Have you heard that Shen Yun, the internationally acclaimed Chinese dance extravaganza, will perform two shows this weekend at Burlington’s Flynn Center for the Performing Arts? If not, you must be living way off the grid.
In recent weeks, the New York-based company behind the show has inundated the Green Mountain State with a full-blown marketing blitz: repeated commercials on local radio and television, glossy color inserts and newspaper ads (including eight weeks of the latter in Seven Days), web infomercials, Facebook ads, six-page direct mailers distributed throughout Chittenden County, pamphlets handed out on Church Street, even a banner spanning Shelburne Road in the city’s South End.
The promotions for this lavish affair, which is part of a 30-country world tour, feature images of silk-draped dancers in traditional Chinese garb. Ads include gushing testimonials from international celebrities and dignitaries, some of whom claim to have seen the “once-in-a-lifetime” performance multiple times. One print endorsement calls Shen Yun “absolutely the No. 1 show in the world.”
John Killacky, executive director and CEO of the Flynn Center, which is hosting Shen Yun for the third time in two years, couldn’t put a dollar figure on the advertising campaign, as the Flynn doesn’t handle the show’s marketing. But he said he’s “amazed” by the “inordinate amount of money” behind it. Tickets aren’t cheap, either: The costliest go for $123. By comparison, the top ticket for the Broadway touring production of Annie is $75.
If the over-the-top promotion feels somewhat cultish, there’s a reason for that. Shen Yun — which translates as “the beauty of heavenly beings dancing” — is promoted locally by the Falun Dafa Association of New England, which is affiliated with Falun Gong and its controversial founder and spiritual leader, Li Hongzhi. According to the show’s website, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by Falun Gong members seeking to preserve traditional Chinese culture; it’s since grown to four different touring troupes. Shen Yun Performing Arts is headquartered at Dragon Springs, a 427-acre compound in Deerpark, N.Y., that includes residence halls, classrooms, meditation halls, gardens and a Tang Dynasty-style temple.
Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims 80 to 100 million followers worldwide, including more than 10,000 in North America. Whether it’s a religion, a spiritual movement or a cult depends on whom you ask.
In 1999, China’s Communist Party formally branded Falun Gong a cult and outlawed it. The official website for the Chinese embassy in the United States describes Li as “an evil figure” whose “fraudulent behavior” has been “seriously disrupting social order and sabotaging the hard-earned social stability of China.” He currently lives in exile in the United States.
For their part, Falun Gong members accuse China of persecuting, jailing and executing thousands of the group’s adherents, then harvesting their organs for transplantation. International human rights activists who’ve investigated such claims as recently as June 2016 allege that systematic organ harvesting from Chinese prisoners, including Falun Gong members, is widespread. The Chinese government vehemently denies those claims.
Experts on cults in this country differ in their assessments of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa and its leader. Michael Langone, executive director of the International Cultic Studies Association in Bonita Springs, Fla., has been investigating cults and cultlike groups since 1978. He says any assessment of Falun Gong must take into account its long-standing war with China’s Communist Party, which he suggests only fuels the group’s cultlike tendencies.
Langone, who’s never investigated Shen Yun itself, suggests that a large and decentralized organization such as Falun Gong may exhibit “cultic dynamics” of bullying and intimidation of some followers without being permeated by those dynamics.
In 2001, Langone’s group tried to mediate a dialogue between Falun Gong and the Chinese government at the ICSA’s annual conference in Seattle. That dialogue broke down, but not before a representative from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco showed conference attendees an anti-Falun Gong propaganda film. Langone describes it as “laughable … like Reefer Madness,” the 1936 film that grossly exaggerates the dangers of marijuana.
“The Falun Gong members we met were passionately persuasive because of their concern of the persecution of their relatives,” Langone said. “They’re not talking about abstract strangers being thrown in jail. They’re talking about fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. So I cut them a little slack, because they’re fighting a totalitarian government that’s hurting people they love.”
By contrast, cult expert Rick Alan Ross cuts Falun Gong no slack whatsoever. Ross is founder of the Trenton, N.J.-based Cult Education Institute and author of the 2014 book Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out. He devotes two chapters to Falun Gong and his work in deprogramming its followers in the U.S. and Europe.
In a phone interview and email, Ross branded Falun Gong as “a destructive cult” whose leader, “Master Li,” he likened to Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. According to Ross, Li claims to possess supernatural powers and runs his group “like a dictator.”
Ross, who’s never seen the show, characterizes it as the multimillion-dollar “marketing and recruitment arm” of Li’s financial empire. He says Li owns multiple homes in the United States, including one in Queens, another on Staten Island, a “country mansion” in New Jersey and a condominium in Chicago.
“[Li] is a multimillionaire, that’s for sure,” added Ross, citing a February 24 story in the Los Angeles Times that valued Falun Gong’s net assets in the U.S. at more than $38 million. “Becoming an object of worship is a great way to make money.”
