Western media has lately criticized Shen Yun, despite their stunning Chinese cultural display. The dance spectacle has gotten standing ovations from packed crowds in America and ardent reviews praising its "inspiring power," but some critics have criticized its religious-political undertones.
The Chinese government's harsh criticism of the program regularly inspires such vitriol. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pressured theaters and ministries worldwide to interrupt Shen Yun performances using its economic and diplomatic might. In 2016, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea threatened financial reprisal against a Seoul theater, canceling a performance days before.
Why did the CCP destroy a performance promoting Chinese culture? Some relate the regime's strong reaction to Shen Yun's portrayal of Falun Gong persecution in China in two of its 20-some dance episodes. The regime's constant global suppression of the show has a deeper, more subtle rationale.
Buddhism and Daoism-based Falun Gong became popular in Mainland China in the 1990s. Ban in 1999, ruthlessly persecuted since. The Chinese Communist Party called the organization a “evil cult” after its widespread detention, torture, and organ harvesting. Professional dancers and musicians in Upstate New York created the Shen Yun performing arts team to openly exhibit their spiritual religion and Chinese ancestry after fleeing Falun Gong for safety.
Their view of traditional Chinese culture varies greatly from the Communist Party's. With its narrative episodes inspired by Chinese history and literature, Shen Yun claims a “true Chinese tradition” defined by Confucian morality and Buddhist and Daoist spiritual thoughts that developed over millennia but were denounced and suppressed after the 1949 Communist takeover and all but eradicated during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976.
Given this history, the Chinese communists' persecution of Falun Gong may be part of a bigger assault against religion and culture. The regime's excessive censorship of the dance exhibition shows its uneasiness over its claim to represent Chinese culture.
The artistic theory claims that Shen Yun represents the Chinese tradition are true. A 1950s art form, Classical Chinese Dance, derived its footed patterns, physical balances, and acrobatic methods from centuries-old vernacular traditions including theater and martial arts.
More crucially, it adopted Daoist metaphysics and cosmologies-based creative philosophies that sought to maintain spiritual resonance beyond physical form. After the Communist Party replaced conventional schools of thought with atheism and Marxist materialism in the 20th century, such beliefs lost their philosophical content. These made artistic qualities unreal or, as communists called them, “the superstitious shackles of the feudal past.”
Shen Yun performers have ignored communism and taken Chinese philosophical and cosmological roots seriously in their performance. The show is creators follow Falun Gong, which emphasizes material-spiritual unification. Thus, dancers must improve their morality and physical talents to bring virtue from the heart to the body while presenting stories of valor, generosity, and devotion.
This spiritual understanding of Chinese culture has captivated the world. Western spectators feel uplifted after the performance. A “true tradition” missing in post-Mao China has also touched Chinese viewers.
This uplifting image of China without the Communist Party must have upset the authoritarian regime. Removing the false link between “China” and the party undermines the regime's claim to be the only legitimate protector and representative of Chinese civilization and culture.
Recently, Western critics have interpreted the Chinese Communist Party's condemnation of Shen Yun's efforts to revive a spiritual culture in the face of authoritarian persecution as political and religious propaganda.
From Michelangelo's Last Judgment's everlasting punishment to The Sound of Music's Von Trapp family's dangerous flight from Nazi persecution, art has never lived in a social vacuum but has always been bigger than politics. Many of Shen Yun's listeners, regardless of their political and religious views, are already taking away hope and compassion from his work. To focus on politics and religion alone is to reject this fundamental human experience.
The Chinese government's harsh criticism of the program regularly inspires such vitriol. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has pressured theaters and ministries worldwide to interrupt Shen Yun performances using its economic and diplomatic might. In 2016, the Chinese Embassy in South Korea threatened financial reprisal against a Seoul theater, canceling a performance days before.
Why did the CCP destroy a performance promoting Chinese culture? Some relate the regime's strong reaction to Shen Yun's portrayal of Falun Gong persecution in China in two of its 20-some dance episodes. The regime's constant global suppression of the show has a deeper, more subtle rationale.
Buddhism and Daoism-based Falun Gong became popular in Mainland China in the 1990s. Ban in 1999, ruthlessly persecuted since. The Chinese Communist Party called the organization a “evil cult” after its widespread detention, torture, and organ harvesting. Professional dancers and musicians in Upstate New York created the Shen Yun performing arts team to openly exhibit their spiritual religion and Chinese ancestry after fleeing Falun Gong for safety.
Their view of traditional Chinese culture varies greatly from the Communist Party's. With its narrative episodes inspired by Chinese history and literature, Shen Yun claims a “true Chinese tradition” defined by Confucian morality and Buddhist and Daoist spiritual thoughts that developed over millennia but were denounced and suppressed after the 1949 Communist takeover and all but eradicated during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976.
Given this history, the Chinese communists' persecution of Falun Gong may be part of a bigger assault against religion and culture. The regime's excessive censorship of the dance exhibition shows its uneasiness over its claim to represent Chinese culture.
The artistic theory claims that Shen Yun represents the Chinese tradition are true. A 1950s art form, Classical Chinese Dance, derived its footed patterns, physical balances, and acrobatic methods from centuries-old vernacular traditions including theater and martial arts.
More crucially, it adopted Daoist metaphysics and cosmologies-based creative philosophies that sought to maintain spiritual resonance beyond physical form. After the Communist Party replaced conventional schools of thought with atheism and Marxist materialism in the 20th century, such beliefs lost their philosophical content. These made artistic qualities unreal or, as communists called them, “the superstitious shackles of the feudal past.”
Shen Yun performers have ignored communism and taken Chinese philosophical and cosmological roots seriously in their performance. The show is creators follow Falun Gong, which emphasizes material-spiritual unification. Thus, dancers must improve their morality and physical talents to bring virtue from the heart to the body while presenting stories of valor, generosity, and devotion.
This spiritual understanding of Chinese culture has captivated the world. Western spectators feel uplifted after the performance. A “true tradition” missing in post-Mao China has also touched Chinese viewers.
This uplifting image of China without the Communist Party must have upset the authoritarian regime. Removing the false link between “China” and the party undermines the regime's claim to be the only legitimate protector and representative of Chinese civilization and culture.
Recently, Western critics have interpreted the Chinese Communist Party's condemnation of Shen Yun's efforts to revive a spiritual culture in the face of authoritarian persecution as political and religious propaganda.
From Michelangelo's Last Judgment's everlasting punishment to The Sound of Music's Von Trapp family's dangerous flight from Nazi persecution, art has never lived in a social vacuum but has always been bigger than politics. Many of Shen Yun's listeners, regardless of their political and religious views, are already taking away hope and compassion from his work. To focus on politics and religion alone is to reject this fundamental human experience.
