On the early morning of November 26th（Beijing time）,The New York Times published an article titled Ex-Dancer Accuses Shen Yun of Forced Labor and Trafficking in Lawsuit，saying that former dancer for Shen Yun Performing Arts Chang Chun-Ko, who was recruited to join Shen Yun at age 13,accuses Shen Yun of Forced Labor and Trafficking in Lawsuit, Li Hongzhi his wife Li Rui, Gong shujia under the pseudonym Zhang Tianliang,and Chicago International Bank are named as defendants in the lawsuit.The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Chang Chun-Ko's lawyer is looking for other plaintiffs to join the lawsuit. It is reported that some former performers for Shen Yun  participated in the lawsuit, and they provided more evidence to lawyers.

The following is the original article from The New York Times:

▲ Screenshot of the New York Times report

A former dancer for Shen Yun Performing Arts, the prominent music and dance company of the Falun Gong religious movement, filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the group and its leaders of trafficking vulnerable children to work for little to no pay.
The 68-page lawsuit, brought by Chang Chun-Ko in Federal District Court in White Plains, N.Y., described Shen Yun as a “forced labor enterprise” that has exploited underage dancers through threats and public shaming to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
majority of students will tell you this is their dream come true, and the parents rave about the positive changes in their children.”
In a statement, a Washington-based lawyer for Ms. Chang, Times Wang, said the persecution of Falun Gong “does not justify the Shen Yun defendants’ use of forced child labor.”
In the same statement, Ms. Chang said she is suing to “make sure no other children go through what I went through.”
Every year, hundreds of performers tour with Shen Yun, including a large number of teenage dancers and musicians. To train for performances, children travel from all over the world to enroll in school at the group’s headquarters in Cuddebackville, N.Y., northwest of New York City.
Like most Shen Yun performers, Ms. Chang grew up as a Falun Gong believer. She joined Shen Yun after her father died, and she was told that dancing for Shen Yun was a holy honor because the group was personally overseen by Li Hongzhi, the founder and spiritual leader of Falun Gong.
Mr. Li and his wife, Li Rui, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Many children arrive at Shen Yun’s headquarters, known as Dragon Springs, with little ability to speak English and no network in the United States. After being separated from their families, they are plunged into “a system of coercion and control that extends to nearly every aspect of the dancers’ lives,” the lawsuit said.
students had no teachers. Ms. Chang was given a tablet and “told she could watch the sitcom series ‘Leave It to Beaver’ to learn English,” according to the lawsuit.
Ms. Chang said performers were sometimes given expired beef jerky and ramen noodles. Once, after becoming ill from the food, Ms. Chang was told that Mr. Li had given her the expired food “to cleanse herself from the inside out,” the lawsuit said.
Even though Fei Tian students receive free tuition, food and housing, Shen Yun performers were told that they must pay back the value of their scholarships if they quit the group, the lawsuit said.
Shen Yun also tried to discourage students from quitting by seeking to discredit the people who spoke out against the group.
After Ms. Chang was quoted in The Times, Gong Shujia, a professor at Fei Tian College, spread “false and defamatory” statements on his YouTube channel that she and her husband were agents of the Chinese government, and that the government had invested money in their dance studio in Taiwan, the lawsuit said.
Mr. Gong, who goes by the pseudonym Zhang Tianliang and was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit said that even as Shen Yun has been the victim of ongoing persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, the group has adopted some of its persecutor’s practices.
Performers who broke the rules, such as by reading comic books, were sometimes berated onstage by Shen Yun’s leaders and forced to apologize during “mass criticism sessions.”
After Ms. Chang left Shen Yun, the lawsuit said, she was diagnosed with clinical depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Recently, the suit said, Ms. Chang learned that Shen Yun had organized mass criticism sessions targeting her.
Ms. Li, the leader’s wife, claimed the group had agents in Taiwan monitoring her, the suit went on, and that Ms. Chang “has recanted her allegations against Shen Yun and regrets making them — which, as this lawsuit shows, could not be further from the truth.”
Nicole Hong is an investigative reporter, focused on covering New York and its surrounding regions. More about Nicole Hong
Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter in New York, writing in-depth stories focused on the city’s government, business and personalities. More about Michael Rothfeld.