My Experience of Shen Yun at Lincoln Center
Update 2/6/2012: Shen Yun has contacted me personally to take down all their photos even though I have credited where they came from on the internet. So dear readers, you will have to imagine the images or just do a Google image search for “Shen Yun”.
This weekend I went to see Shen Yun at Lincoln Center. Shen Yun’s poster with dancers in traditional Chinese costumes flying through the air first caught my eye because, as my parents predicted that one day I will “return to my roots”, I’ve become more aware of Chinese cultural imagery around my surroundings. All I could gather from their web site was that it was a performance showcasing classical Chinese dance combined with traditional Chinese folklore and mythology. I was excited to see it since I’ve been entrenching myself in a lot of history that I’ve long forgotten from childhood to find inspiration.
The show as a little over two hours long with a ten minute intermission. The audience was a mix of Chinese and non-Chinese. The show started with a POW! When the curtain lifted the stage was covered with smoke that looked like clouds. Very dramatic! The dancers were amazing. Every girl was like a willowy twig – they must be like 90 pounds or something. Every male dancer looked like Takeshi Kaneshiro who I am a big fan of! He’s the epitome of exquisite! The costumes were inspiring. In particular the “Sleeves of Silk” segment was absolutely inspiring. Here’s a sample of what “sleeve dancing” looks like from House of Flying Daggers. I’m obviously NOT going to use music like that… that’s a bit too chinky chonky for my taste.
The long billowy sleeves are supposed to echo the graceful movement of the dancer long after she has moved on to the next movement. To me this is a visual haiku or like the lingering scent of someone after they have left the room or a fading memory. When I experience and feel transcended by art like this, it makes me appreciate my $40,000+ MFA degree from Columbia University. I am already thinking of ways to adapt the “sleeves of silk” to a burlesque act. It’ll be challenging but will be really beautiful.
If Shen Yun is a good representation of classical Chinese dance and historical costumes then female representation is on the VERY demure side. All the dancers wore floor length skirts and high necks and sleeves. I don’t think I saw one thigh or chest. Sex appeal there were none. Artistry yes. But then the show took an unexpected turn. Suddenly there was this heavy-handed spiritual preaching about the religious group Falun Dafa and how to achieve salvation and truth through the Dafa. On top of the terrible lyrical translation projected on the screen about this new religious movement in China (founded in 1992), there were quite a few skits reacting the persecution of Falun followers in China by the government – represented by dancers wearing all black with a bright red sickle and hammer emblem on their backs.
I don’t know anything about Falun Gong. The only encounter I’ve been exposed to were limited to these sort of scary demonstrations on the streets of Chinatown. I’ve seen people sitting cross-legged meditating on the sidewalk surrounded by blurry, blown up Xerox-ed photos of horribly injured and bruised people and Chinese text next to them about how Falun Gong is persecuted in China. I’ve seen them outside the Chinese Embassy in the Upper West Side. Wikipedia explains Falun Gong as:
Falun Gong (literally means “Law Wheel Practice”, alternatively Falun Dafa) is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy.
There’s a lot of literature online weighing on Falun Gong. Wiki further adds:
Human Rights Watch notes that the crackdown on Falun Gong reflects historical efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to eradicate religion, which the government believes is inherently subversive.
So as you can imagine I was quite surprised that what I thought was going to be a theatrical afternoon watching a dance performance suddenly turned out to be a sort of a gospel preaching extoling the goodness of a religion. It reminded me of church!
I can’t take sides on this issue because I’m not knowledgeable enough. I could see why the Chinese government would want to suppress this popular religion because the government is essentially atheist. But then I can’t see why one can’t choose to practice morality and meditation if one wants to. Oh – snap, spoken like a true inhabitant of a democratic country. Silly me, how dare I think that an individual has a choice over one’s own beliefs in China?
Besides the religious preaching the performance was enjoyable and the visuals inspiring. I loved in particular the use of pastel and bright colors such as brown with electric blue, magenta and bright greens. I also discovered that Shen Yun was founded in NYC in 2006 and they have three worldwide troupes touring simultaneously throughout the US. The majority of the dancers in the troupe are ethnic Chinese raised in the West. I wonder what their stance is regarding Falun Gong…or if you have to be sympathizer to be in the troupe which got me thinking, who is the target audience of Shen Yun? Is it oversea Chinese immigrants like my parents or is it Caucasians who can further their cause? Very strange…What’s your experience if any?
When I was young, I asked my mother for dance classes. I was expecting jazz and tap, but was placed into a Chinese folk dance class instead. I was so disappointed and have since studied modern dance in college and at local dance schools as a hobby. However, today I am so grateful to have been part of Chinese folk dance. I loved the costumes, the makeup, hair (first experience getting styled), the paper umbrella and fan props… Going to Shen Yun and enjoying the first part of the performance and thinking: wow, I use to float around in a costume on stage like that. The Falun Gong at the end ruined it for me.
