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YES. My mom woefully purchased four tickets to Shen Yun thinking it was a history of China through the interpretive lens of dance. All of us thought that. We saw the constant ads on TV promising a "spectacular sight like nothing you've ever seen before in your pathetic life" as well as the countless posters plastered in the nail shops and casual dining restaurants around town. Even some light digging on Shen Yun doesn't yield much, you're not going to Google "is this show I'm about to see tied to a cult and will it offend me?" if you know absolutely nothing of the show beforehand. Shen Yun starts off with some beautiful traditional dances situated in front of a very large screen showing embarrassingly lo-fi graphics of historical Chinese locations. Slowly but surely they start peppering in their cult – a small flag that says "Falun Gong is Good" here and a slight about the oppressive Chinese government there. Then, after a few dances, a robot that is made to look like a caucasian man who speaks impeccable Chinese comes out with a beautiful Chinese woman. These are your hosts for the evening. They set up every. single. dance. about. to. happen with painfully cheesy jokes and slights against the Chinese government over and over again, it was INSANE. THEN the Opera singers come out. These women have powerful voices but it was hard not to stifle my laughter when they projected the translation behind them on the large TV screen that said, NO JOKE, "Evolution – man's biggest lie, claims we came from apes." This woman is in traditional garb, singing beautifully to me about how evolution is a farce. It was incredible. Several people got up and left. A LOT of people could not stifle their laughter and disbelief at what they were witnessing. My poor mom, those tickets are NOT cheap. In the end, I was glad I witnessed that because in our family, to be "Shen Yun'd" means to be swindled. Example: Mom, you told me there was no cheese in this sandwich and I clearly see a slice of Provolone. Did you just Shen Yun me?" Mom: "Yes, yes I did."
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Jun 4, 2020 14:32
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:08 |
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I've never been to a show that generated so many bad vibes for me. The whole thing screamed "CULT!" and reminded me of Mormonism. I imagine this is how people feel when they go to a temple open house and get asked for their contact information. Some "oh, that's nice" mixed with "what the heck was that?" and a lot of "this is not what I signed up for". The show is marketed as a celebration of Chinese culture, some parts seemed alright. The costumes are bright and colorful. The dancing was fun. But a large part of the show is propaganda for a cult called Falun Dafa (from what I've read, the group is anti-gay, they believe their religion can heal illnesses, and one leader is on record saying they don't believe mixed-race children will get to heaven... sound familiar?). Here's just a little taste of the unexpected weirdness. After finishing a dance featuring some long, twirly, Han-dynasty sleeves (pretty cool), the person introducing the next piece talks a bit about persecution in China and you move to a dance with this scene: a man is imprisoned and blinded by the evil prison doctor when he won't renounce his faith in Falun Dafa. The blind man's wife and other clean-cut Falun Dafa friends are still preaching in the park when he returns, tapping away with his cane. When they realize that he has stayed faithful this whole time, he is suddenly visited by a bunch of angels and receives his sight again! Yay! Falun Dafa is good! So bizarre. Quite a few of the dances included spiritual imagery mixed with messages about bringing the divine to earth through art. One piece was a song about how humanity's values are in decline and bad people will get their reward, but all of us want to go to Heaven and you can come to the light if you learn truth. The whole thing was covered in a good heap of persecution complex too, though persecution of certain groups has been a pretty big deal in China, so I'll give them a pass on that. They don't deserve brutality. No one does, no matter how crazy their beliefs.
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Jun 4, 2020 18:05
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