Shen Yun: The Darkish Aspect of a Dance Troupe

This transcript was created utilizing speech recognition software program. Whereas it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it could comprise errors. Please evaluation the episode audio earlier than quoting from this transcript and e mail transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions.

From “The New York Instances“, I’m Rachel Abrams. That is “The Day by day.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

A couple of days in the past, some of the ubiquitous stay reveals within the nation, Shen Yun, started its newest run at arguably its most prestigious venue, Lincoln Middle. It’s drawn 1000’s of individuals to a efficiency that’s colourful, acrobatic and in accordance with lots of its performers, shockingly abusive.

In the present day, my colleague Nicole Hong on “What a Instances” investigation has discovered concerning the secretive and sprawling enterprise.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It’s Wednesday, April 2nd.

Nicole, I’ve seen billboards for Shen Yun actually throughout New York Metropolis. They’re pastel coloured. They present folks dancing. They’re carrying this lengthy, flowy, diaphanous clothes. However I’ll admit this. I don’t assume I’ve ever truly bothered to look into what these billboards had been truly promoting.

And now you’ve executed this massive investigation into Shen Yun, which I’m actually excited to speak about. We’re going to get to in a minute.

However first, are you able to simply inform us what precisely is Shen Yun?

So on the floor, Shen Yun is that this performing arts group. They tour all over the world, they carry out conventional Chinese language dance accompanied with a full orchestra. And most of the people know them due to their promoting.

Their billboards are all over the place.

We’ve seen TV adverts, flyers on storefronts, direct mailers into our mailboxes.

And so they’re typically promoting these imprecise slogans.

Like China earlier than communism or 5,000 years of civilization reborn.

Like many individuals, I’ve seen these for years and by no means thought twice about what this group was. They had been simply a part of the panorama.

Sure.

However in late 2023, my reporting accomplice, Michael Rothfeld, obtained a tip from somebody who was aware of the interior workings of Shen Yun and stated we should always take a more in-depth have a look at their operations.

So we began making telephone calls. And naturally, we additionally determined to go to one in every of their reveals in Boston.

And what was that like?

So the tickets had been truly fairly costly. Our tickets had been over $200.

Wow. OK. It’s like going to Broadway.

Yeah, and the present is principally a sequence of brief, very choreographed dance and music items. And quite a lot of the scenes are retelling conventional Chinese language folktales and mythology, and the extent of dancing could be very excessive degree.

As I used to be watching it, it jogged my memory of Olympic gymnastics or ballet. It’s quite a lot of flips and splits within the air, that form of factor. However as you get deeper into the present, you begin to notice there’s additionally one thing else happening, which is that there’s a religious and political aspect to a few of these items.

So, for instance, there’s this one dance quantity we noticed, the place a performer is dressed as a police officer for the Chinese language Communist Occasion, and he’s beating up this harmless man with a baton in a violent approach. And it seems this man is getting overwhelmed for training a faith known as Falun Gong.

And it turns into clear to you, as an viewers member because the present progresses, that the present is presenting this faith, Falun Gong, as a pressure for good, preventing in opposition to the evil of the Chinese language authorities.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So that’s not in any respect what I used to be anticipating. I imply, I anticipated that you simply had been going to inform me that it was a present with dancing and colourful costumes and being transported to faraway locations, however I didn’t count on that there can be this complete underlying spiritual and political message.

This isn’t only a dance group. Shen Yun is about spreading the message of this spiritual motion, Falun Gong, to a mainstream viewers. And I obtained to witness this firsthand, as a result of once I went to the Boston present, the person sitting subsequent to me I noticed at intermission was googling on his telephone, what’s Falun Gong?

In order that indicated to me that the message was penetrating. It was coming by to this viewers member.

Which is what they need.

Precisely. However on the time, we didn’t totally perceive the larger image. We didn’t but know what was actually occurring behind the scenes. And after we dug extra into Shen Yun, what we uncovered by many, many months of reporting was this huge operation constructed on exploitation and coercion, all in service of Falun Gong’s spiritual chief, who has turned Shen Yun into a significant supply of wealth and affect for his motion.

So inform me about this man and this spiritual motion.

So this spiritual motion, Falun Gong, started in China within the early Nineteen Nineties, and it was began by this man, whose Chinese language title is Li Hongzhi. He was truly a grain clerk. However someplace alongside the way in which, he begins touring throughout China to introduce this new motion he’s created. It combines parts of Buddhism with these historical Chinese language energy-based workout routines which can be often known as Qigong. These are principally gradual actions, the place you progress your palms and arms across the physique to flow into vitality.

