week while the troupe was on tour here just days before they were scheduled to return to China.

According to Jeffery Shia, a city accountant and president of a local Chinese association, the musicians from the state opera company disappeared at different times between last Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. The group was scheduled to return to China last Thursday morning.

As of Monday, U.S. immigration officials said they had not received a request for asylum. Shia said the present whereabouts of the eight musicians was unknown but that they were probably hiding out with contacts in the San Francisco area.

An official with the Chinese Consulate here, Wang Shaohua, confirmed Monday that the eight were missing when the troupe returned to China. “They didn’t go back as planned,” he said.

“These people were instigated by people with motives to bring damage to China,” Wang was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

But Shia and three local Chinese language newspapers said that the eight--six men and two women, all between the ages of about 20 to 30--had decided on their own not to return to China. Shia said two men disappeared late Tuesday afternoon after a party to honor the performers sponsored by the Tung Wah Assn., a local Chinese cultural organization.

Shia attended the party. He said that at midnight another two men were discovered missing when they didn’t return to their hotel rooms in the city’s Richmond district.

Thereafter, Shia said, the opera company leader called the Chinese Consulate to report the apparent defections. Shia said he believes the leader became frightened, perhaps by the response from the consulate, and decided to slip away himself. The two women in the troupe vanished with the leader, Shia said.

An eighth troupe member was found missing Wednesday morning, Shia said.

Shia said that he spoke to the remaining performers of the 28-member opera troupe Wednesday evening. “They were nervous about the situation so nobody went into details,” he said.

Diplomat Wang confirmed that the opera group leader had contacted the consulate but said he knew nothing else about the incident. “Such kind of activity will bring damage to China-American cultural exchanges,” he said.

The troupe is known as the Kun Opera from Shanghai, China’s largest city and cultural center. The singers had performed three times in San Francisco and also in Los Angeles and New York.