Every year the billboards appear in Portland. Brightly colored, with a leaping dancer and emblazoned with the words “China Before Communism,” they announce the arrival of the traveling dance performance Shen Yun. Despite the advertisements being ever–present, to the point of becoming a meme, few people seem to have seen the show itself.
“I have seen those posters since I was a little kid,” said Hadley Pack, NWA Operations Associate and High School Activities Coordinator. “[They are] in coffee shops and on billboards around Portland, but I have never known anyone to actually attend a performance.”
Apparently, people do go to the shows. In 2023, Shen Yun raked in $51.1 million in revenue. The show’s Portland run in 2022 sold 11,320 tickets, grossing $1.2 million.
Shen Yun is a dance and acrobatics performance, which purports to showcase traditional Chinese dance and culture. The primary dance style; Han Chinese, is accompanied by music, consisting of traditional instruments, such as pipa and guzheng, and a western orchestra.
Candy Trujillo, NWA’s Operations Manager, went to see Shen Yun several years ago. She was motivated by her interest in dance, as well as her curiosity about Chinese culture.
“The billboards say that it is something communist China doesn’t allow,” said Trujillo. “I was intrigued by that. I wanted to go see it because it is based on Chinese culture, and the way they put it out there is that you will be seeing more of a historical perspective through dance.”
Trujillo was impressed by the quality of the performance and staging, although she thought the program was a little long.
“The dancing was phenomenal,” said Trujillo. “They had many costume changes, many different types of dance, there were drums and instruments. It was really beautiful. You could tell they put so much effort into what they were doing.”
Shen Yun tours throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia and Asia, yet is banned in China. The Chinese government has also attempted to halt Shen Yun performances in other countries.
“The posters I have seen recently all say ‘China Before Communism,’” said Pack. “Which leads me to wonder what are the political motivations of the groups behind the performances?”
The reason for Shen Yun’s prohibition in China is the group which puts on the production: Falun Gong. Falun Gong was founded in the ‘90s in China by Li Hongzhi, and its beliefs are akin to those of Buddhism, with an emphasis on meditation. Falun Gong is headquartered in Cuddebackville, New York, on a compound called Dragon Springs which hosts the school where Shen Yun dancers are trained, Fei Tian Academy of the Arts.
“Since the Chinese cultural revolution, the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has banned religion,” said Ryan Comandich, NWA’s Tai Chi and Spanish teacher. “It felt some sense of threat from the Falun Gong movement and banned it in China. Some practitioners moved to the US.”
Falun Gong and the CCP are at odds, with the Chinese government declaring it a cult, and imprisoning members in labor camps. Likewise, Shen Yun includes Falun Gong’s views, hence the “China before Communism” slogan.
“I can somewhat sympathize with their anti–Communist Party stance though,” said Comandich. “Falun Gong was just one of the victims of a police state in China, including also the pro-democracy movement and ethnically non–Han Chinese peoples.”
Despite claiming to have 100 million members worldwide, the general public seems to know relatively little about Falun Gong, and hearsay abounds.
“I heard rumors that they have an organ harvesting cult, I think it was from a YouTube thumbnail so I don’t know if it is true,” said junior Skye Groves. “I also heard they might be a multilevel marketing scheme.”
In truth, it is the opposite. A 2019 tribunal found that China had been harvesting organs from detainees, including imprisoned Falun Gong members, killing many in the process.
Shen Yun is a source of income for Falun Gong, as well as a way to spread their message. Some of the productions are heavily influenced by their religious views, or portray scenes from the group’s history of persecution. The production is controversial for other reasons as well. Former Shen Yun members have come forward alleging abusive treatment and poor working conditions, according to a New York Times investigation. Ex–dancers claim they sustained injuries during difficult routines, which went untreated due to Falun Gong’s teaching that injuries can be healed by faith alone.
“[I read that] Shen Yun doesn’t treat the dancers well,” said Comandich. “They are often pushed to the point of injury and abuse basically, for little pay.”
Additionally, former members report emotional abuse and threats, especially if they questioned Falun Gong’s teachings or expressed a desire to leave the group. The New York Department of Labor has launched an investigation into Shen Yun in response to the allegations.
“The owner also runs the extremist conservative newspaper The Epoch Times,” said Comandich. “So yeah, there is some controversy around [the] potential propaganda that they push.”
The Epoch Times is an ultraconservative news company, founded in 2000 by a Falun Gong member to counter negative press about the group. The newspaper functions as promotion and propaganda for Shen Yun–the publication has written 17,000 articles on it since 2009–as well as amplifying the conservative views of Falun Gong’s founder.
“I’ve seen their billboard in Portland, ‘the truth and stuff,’ with a weird random guy,” said Jax Pike, an NWA sophomore who saw Shen Yun as a kid. “I remember a few months ago I was getting a bunch of ads about a documentary about why trans people are bad. I’m pretty sure it was from The Epoch Times.”
The Epoch Times supports Donald Trump, who it considers as an ally in its anti–CCP views. The media company, as well as the Falun Gong affiliated cable news channel New Tang Dynasty, have spread misinformation and conspiracies around Democrats and the CCP, and amplified Trump’s views.
In January, Shen Yun made its annual stop in Portland at the Keller Auditorium. Despite the allegations, Keller stood by hosting the performance. The venue states that it ensures proper labor laws are upheld, and the current accusations did not warrant canceling the event.
Trujillo was unaware of the allegations towards Shen Yun, or of its association with Falun Gong when she saw the performance. She says that more information has changed her view of Shen Yun, but she would like to do more of her own investigation.
“I [did] not know anything about the organization behind it,” said Trujillo. “I wish I had.”
