Shen Yun
Shen Yun Performing Arts is a nonprofit performing arts and entertainment company based in the United States that produces performances of dance and symphonic music. It is operated by the new religious movement Falun Gong, founded and led by Li Hongzhi. Shen Yun is composed of eight large performing ensembles, with a total of approximately 480 performers. Shen Yun has performed in front of millions and has toured all over the world.
The group is promoted by The Epoch Times, a far-right media outlet affiliated with Falun Gong. In 2019, an NBC News assessment concluded that the Epoch Media Group and Shen Yun "make up the outreach effort of Falun Gong". The Chinese government has attempted to cancel its performances abroad by pressuring theaters and governments. Shen Yun's performances promote negative views of evolution and atheism.
Falun Gong adherents pay to rent the performance venue, promote the show, and sell tickets. After expenses are covered through ticket sales, proceeds go to Shen Yun. The finances of Shen Yun and Falun Gong appear to be linked, with technically separate corporations sharing funds, executives, and the same mission. Its shows are heavily promoted through advertising blitz campaigns in local markets.
History
In 2006, a group of expatriate Falun Gong practitioners living in North America founded Shen Yun in New York. The stated purpose of the company was to revive Chinese culture and traditions from the time before the Chinese Communist Revolution. In a journal article analyzing Falun Gong’s geopolitics, scholar Weihsuan Lin wrote: "Shen Yun’s ‘reviving five thousand years of civilization’ attempts to question and separate the entanglement between the Party and the State; it enacts, globally, an alternative geopolitical discourse in which a culturally rich and prosperous China without the CCP existed in the past and is coming again in the near future."In 2007, the company conducted its first tour with 90 dancers, musicians, soloists, and production staff. Early shows were titled "Chinese Spectacular", "Holiday Wonders", "Chinese New Year Splendor", and "Divine Performing Arts", but now the company performs exclusively under the name "Shen Yun". By 2009, Shen Yun had developed three full companies and orchestras that toured the world simultaneously. By the end of the 2010 season, approximately one million people had seen the troupes perform.
File:State Theater Playhouse Square - Epoch Times interview.png|thumb|right|New Tang Dynasty Television interview being conducted inside the State Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio, during a Shen Yun performance. The television broadcaster is affiliated with Falun Gong.
Shen Yun, the media organization The Epoch Times, and a variety of other organizations operate as extensions of Falun Gong. Los Angeles–based investigative reporter Samuel Braslow described Shen Yun's background in March 2020: "Both Shen Yun and Epoch Times are funded and operated by members of Falun Gong, a controversial spiritual group that was banned by China's government in 1999 Falun Gong melds traditional Taoist principles with occasionally bizarre pronouncements from its Chinese-born founder and leader, Li Hongzhi. Among other pronouncements, Li has claimed that aliens started invading human minds in the beginning of the 20th century, leading to mass corruption and the invention of computers. He has also denounced feminism and homosexuality and claimed he can walk through walls and levitate. But the central tenet of the group's wide-ranging belief system is its fierce opposition to communism. In 2000, Li founded Epoch Times to disseminate Falun Gong talking points to American readers. Six years later he launched Shen Yun as another vehicle to promote his teachings to mainstream Western audiences. Over the years Shen Yun and Epoch Times, while nominally separate organizations, have operated in tandem in Falun Gong's ongoing PR campaign against the Chinese government, taking directions from Li." Editor Chris Jennewein of MyNewsLA wrote that Los Angeles Magazine was sued for defamation in May 2020 by the Epoch Times, referring to Braslow's news report. Los Angeles Magazine pulled the piece from their website in July, as ordered by federal judge George H. Wu, and published a retraction notice in the September 2020 issue of the magazine.
Marketing
Shen Yun promotes itself as "a presentation of traditional Chinese culture as it once was". It is heavily promoted in major cities with commercials, billboards, and brochures displayed in streets and in businesses, as well as in television and radio profiles. According to Jia Tolentino of The New Yorker, "The ads have to be both ubiquitous and devoid of content so that they can convince more than a million people to pay good money to watch what is, essentially, religious-political propaganda—or, more generously, an extremely elaborate commercial for Falun Dafa’s spiritual teachings and its plight vis-à-vis the Chinese Communist regime." Shen Yun's advertizing blitz campaigns have inspired several internet memes. In 2021, the troupe began billing its shows as "China Before Communism".Shen Yun performances are often presented or sponsored by regional Falun Gong groups, which has been banned by the Chinese government. Some audience members have objected to the show's promotion strategy, which does not note the religious- and political-themed content of the performance. Jim Kershner of The Spokesman-Review reported that while the show contained "a religious-political message", "he vast majority of the show, however, has no overt message. It is dedicated mainly to keeping alive the traditional forms of Chinese music and dance that were suppressed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and in subsequent decades." Chicago Tribune’s Gisela Orozco also noted that Shen Yun offered, "in a few passages, critical allusions to the communism that governs its country of origin, but without abounding on the subject."
Content
Dance
Large-scale group dance is at the center of Shen Yun productions. Each touring company consists of about 40 male and female dancers, who mainly perform modern version inspired by classical Chinese dances, making extensive use of acrobatic and tumbling techniques, forms and postures.Shen Yun's repertoire draws on stories from Chinese history and legends, such as the legend of Mulan, Journey to the West and Outlaws of the Marsh. It also depicts "the story of Falun Gong today". During the 2010 production, at least two of the 16 scenes depicted "persecution and murder of Falun Gong practitioners" in contemporary China, including the beating of a young mother to death, and the jailing of a Falun Gong protester. In addition to classical Han Chinese dance, Shen Yun also includes elements of Yi, Miao, Tibetan and Mongolian dance.