And Li is instructing his followers his model of those workout routines, together with religious texts that he’s written. And he’s selling this faith, not solely as a approach to enhance your well being bodily, however he’s additionally saying that this might help you attain enlightenment, that that is the roadmap to turning into a greater and extra ethical particular person.

OK. To this point, all of this sounds fairly on par with what you’d count on quite a lot of religions to be.

Sure, however when you get deeper into the teachings, there are extra mystical parts that come up. For instance, he has stated that superior practitioners can develop supernatural powers like the flexibility to levitate or the flexibility to see by partitions.

OK. In order that appears form of on the market. Are folks shopping for into it?

Yeah. So it’s essential to know the context of what was happening in China on the time. That is the Nineteen Nineties. It was a interval of financial and political turmoil. Mao Zedong, the Communist Occasion chief, had died not that way back, and Mao had tried to stamp out conventional tradition and conventional religions throughout his rule.

So when he died, it left a religious vacuum within the nation, and his demise led to this revival of religious life in China, together with historical practices like Qigong. So in consequence, by the mid Nineteen Nineties, Falun Gong has followers throughout China. A lot of them stated their well being did enhance by the meditation workout routines. And so the follow turns into extraordinarily well-liked.

So in a short time, it sounds prefer it turns into a nationwide motion.

Yeah, and never only a nationwide motion, however a global one. Li truly began taking his lectures and his teachings to the Chinese language diaspora, abroad, and it catches on in lots of international locations, like Australia, Canada, and the US as nicely.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

However that is the place it will get the eye of the Chinese language Communist Occasion.

Clearly, that is an authoritarian regime. They’re suspicious of any group they can’t management, particularly one that may mobilize giant teams of individuals in a short time. And all of this involves a head in April 1999 —

Greater than 10,000 Falun Gong followers had this rally in Beijing.

And after the rally, that is the place the persecution actually begins.

Falun Gong is banned in China. China places out an arrest warrant for Li.

They begin calling this group A, quote, “evil cult“, which the group has vehemently denied.

And 1000’s of Falun Gong practitioners are imprisoned. They’re despatched to labor camps. They’re tortured. They’re overwhelmed and a few of them by no means make it out. They died in custody throughout long-prison phrases.

It was an extremely brutal response that led many individuals overseas, together with lawmakers in america, to think about Falun Gong a persecuted group and a sufferer of human rights abuses.

And I believe it’s additionally essential to notice that this suppression continues to this present day.

That is beginning to clarify the scenes within the play that you simply described of the person who’s training Falun Gong being overwhelmed. That is beginning to make sense now.

Precisely.

You talked about Li earlier, the founding father of Falun Gong. So the place is he in the course of all of this?

So by the late Nineteen Nineties, in the course of the persecution, Li and his household have settled in america, in New York. That is now his new house base, the place he directs this world motion. And the persecution turns into this enormous, galvanizing and organizing pressure.

And at this level, Li’s teachings truly tackle an apocalyptic tone. He begins to painting the scenario as this existential battle between the Chinese language authorities and Falun Gong. It turns into a battle for survival.

So, partly, to attract world consideration to the persecution and to proceed to unfold the faith, Li and his followers have this concept to placed on a touring present. And that’s how in 2006, Shen Yun was born.

Acquired it. So every thing you simply stated actually helps to elucidate the present and the framing round, as you described it, good versus evil and Falun Gong versus the Chinese language Communist Occasion. However on condition that this present is actually propaganda, it does shock me that it’s gotten so ubiquitous that it has billboards actually all around the world.

So how profitable may the present truly be?

So this present has ended up turning into this enormous moneymaker for Falun Gong. We’re in a position to take a look at their tax data as a result of it’s registered as a nonprofit, and by the top of 2023, they’ve $266 million in belongings. They’re making tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} a yr in ticket gross sales, they usually’re stockpiling belongings at a fee that will be extraordinary for any kind of performing arts firm, not to mention this nonprofit dance group.

So how is that this attainable? How are they making a lot cash with this present?

It’s attainable as a result of Li has these legions of followers in international locations all around the world, who’re dedicated to him, dedicated to this battle in opposition to the Chinese language Communist Occasion, and are keen to make all of those sacrifices for him.

However what our reporting uncovered was the extent of that sacrifice, as a result of the success of Shen Yun has additionally come at this extraordinary value, and far of it has been on the expense of Li’s most loyal followers, who’ve typically devoted their total lives and livelihoods to hold out his imaginative and prescient.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We’ll be proper again.

