BEHIND THE CURTAINS OF SHEN YUN

Have you ever seen an advertisement for the traditional Chinese dance performance Shen Yun?

For many, it is impossible not to be bombarded by Shen Yun advertisements if you live in the vicinity of one of the 130 cities that the dance troupe tours every year, one of which is Portland.

In fact, we have advertisements for Shen Yun right here on the Mt. Hood Community College campus. I first noticed this very poster (shown here) a few months ago, pinned onto the bulletin board directly below our Library’s entrance.

The poster that depicts a graceful dancer soaring across the stage immediately piqued my interest. I thought it looked like an intriguing performance – but that was all there was to it. I was never much of a traditional dance person, so I never considered actually watching it. And so, over time, I walked right past the poster and forgot about it.

I had thought that would be the last I heard of Shen Yun, but I was wrong.

Months after I had first seen the poster, an inconspicuous video about Shen Yun appeared on my YouTube feed. But to my surprise, the video wasn’t about Shen Yun’s dance performance. The video was about the dance troupe’s ties to the controversial religious movement Falun Gong.

What is Falun Gong? Founded in China in the 1990s by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong, also known interchangeably as Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement focused on ascending to higher spiritual planes. Followers of Falun Gong believe it is possible to ascend spiritually through good karma and a series of breathing exercises.

In 1999, China began persecuting Falun Gong due to its growing popularity, which the country claimed was a threat to its “social stability.” Following Falun Gong’s persecution, the religious movement largely relocated to the state of New York, where it remains headquartered today.

A group of Falun Gong practitioners founded Shen Yun Performing Arts in New York in 2006. According to Shen Yun Performing Arts’ official website, the group’s “mission [is] to revive a culture that was once almost lost.”

The interesting part of this whole story is the teachings of Falun Gong that are shared by Shen Yun. Falun Gong condemns homosexual and interracial relationships. It also preaches that human evolution is a falsehood. These views have been perpetuated in the performances of Shen Yun. According to an article from The New Yorker magazine published in 2019, during one performance of Shen Yun, it was sung that “Atheism and evolution are deadly ideas. Modern trends destroy what makes us human.”

These themes have drawn significant criticism from many attendees of the performances. According to Chron (online platform of the Houston Chronicle in Texas), in an article from 2018, many attendees felt “blindsided by the political content.” Several Yelp reviews of the performance accused it of being a “religious sermon” or “cult propaganda.”

But how does a dubious religious dance troupe generate enough revenue to advertise itself so extensively? Well, in truth, it does not. Shen Yun Performing Arts does not directly pay for its own advertising: Rather, it is paid for by local groups in each area it visits that are related to Shen Yun and Falun Gong.

These groups spend enormous amounts of money to advertise the Shen Yun tours. According to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, these “groups spent at least $39.3 million on advertising across the [United States] from 2015 to 2017.”

Although the poster at Mt. Hood mentioned earlier has been taken down as the Portland shows passed in January, in its place is yet another Shen Yun advertisement. It is a small advertisement for Shen Yun Zuo Pin, Shen Yun’s video platform.

As of now (early May), it remains pinned on the backside of the bulletin board beneath the Library entrance.

Go check it out, or maybe do not – if dances of religious doctrine are not quite the entertainment you are looking for.