Shen Yun performs three core elements of classical Chinese dance: bearing, form, and technical skill. Shen Yun choreographer Vina Lee has stated that some of the distinct Chinese bearing has been "lost in the process" since the cultural changes of the Chinese Communist Revolution.
Music
Shen Yun dances are accompanied by Chinese instruments: the, and a variety of Chinese percussion instruments. A full Western orchestra leads the melodies. There are solo performances featuring Chinese instruments such as the in between dances. Interspersed between dance sequences, other than the performances, are operatic singers performing songs which sometimes invoke spiritual or religious themes, including references to the Falun Gong faith. A performance in 2007, for instance, included a reference to the Chakravartin, a figure in Buddhism who turns the wheel of Dharma.The music for Shen Yun was composed by Jing Xian and Junyi Tan. Three of Shen Yun's performers—flutist Ningfang Chen, erhuist Mei Xuan and tenor Guan Guimin—were recipients of the Chinese Ministry of Culture's "National First Class Performer" awards. Prior to joining Shen Yun, Guan Guimin was well known in China for his work on soundtracks for more than 50 movies and television shows. Other notable performers include soloist Xiaochun Qi.
Costume and backdrops
Shen Yun's dancers perform wearing intricate costumes, often accompanied by a variety of props. Some costumes are intended to imitate the dress of various ethnicities, while others depict ancient Chinese court dancers, soldiers, or characters from classic stories. Props include colorful handkerchiefs, drums, fans, chopsticks, or silk scarves.Each Shen Yun piece is set against a digitally projected backdrop, usually depicting landscapes such as Mongolian grasslands, imperial courts, ancient villages, temples, or mountains. Some backdrops contain moving elements, such as digital versions of the dancers, that integrate with the performance.
Reviews
Sid Smith of Chicago Tribune wrote that a 2008 Shen Yun performance was "more uneven" than other cultural performances he had seen, but that the women dancers were "a beautiful and haunting ensemble" with "a nimble mastery of traditional talents." Sarah Crompton of The Daily Telegraph wrote of a 2008 Shen Yun performance: "This show is advertised as a Chinese spectacular – a kind of Eastern version of Cirque du Soleil. It is nothing of the kind. Acrobatics, singing and dancing skills are used in the service of a propaganda exercise on the part of Falun Gong ... But what I really object to is that such a politically motivated performance is being smuggled on to stages around Europe in the name of family entertainment."Regina Weinreich wrote in a HuffPost blog that Shen Yun's debut at Lincoln Center in 2011 "enacts the rich cultural heritage of China" and noted some descriptions of oppression in the performance. Fashion designer Donna Karan and her Urban Zen foundation hosted celebrities at an opening night and said, "I love when it gets into the soul". Laura Falcoff, writing in the Argentinian newspaper Clarín, described Shen Yun in 2012 as a "spectacular production that beautifully combines China's ancient traditions with cutting-edge technological advancements" and called it an "ideal performance for audiences of all ages, especially children." Carmen Del Val of the Spanish newspaper El País wrote that a 2014 performance was "an explosion of color and energy". Rachel Molenda of Charleston Gazette-Mail wrote of a 2015 Shen Yun performance at the Clay Center, where the audience gave a standing ovation, "The pairing of projected backgrounds and animation with real-time performance was surreal. Sometimes I questioned whether the musicians, whose compositions were lovely, were really there." Gisela Orozco of Chicago Tribune wrote that a 2016 Shen Yun performance emphasized "the cultural part and faith that existed before in China," presented "fables told with dance and music, which talk about philosophy, literature and art”, and expressed values “such as loyalty, kindness, bravery, love”.
The 2018 and 2019 performances included lyrics and digital displays disparaging atheism and belief in evolution as "deadly ideas", leading to complaints by some attendees that the shows resembled a religious sermon. An article in the Minnesota Star Tribune said the political message of Shen Yun "feels more like propaganda than straightforwardly presented cultural heritage." Jia Tolentino wrote in The New Yorker that a scene in the show contained homophobia. Alix Martichoux from the Houston Chronicle wrote, "For many disgruntled Shen Yun attendees, it's not necessarily that the show itself is bad – though to be fair, some complain it is. Most of the negative reviews were people upset they were blindsided by the political content." Tolentino described a scene: "Chairman Mao appeared, and the sky turned black; the city in the digital backdrop was obliterated by an earthquake, then finished off by a Communist tsunami. A red hammer and sickle glowed in the center of the wave a huge, bearded face in the water a tsunami with the face of Karl Marx."
Pablo M. Díez of the Spanish newspaper ABC wrote in 2023, "Shen Yun's shows are a dazzling combination of dance and music with synchronized choreography in majestic settings."
Emily Needham of The Washington Post drew parallels between Shen Yun and Cold War-era U.S. State Department cultural diplomacy programs, describing both as being "built on the idea that dance can transcend language differences and build mutual understanding with audiences through a shared cultural experience." She concluded: "Today’s Shen Yun performances are grand, with a large cast of 180 brilliant dancers, spectacular sets and bright colors. Dance can be beautiful while also performing political arguments. They are not mutually exclusive."
In a 2024 Los Angeles Review of Books article, Arielle Gordon stated that Shen Yun diffuses Falun Gong’s homophobia and misogyny.