So, Nicole, your investigation pulls again the curtain on the interior workings of this present. And what you discovered is a system that’s way more complicated and sounds prefer it exploits folks in a approach that may not be obvious at first blush. So stroll us by how all of this works.

So there are three important ways in which Shen Yun is actually constructed on the backs of its followers. One has to do with the performers in Shen Yun, the dancers and musicians. The second has to do with the Falun Gong followers who helped to finance the reveals. And the third approach entails the Falun Gong practitioners who run and function this refined media community to advertise the present and likewise assault its critics.

So let’s begin with the primary piece that you simply outlined. The people who find themselves truly performing in these reveals, how do they slot in?

So we interviewed dozens of dancers, musicians, and instructors who used to carry out for Shen Yun or work for Shen Yun. And what we discovered was that most of the performers in Shen Yun are delivered to New York when they’re as younger as 11 years outdated. They arrive from all around the world, they usually’ve sometimes grown up in Falun Gong households.

That is the faith that they practiced with their dad and mom, and their dad and mom had been very desperate to ship them to Shen Yun as a result of this dance group is seen as a holy honor for any practitioner to take part in.

And the way in which they be a part of this group is that they’re delivered to this monumental 400-acre compound known as Dragon Springs, the place Li himself relies. And simply for instance how they view him there at Dragon Springs, there may be this large golden Buddha statue. The face of this Buddha seems quite a bit like Li.

Oh, wow. So it feels like he’s principally made himself right into a godlike determine.

Yeah, many Falun Gong practitioners see him as a residing God. They need their youngsters to be near Li. And so these younger performers find yourself residing and coaching at Dragon Springs, typically nicely into their 20s.

So what does day by day life truly like for these younger college students who find yourself residing on the compound?

What we present in our interviews is that it was a really grueling atmosphere, each bodily and mentally. A lot of them described typically working or coaching 15 hours a day, six days per week. They’re basically working an expert workload as college students, however they’re getting little to no pay.

We spoke to lots of people who stated they weren’t paid in any respect throughout their first yr on tour. Their entry to outdoors info is closely managed. Some college students informed us they obtained in hassle in the event that they had been caught watching unapproved films or listening to music that was created after the yr 1900.

Wow. OK.

You’re inspired to tell in your classmates in case you see them breaking the principles, after which the rule breakers can truly face these public critique classes in entrance of all of their friends. And one of many issues we heard repeatedly from folks is that they had been discouraged from searching for medical assist in the event that they obtained injured, and that is tied to Li’s teachings. He says that unfavorable karma causes sickness, and that in case you’re a real believer, you’ll be able to expel that out of your physique.

So, for instance, we spoke to at least one dancer who stated that proper earlier than a efficiency, she was training a flip after which dislocated her kneecap. Considered one of her classmates popped it again into place, and he or she simply carried out by it for 2 hours.

Utterly excruciating ache.

However she was terrified to ask for medical remedy, and he or she additionally didn’t get any as a result of in case you do, you get shamed as somebody who isn’t a religious Falun Gong practitioner.

There was additionally this former violinist in Shen Yun’s orchestra who informed us that he began feeling these sharp pains in his shoulder, so he was delivered to see Li, who touched his shoulder after which informed him he was healed. When the ache saved going, the violinist classmates informed him, oh, that’s as a result of your religion isn’t robust sufficient. It wasn’t till years later that he found the reason for the ache was truly a bulging disk in his backbone. And this was a constant theme that we heard from lots of people.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The situations sound so excessive. A number of the accidents that you simply simply described having to bop by a busted kneecap. Why do folks put up with this or why their dad and mom allow them to keep?

It has quite a bit to do with what Li was telling the performers about their obligation to Shen Yun. We discovered that Li was telling them the aim of a Shen Yun present isn’t solely to teach audiences, however to really save them from the top occasions. This finish occasions that’s coming. The thought is that if viewers members imagine in Falun Gong’s message, they’ll be saved when the universe is destroyed.

And a few of the performers stated they had been informed that any errors they made on stage may truly doom their audiences to hell.

So these younger folks aren’t simply performing, they really imagine they’re answerable for folks’s salvation?

Sure. One of many dancers we talked to stated he had this perspective that if he didn’t do nicely as a Shen Yun performer, then the universe wouldn’t be saved and it might be his fault.

Wow.

So that is the form of strain that quite a lot of these performers, lots of whom are youngsters, are listening to.

One more reason that lots of them are terrified to depart is monetary. They get free tuition, free housing, free meals. It’s a full scholarship to a boarding college, basically. And once they attempt to give up, lots of them are informed in case you depart, you’re going to need to pay all of that again.