Ross also highlighted some of the more controversial remarks that Li has made in his writings and in press interviews. They include expressions of abhorrence for miscegenation and mixed-race offspring, which Li said “confuses the gods.” Similarly, Li has described homosexuality as “filthy,” “deviant,” “repulsive” and “incestuous,” and predicted that gays will be “the gods’ first target for annihilation.”
Over the years, Ross said, he has challenged Falun Gong members, whom he characterizes as “mostly Chinese ex-pats and middle-aged Chinese women,” about such remarks, but none have refuted or qualified them.
“The bottom line is, you can never get them to say that Master Li is wrong about anything,” Ross added.
How effective is Shen Yun at “marketing and recruitment”? If the show is a fundraiser for the Falun Dafa Association of New England, it hasn’t filled that chapter’s coffers. According to the nonprofit’s 990 filing with the Internal Revenue Service in 2015, the group’s net assets were in the red for more than $221,000.
As for content, the Shen Yun performance purports to cover 5,000 years of Chinese history. By all accounts, it’s a lush, breathtaking and mesmerizing production of storytelling dance.
“You will be taken on a journey to magnificent eras in Chinese history, as well as to periods from China’s recent past,” Shen Yun‘s website reads. “Ancient stories and legends, ethnic and folk traditions, villains and heroes will come to life on stage through classical Chinese dance, live music and stunning digital backdrops. You can expect an experience like no other, one that not only entertains, but also enriches and inspires.”
Some reporters who’ve seen the show — this one has not — describe it as featuring blatant anti-Communist China propaganda that is occasionally over the top. As the Fresno Bee reported in December, the show depicts Chinese authorities brutalizing a mother who practices Falun Dafa meditation and forcibly separating her from her child.
But others suggest that spectators can enjoy Shen Yun without feeling like they’re attending a political rally or tent revival. According to Killacky, the Flynn has never received a single complaint about the show’s content, nor did Shen Yun sell or distribute religious or political propaganda at previous shows.
Efforts to seek comment from the Falun Dafa Association of New England and its Vermont contact went unanswered as of press time.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Shen Yun: Entertaining Family Fare, Political Propaganda — or Both?”
Related Stories
This article appears in Mar 22-28, 2017.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Thanks for this great, in-depth piece, Ken. This answers many questions I’ve had about this group and performance — especially the in-your-face, over-the-top and EVERYWHERE marketing. I am so sick of seeing these ads everywhere I turn!
After seeing the performance yesterday I can say with utter certainty that it was political-religious propaganda and nothing less. I have to say I am more than a little surprised the Flynn played along with it. Ugh!
I was accosted by one of their marketing evangelists while grabbing a quick bite to eat at Burlington Town Center yesterday. Thanks…this explains why the lady was so pushy.
Wow wow wow….for a community that prides itself on diversity, inclusiveness, and love this article sure expresses a lot of hate. I’m not sure this article is in line with true Vermonters values. After doing some of my own independent research it is obvious Falun Dafa is a peaceful meditation group being wrongly persecuted and slandered by the Chinese Communist Party. The praises Shen Yun has received from experts in the Arts and beyond is astonishing. A little weird that a local paper would take this route to defame such a world class show…. What is the real agenda here?
I knew something was amiss when I noticed the policing of the audience by troupe members. Wearing earpieces, wrist microphones, and carrying “purses” which were actually recording devices, Shen Yun members communicated back and forth, watching for any potential recording of the performance. There were so many of them, all over the place, I felt like I was in that scene from “The Sound of Music” when the Von Traps escape after their performance. Then the perfpormance. Quickly it became apparent that this was a propaganda tool for the organization, complete with saccharine Mc’s, elementary storytelling with heavy-handed political and religious messages. It was all very unsettling and disturbing, and I knew we had been suckered. Frankly, I am stunned that the Flynn Theater participated in this trickery.
In short, it felt like a Scientology (or, anyone remember Amway?) convention. I should have done my research beforehand, as it wasn’t difficult to find the truth about this organization with a quick Google search. We just handed our money over to a prejudiced and oppressive organization, thanks to the Flynn’s support of this group. Think about that.
Did a little bit of research… half of this article is based on lies put out by the Chinese Communist Party.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2200993-some-places-in-china-waver-on-persecution-of-falun-gong/
http://www.stoporganharvesting.org/what-is-falun-gong/
I have seen this show for 7 years because they have a brand new performance every year and I really enjoyed every program. Majority of the pieces tell the stories from ancient China about flying deities in heavens and stories from ancient books. I found the show to be very educational and uplifting. It is quite said that some people nowadays distance themselves from spirituality and thus miss seeing the beauty in traditional and classical show such as Shen Yun. Many times my friends hated a movie at a theater but I actually loved it after seeing the movie. Same thing with Shen Yun, I would highly recommend to see the show in spite of this negative review.
