If you live in St. Louis and watch either CNN or MSNBC you have seen the ubiquitous commercials for the Shen Yun dance troupe. All you gain from the commercial is that they are a Chinese, they leap, they wear flowing costumes and seem to be adored by a variety of breathless individuals who work in the entertainment field. (One exhorts you to “coooooome” a little TOO breathlessly.)
That’s all you gain from the commercial, but the internet will tell you that the dancers may be from China, but they can’t go back to China because they’re members of the Falun Gong religious practice that was persecuted in China in the 90s.
(To my relief, Falun Gong is not Aum-Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult that released SARIN nerve gas in the Tokyo subway in the 90s. Evidently my brain can only store one Asian cult at a time.)
Dance doesn’t appeal to me as much it does to others. I imagine usually this would be very popular in Saint Louis. Sadly for Shen Yun, this isn’t the week for Chinese dancers, because if you don’t do your research you might think they just flew in from China on the Covid-19 express instead of being the children of Chinese ex-pats.
4 responses to “Shen Yun”
Shen Yun is currently all over our TV advertising their upcoming shows, so they either have more than one troupe or they’re going straight from St Louis to Auckland, which seems unlikely. Interesting background info – thanks.
Big Dot – a friend who went said they made references to Falun Gong. And yes, it may be a Blue Man group situation, where there are multiple troupes.
Shen Yun gets talked about a lot in our house. I guess they must spend their time constantly on world tours, as they come to Ottawa once a year, always in Jan/Feb, every year. There are people promoting this event everywhere we go – they have a kiosk at the mall, they’re at every craft show, tech exhibit, and movie theatre.
One time I was with my daughters at a ski and snowboard show and got cornered by two very aggressive older women who wanted to talk to me about Shen Yun until I collapsed (apparently). So now whenever the ad comes on TV my daughters mock me as being a Shen Yun devotee. I have to say, learning that the performers are members of a religious group clears a lot of stuff up for me. They were very fanatical about my attendance at what I thought was a simple dance performance.
Lynn – good heavens! They have kiosks at the mall? And they’re at the movie theater? And what’s the significance of the winter months? This is remarkable. Thank you for sharing that.