Now, we didn’t truly hear from anybody that they tried to hunt compensation, however the specter of it was sufficient to maintain lots of them there.

So principally, all of those totally different incentives, all of those totally different pressures, are permitting Li to get low cost or free labor from these younger folks?

Sure, and that’s not the one approach his followers are propping up the mission. They’re additionally giving giant quantities of their cash to Li’s motion.

So the way in which these Shen Yun reveals work, they placed on a whole bunch of reveals a yr throughout their world tour, and there are quite a lot of prices to placing on a present. For instance, the adverts, the billboards. Somebody has to go forward and print the flyers and put them up in storefronts. Somebody has to pay for resort rooms and meals for the performers. Somebody has to guide the venue in every location.

Many of the prices for placing on that present are taken on by native followers of Falun Gong.

Wait. So the followers are literally placing up the cash for the manufacturing prices of the present?

Sure, and these are basically unpaid volunteers who manage to placed on Shen Yun reveals. And if the reveals do nicely, they get their a refund. However any revenue has to return to Shen Yun. If the reveals lose cash, the followers are those answerable for making up that shortfall.

So that they’re in a really susceptible place?

Proper. We’ve additionally obtained inside messages to Falun Gong followers that say a present on this explicit metropolis isn’t promoting nicely, so that you guys, both have to work tougher to promote tickets or you must purchase up a few of them your self.

And Li has publicly stated that ticket gross sales are an indication of your religious devotion. So many followers really feel this pressing strain to promote as many tickets as they will, and this helps clarify why, in your native metropolis, you would possibly see so many adverts for Shen Yun.

And all of this helps clarify why they may very well be so extremely worthwhile.

Proper.

However the place is the cash going? Like, how is it getting used?

So we don’t precisely know. Lots of their monetary data are opaque and we will’t see the place the cash goes. However we did uncover the story of 1 Falun Gong follower that might supply us a clue.

So there was this lady who was Shen Yun’s bookkeeper. She was a really, very devoted practitioner. Each of her youngsters carried out with Shen Yun. She spent most of her time at Dragon Springs working for Shen Yun and for the Li household.

And round 2018, 2019, she was getting very sick. As a result of she was a diligent Falun Gong believer, she resisted seeing a health care provider for a very long time. When she lastly did, she came upon that she had kidney most cancers, however she informed her youngsters that she wouldn’t be capable of pay for medical remedy as a result of she had donated all of her cash to Dragon Springs.

Wow.

And this was an enormous shock to them. However after the bookkeeper died of most cancers, a Shen Yun worker unintentionally mailed the bookkeeper’s bank card assertion to her household. What they finally noticed within the statements had been tens of 1000’s of {dollars} in purchases of luxurious items from model names like Hermes, Van Cleef Ferragamo.

We’ve heard from many former performers that Li’s spouse preferred to decorate nicely. She preferred to put on luxurious manufacturers. The bookkeeper had additionally spent cash on customized billiard cues, and we all know that Li likes to play pool.

So principally, the evaluation was that these purchases had been seemingly for the Li household.

What we discovered was that she was spending a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} for purchases that her household believed had been for the Li household and for Shen Yen.

We additionally discovered that she was paying for the month-to-month mobile phone payments of Li and his spouse, and our reporting confirmed that a few of the cash was repaid to her household. However as a result of it was all a part of this confidentiality settlement, we don’t know quite a lot of the small print.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

So the purchases, the truth that she didn’t search medical remedy, the truth that she didn’t have cash when she did search medical remedy, it looks as if this bookkeeper is emblematic of how a lot these followers are giving to Falun Gong, whether or not it’s their cash or their labor. And it additionally reveals the extent to which this establishment, and possibly even the approach to life of the Li household, is made attainable by these sacrifices.

Yeah.

I additionally wish to come again to one thing you stated earlier, since you talked about that even past all of that, there’s truly a 3rd piece of this puzzle.

Proper. That’s their media arm, primarily a newspaper run by Falun Gong practitioners known as the “Epoch Instances.”

I’ve heard of it, however inform us a bit of bit extra about it.

So this newspaper has been round for the reason that persecution. It was initially began by Falun Gong followers within the yr 2000, as a option to increase consciousness equity about human rights abuses in China, together with the persecution of Falun Gong, and it particularly rose to prominence within the US after the 2016 presidential election by selling right-wing conspiracy theories and likewise by embracing President Donald J. Trump, as somebody who helps the paper’s opposition to the Chinese language Communist Occasion.