I saw Shen Yun in Boston. You get to see an amazing Tibetan performance, authentic Mongolian bowl dance and other stories that you cannot see due to Communist censorship of the arts. The local reporter quoted the Chinese government, the same government that is known for harvesting organs of living human beings. Everyone knows China lies to justify human rights abuses against Falun Gong. Shen Yun had no signs of homophobia or cult-like behavior. Further, Shen Yun demonstrated acts of kindness and forgiveness. This article has nothing to do with what Shen Yun is about.
Chinese communist party banned many things. I was very frustrated I couldn’t use gmail while I toured in China. Looks like they banned facebook, youtube as well. I tend to say what Chinese communist party bans most likely to be good things or just normal. I don’t understand why they have to ban so many things in China.
Hm, I don’t agree with this article’s stance–I’ve seen multiple Shen Yun shows, and I feel that the message is always about goodness, and the marketers and performers I’ve met have always been courteous and kind. I hope people are willing to see the show and make an informed decision for themselves.
I totally disagree with this article. Every Shen Yun show I have seen exudes the need for us to be united in goodness and morals….something much needed today. It’s a breath of fresh air for anyone who is into true entertainment. The people that I have talked to about it have said nothing but good things about it also. Mostly the beautiful colors and amazing music. But also that it’s so uplifting and brings a sense of hope to the world. Nobody should miss it. The reviews (aside from this one) have been amazing. The people who walk away from this show are absolutely amazed by it, like I am. This article was in such stark contrast to what I saw and what so many people have experienced that it was almost odd. But at the least very shocking that they got such negative things from it….weird.
I regularly see opera and theater in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. When I saw Shen Yun for the first time, I was blown away by the marvelous quality of the performers, the music, the costumes, and the 5000 years of ancient, divinely inspired culture that was magically brought to life in front of me. It was incredibly touching. It is obvious to me that the author has not seen Shen Yun, because his article entirely misses point of the performance, which is to revive and celebrate the higher, universal principles of truthfulness and compassion that exist throughout history, at the core of all societies, and in every human heart.
I have seen Shen Yun 5-6 times and Shen Yun is entirely different from what the article seems to suggest. Its mission is to revive 5000 years of Chinese culture, and they do it with absolute elegance. The show exhibits different ethnic dance that are absolutely graceful and different Chinese stories from 5000 years of history. Many of my friends have seen Shen Yun and they absolutely love it. Dancing and music is a form of expression. Shen Yun is just using art as a form to express the real Chinese Culture, the traditional values, which includes contemporary stories. The show is beautiful and it always brings me to tears after watching it. I bought tickets for my grandma to watch this year. She really liked the show. It is so sad to hear that some people can’t appreciate the art form that is unique to Shen Yun.
I’ve enjoyed watching Shen Yun for years, almost from its very inception.
I think this performance does a great deal to heal the world. I am sure our world needs more of this beauty, purity, and inspiration presented by Shen Yun.
Every time upon leaving the theater after the performance, I was amazed by the theatergoers’ reactions: their faces glowing with excitement, many had tears in their eyes — all audience around me was overjoyed.
I want to give just one example of a sincere reaction to the performance given by The Honorable David Kilgour, a retired Member of the Parliament of Canada, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, renowned author and human rights advocate, who was happy to see Shen Yun Performing Arts again, at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in CA on March 12, 2017.
“It’s the best show I’ve ever seen, said Mr. Kilgour. “The costumes, the dancing, the singing, the technical things were simply the best I’ve seen.”
Mr. Kilgour said he has seen most of Shen Yuns performances over the past seven or eight years, and that the show keeps exceeding his expectations.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/560929-david-kilgour-shen-yun-is-simply-the-best-ive-seen/
I am really shocked that a reporter with a pile of rewords from a very respected newspaper could write a very negative article without even ONCE seeing a performance!
No wonder many people do not trust our media anymore!
I want to ask those who have never seen Shen Yun performance before to not rely on the article above.
If you want to see Shen Yun, please attend the performance and make a conclusion yourself, not based on a biased article with a very obvious agenda behind it.
Dear MaineVIsitor, Austin, Sean Cronin and DeeBEE – The reason some of the people who you see trying to get people to go to the show seem pushy is because they are normal average people with not a lot of experience – just volunteer passion from Chinese folks who have not outgrown their CCP brainwashing yet. Think about it – people are going to be different when they grow up being repressed by the Chinese Communist Party. But their hearts are in the right place.
Just chiming in as a non cult robot. Thanks for the article Ken!
If your goal is only to be a millionaire, why bother with a “lavish” and complicated production? It just does’t add up. Your not going to go through all that trouble and daily work just to make a few milliion dollars which he was before the show even started because he has been in the US since 1992.