I saw Shen Yun a few years ago. I was expecting beautiful dancers and costumes. It was very good and entertaining in the beginning and middle of the show, but was jarred into seeing a display of religious freedom activism depicting disturbing treatment toward Falun Gong practitioners.
If this message was targeted toward me, it had only a negative effect. I was very put-off by this part of the performance. I think the delivery was too heavy handed and it caught me by surprise. Had I known this show was part religious (freedom) message, I would not have gone to see the show as a family event, and certainly would not have taken a guest for fun. I would have attended the event if I was a Falun Gong supporter, but honestly, have always been turned off by their public demonstrations which I find too heavy handed as well.
Also, during Christmas time, they had a free gift wrap table at the Union Square Barnes and Noble and when I saw the Shen Yun posters at the gift wrap table, I made a beeline for the exit. LOL.
I’m glad I had a chance to attend the show but would like to see more productions like Shen Yun without the propaganda.
I totally agree with you, Anonymous! My sentiments exactly. I kept wondering what the non-Chinese people sitting next to me could possibly be thinking! I was flanked by kids about eight or ten years old on either side…If their “intention” is to convert me or to gain a sympathizer, it was not successful.
When the buddha imagery came on which I presume was the “DaFa” or the founder (I’m unclear), my Caucasian boyfriend said, “Hey, look its Chow Yun Fat!”
I saw their performance in Dallas. I too was put-off by the blatant propaganda aspect of the show. Regardless of my personal view on Falun Gong, I just don’t like someone shoveling propaganda down my throat! Hidden messages in show like this; to me is akin to serving a vegetarian pita roll with a piece of pork hidden in it! Imagery of the savior deity in the show looked surprising like the founder of Falun Gong and that further alienated me. You can practice whatever you want, just not in my face!
I saw their performance in Dallas. I too was put-off by the blatant propaganda aspect of the show. Regardless of my personal view on Falun Gong, I just don’t like someone shoveling propaganda down my throat! Hidden messages in show like this; to me is akin to serving a vegetarian pita roll with a piece of pork hidden in it! Imagery of the savior deity in the show looked surprising like the founder of Falun Gong and that further alienated me. You can practice whatever you want, just not in my face!
Calamity – when is your next show?
hi nancy! my next “drunken dragon nights” is on monday, feb 20. then next “les fleurs de shanghai” is on wed, feb 29. and as usual, i am always at nurse bettie on thursday nights and at hotelchantelle on friday nights.
i am on the road til wednesday. i will be posting these events as soon as i get back to nyc!
Well, EWTN a Catholic news service, is rronetipg it, but it wouldn’t be the first time a news site didn’t verify the source.I can’t read Italian so I can’t verify myself.I guess we’ll see in the coming days if it is true. I would not be surprised.So what do you mean by your latin there? What is speaking for itself?
I cannot find this imnrofation anywhere, particularly in the Italian newspaper originally sited. Please verify. At present this is a spurious rumor. It started with a blog in Fort Worth TX and has been spread by Christian groups, but I can not find it verified on the official Beijing Olypmics documents page either.
As a person born and grew up in China, I would like to reveal the truth of Falun Gong, the producer of Shen Yun, according to my experience. (I’m interested in Catholic Christianity, not against any religion and not a believer of communism.)
I have a friend who lives in a small town of China and her mother was a believer of Falun Gong. Her mother has chronicle stomach disease, the medicine that can ease her symptoms is expensive for a normal farming family in China, but she had to take it in order to ease her symptoms. My friend’s mother began to believe Falun Gong because someone told her that believing Falun Gong can ease her pain without taking medicine. Since then, her mother refuses to take any medicine or listen to the doctor. Falun Gong asks its every believer to afford huge amount of money when they go to the so-called “church”every time, saying it’s “the fee for their god which makes them go to heaven and live forever”. Because of this, my friend’s family was getting more and more financial issues, and her mother’s health condition was getting worse quickly. But her mother just somehow cannot get rid of that “belief” from her mind. One morning, the family found that my friend’s mother left home during the night. A month later, my friend saw a news report on TV that a group of Falun Gong believers burned themselves in front of Tian-an Men Gate, one of the most important landmark of China in the capital. Some people said that they are doing this because Falun Gong is against Chinese go\vern\ment, and Tian-an Men Gate is kind of like a symbol of Chinese go\vern\ment–but my friend just felt extremely sad and angry, the only thing she truly knew was that her mother died because what Falun Gong taught her (“devote themselves to their god and live forever”), and her family was brought a huge disaster by this.
Falun Gong is doing different things in China and US. In US, they “appeal for the freedom of religion”; but in China, they have already brought disasters to so many families like my friend’s. How can such a profit-driven organization bring real freedom and faith to those innocent and ignorant people in China? I don’t have the right to force everyone protest it, but I have to say that Falun Gong is ruining the holiness of religion and against modern science; it is a cult, not a religion at all!!