And actually, Kash Patel, who was lately confirmed as Trump’s FBI Director, truly had a present with the “Epoch Instances” lately, the place he obtained a sit-down interview with Trump. However past their political protection, what our investigation discovered was that they’ve additionally printed greater than 17,000 articles about Shen Yun.

Oh, wow.

And so they’re sometimes glowing viewers testimonials after every present. We discovered that they’ve this particular crew of reporters that go to the reveals, who’re virtually all the time Falun Gong followers. They’re typically working all evening, getting little or no sleep to get these critiques printed as rapidly as attainable.

And do we all know how influential they’ve truly been, although?

So we don’t precisely understand how a lot affect this protection has had. Like, for instance, we don’t know what number of ticket gross sales will be attributed to “Epoch Instances” protection, however that is some fairly uncommon editorial remedy for a newspaper to provide to a dance present.

Proper.

We truly obtained inside modifying guides that stated something unfavorable about Shen Yun couldn’t be printed, and Li himself has far more affect over the newspaper’s operations than we realized. So, for instance, we came upon about this assembly in 2023, the place he gave direct editorial steerage to prime “Epoch Instances” editors.

So it appears clear that even when we will’t pinpoint precisely how influential the “Epoch Instances” is on this bigger ecosystem, it’s a part of this enormous community that you simply’ve helped to disclose in your reporting. And that community looks as if on the middle of it are these followers, who in lots of circumstances, have been fairly mistreated. I’m curious concerning the response to that a part of your reporting about that mistreatment.

So since we’ve printed our reporting, New York State regulators have been wanting into Shen Yun for his or her labor practices. We additionally came upon that there’s a federal prison investigation into Shen Yun, together with into their funds. And a former dancer has sued them and accused them of pressured labor.

And the way has Li and Falun Gong responded to all of this?

They’ve denied wrongdoing. They are saying that every thing they’re doing is authorized. A serious a part of their response to our reporting is to say that our sources are Chinese language spies. They’re brokers of the Chinese language authorities. Their followers have relentlessly attacked “The Instances.” They’ve attacked me personally.

Oh, wow. Throughout the course of your reporting?

Yeah, they’ve even printed false details about my household all around the web, calling all of us brokers of the Chinese language authorities. So that is their playbook for responding to scrutiny or criticism. And you may typically see quite a lot of these responses printed within the “Epoch Instances” as information articles.

I can’t assist however discover that there’s a sure form of irony right here that this group that flees China due to persecution involves america and begins appearing like a persecutor, simply when it comes to what they’re doing to crack down on dissent and preserve their followers in line.

In order that has been one of many themes that has actually caught with me all through this reporting. It’s one thing that’s come up again and again in our interviews with individuals who, both personally survived the persecution in China or had relations undergo it.

They’ve come to america as refugees. They’re searching for asylum. They need to have the ability to follow their faith freely and chase the American dream right here. And plenty of of them had been so blissful once they obtained into Shen Yun. And once they obtained to Dragon Springs, they only felt this overwhelming sense of reduction.

So it was particularly devastating as soon as they really noticed how the group operated that this factor that that they had devoted their total lives to turned out to be one thing fully totally different.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Nicole, Thanks a lot.

Thanks, Rachel. [MUSIC PLAYING]

We’ll be proper again.

Right here’s what else you must know as we speak. Within the intently watched race for management of Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court docket, the liberal candidate has soundly defeated the conservative. It was a significant victory for Democrats in an election that had change into a referendum on President Trump and Elon Musk, who spent $25 million supporting the Republican aligned candidate.

Musk’s curiosity within the race was so intense that he provided $100 to any registered voter who signed a petition associated to the race, after which entered these voters right into a lottery to win a examine for $1 million. And —

On Tuesday evening, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker broke the report for talking on the Senate flooring greater than 25 hours with out a break, throughout which he criticized the Trump administration for violating the Structure and disregarding the wants of on a regular basis Individuals.

The marathon speech beat the report, set in 1957 by South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond when he tried to dam passage of a civil rights invoice.

In the present day’s episode was produced by Stella Tan with assist from Diana Nguyen. It was edited by Liz O. Baylen, with assist from Patricia Willens. Incorporates authentic music by Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, Diane Wong, Pat McCusker, Leah Shaw Dameron, and Elisheba Ittoop and was engineered by Alyssa Moxley. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Particular due to Michael Rothfeld.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

That’s it for “The Day by day.” I’m Rachel Abrams. See you tomorrow.

[MUSIC PLAYING]