Over two thousand Vermonters plus audiences from other States and country saw Shen Yun in the Flynn Theater on March 25. I was one among them. Many of us were moved to tears by the stories of persecution on Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese Communist regime acted out and danced to music so succinctly and powerfully yet so artistically and tastefully.
Throughout the entire two hours, what I experienced has been nothing but peace and harmony, beauty and goodness, fun and laughter, joy and sadness, and a whole lot more that human words cannot express adequately.
So, it was a shock to my system to read Ken Picards article that purports to be about the show but largely flings dirt at Falun Gong as a cult and its founder Li as evil.
(If an evil cult can produce such a show, Id say: WHAT A CULT!)
Picards article has me wondering what are his and Seven Days motivation and hidden agenda that appear to go all out to smear a show so welcomed all over the world and for the past decade!
(I have to ask: WHY?)
Picards article was published three days before show time. How many people were turned away and missed the rare opportunity to be impacted by a show that has finally arrived at Vermont?
What a great disservice this one man and this one free newspaper have done to the community? I believe Picard and Seven Days owe us an apology, at the least.
A recent Freedom House report on religious freedom in China reads (p. 110), “Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Falun Gong, its practitioners, and founder Li Hongzhi enjoyed substantial government support and positive coverage in state media. Some state media reports from that period laud the health benefits of Falun Gong practice and show adherents receiving healthy citizen awards. In an event that would be unimaginable today, Mr. Li gave a lecture at the Chinese embassy in Paris in 1995, at the governments invitation.”
The National Sports Commission of China, and former Chairman of People’ Congress Qiao Shi, launched two separate investigations into Falun Gong in 1998. Both investigations praised the benefit of Falun Gong. The head investigator of the first one, Qiu Yucai, declared on Oct. 20, 1998 that, Were convinced the exercises and effects of Falun Gong are excellent. It has done an extraordinary amount to improve societys stability and ethics. This should be duly affirmed.
The “cult” label only appeared in party discourse in October 1999, 3 months after the crackdown against Falun Gong. This suggests that the term was applied retroactively to justify a violent campaign that was provoking international and domestic criticism. David Ownby, a leading scholar on Chinese religions, notes:
“The entire issue of the supposed cultic nature of Falun Gong was a red herring from the beginning, cleverly exploited by the Chinese state to blunt the appeal of Falun Gong and the effectiveness of the groups activities outside China.”
There is a clear scholarly consensus (such as by David Ownby, and Ian Johnson who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on Falun Gong) that Falun Gong does not fit the definition of a “cult.”
And for someone that have not seen the show, he has no qualification to criticize it.
Shen Yun exhibits the pure Chinese classical dance form through telling stories from far back in history to modern day China. The fact that the show displays an ongoing cruel and unjustified persecution of millions of Falun Gong adherents in China in a couple of numbers is by no means wrong. For a lot of these dancers that is a personal story since some of them lost their family members in the persecution. I don’t think they do it for political reasons or that behind their show is a desire to have an influence in Chinese politics. Let me ask all of you here, if you were an artist and your father or mother or a friend were imprisoned, tortured or killed for doing nothing wrong but on the contrary being good people, wouldn’t you share that story through your art? Does it mean that you have a political agenda or you simply want your story to be heard and the most basic human right to believe upheld?
When it comes to talking about Falun Gong, please be responsible. Falun Gong doesn’t charge it’s adherents money, doesn’t have any hierarchical structure, doesn’t have any membership roosters, has it’s materials available online for free and has won tons of awards both in China and overseas for it’s physical and moral benefits. Mr. Li Hongzhi has been nominated for Nobel peace prize a number of times as well. People can come and go as they please and practice on their own if they wish and still benefit the same from it. How can you call that a cult? So, if something doesn’t resonate with someone’s personal notions or beliefs it should automatically be labeled as wrong and demonized?
Shen Yun, a performing arts company founded in 2006, gradually expanded over the years and their tours around the world are in the name of traditional Chinese culture, but have been controversial in China. It is regarded as a microphone of Falun Gong in China, engaged in the anti-government propaganda. After viewing the performance of Shen Yun, some audiences in western country assumed that it carried a rude political motive with a low artistic level.
After the intermission, everything was crystal clear. Shen Yun is nothing more than a podium for Falun Dafa/Falun Gong.
On March 26, 2017, Michael Duell, a reader from Phoenix, Arizona, wrote a letter to azcentral.com after watching the show, which referred to Falun Gong Shen Yun perform was a deceptive show, and argued that Shen Yun was behind the show, and the so-called art director, was the leader of Falun Gong, Hongzhi Li with an alias of D.F.. He said: After the intermission, everything was crystal clear. Shen Yun is nothing more than a podium for Falun Dafa/Falun Gong.