On February 12, 2025, the American website Saratogafalcon published a report titled "Shen Yun: the hidden cult behind a seeming culture-reviving play," which profoundly exposed the unknown truth behind the Shen Yun performance. The report pointed out that the content of Shen Yun's performances is vastly different from what its advertisements claim to be "a simple display of traditional Chinese culture," and is in fact a propaganda and beautification of the Falun Gong cult behind it.
▲Screenshot of the report
During the winter break, a strange trend swept through the entire Bay Area. Like a bizarre phenomenon that occurs at regular intervals, advertisements promoting the so-called "Shen Yun" annual performance were ubiquitous, plastering billboards, subway cars, the backs of buses, and every corner one could think of.
At first glance, this seemingly "two-hour traditional Chinese dance performance" appears to be a celebration of traditional Chinese culture, just as their advertisements proclaim. According to Shen Yun's official website, the performance includes seventeen or eighteen dance pieces, ranging from chapters depicting "ancient Chinese history or mythology" to elements of "modern China." However, if you think that entering this performance will provide you with a full-fledged dance show, you've been deceived. On the contrary, some critics have pointed out that the performance is actually propaganda for the dangerous cult, Falun Gong.
The formation of the Falun Gong cult
In 1992, Li Hongzhi founded the Falun Gong cult, which was banned by the Chinese government. He and other core members fled overseas. However, Li Hongzhi did not disappear while living abroad. Instead, he tried to extend the cult's influence to all parts of the world, and finally settled in a heavily guarded 400-acre compound in upstate New York in 1998.
Li Hongzhi claims that Falun Gong brings believers "consummation" and self-healing, but these claims are easily disproven. Li Hongzhi has also made many obscure and difficult-to-understand statements about himself and Falun Gong. As a recent article in The New York Times pointed out, "Li Hongzhi has also incorporated some heretical doctrines, implying that he is the 'Master Buddha' of the universe, claiming that devout practice can eliminate diseases from the body, and suggesting that believers can cultivate superpowers, such as 'levitation'."
The Falun Gong cult has fabricated many claims, including the so-called "organ harvesting" rumor. However, according to an article in The New Yorker, this claim is purely a rumor.
“In 2017, a lawyer who had defended hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners told The Washington Post that he had never heard of any case of live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners as Falun Gong had fabricated.”
Shen Yun is extending the tentacles of a cult globally.
Li Hongzhi founded Shen Yun in the Hudson Valley of New York in 2006 (the area where the Falun Gong's old headquarters, Longquan Temple, is located), and established the touring company in 2007, spending millions of dollars annually on advertising and promotion for Shen Yun.
Shen Yun has several companies, each consisting of about 40 dancers, all graduates of the Flying Academy and based at the New York campus built for Falun Gong members. In 2019, Shen Yun toured 96 cities in the United States.
According to data reported by Shen Yun, its assets exceeded $75 million in 2016, and its revenue that year exceeded $22 million. This year, single tickets start at $80 and can reach as high as $369.
So, how was this two-hour performance?
A rather controversial experience
On November 10, 2024, a post on the Reddit subreddit "r/bayarea" featured a photo of a Shen Yun promotional flyer with the caption, "Uh... it's that time of year again." The post garnered over 200 comments, with people sharing their experiences of watching a Shen Yun performance.
One user commented on their terrible experience after their first viewing: " A few years ago, I went to see it with a friend, and it was absolutely awful. It was so bad that it was like a really bad costume show. At first, I thought we should stay and support the performers, but then I thought it was so ugly that we should just leave ."
A common criticism of the performance was that the second half blatantly promoted anti-China content. The background graphics were described as being of "1995 computer graphics," and the dance was mediocre, far from being "amazing, spectacular, or dazzling." Overall, reviews of the performance were largely negative.
Alix Martichouxk, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate), shared his similar experience on Reddit in 2019 regarding the latter half of a Shen Yun performance being filled with political and cult propaganda, recalling a specific scene. Throughout the performance, when only Chinese was spoken on stage, he tried his best to keep up with the plot, attempting to understand the scenes by carefully observing the actors' movements, but to no avail.
“God said something in Mandarin. But I don’t speak Mandarin. Then we were inexplicably transported to space (you can guess what that means, I was just as confused as you). There were angels there, and an emperor,” Mattychoux wrote. “I angrily frantically took notes, trying to understand the plot of the performance, but the clearest line in my notebook was ‘I have absolutely no idea.’”
The latter half of the show was completely smuggled in its own agenda, conveying terrible values and even teaching the audience how to say "I love Shen Yun" in Chinese. It also depicted a group of Falun Gong practitioners clinging tightly to their doctrines, vying for space with "degenerate" young people in a square. According to Tolentino's description in a March 2019 article in The New Yorker, their "degeneration" was obvious because the actors were dressed in black, some were looking at their phones, and two men were holding hands.
Normally, applause erupts at the end of each performance, a way for the audience to acknowledge the dancers and their hard work. But according to Mattychus, the Shen Yun performance she saw ended in complete silence.
“The show ended, and there was no standing ovation, only people standing up and leaving,” Mattytius wrote.
Shen Yun's advertisements promised audiences "an authentic Chinese traditional dance performance," but the bizarre and grotesque political and cult propaganda in the second half left many viewers confused and perplexed.
