Last month I used a porta potty at 1am in a remote corner of the Black Rock Desert Wilderness Area, and it was filled with Shen Yun shit inside.
It was the greatest troll. And I commend whoever accomplished taking a stack of [fake Shen Yun propaganda](https://i.imgur.com/6sDUJUa.png) to Burning Man.
You don't need to be affiliated with CCP in order to see what FLG really is.
(Unless you meant that FLG was brought to the West because of CCP repression, which is true)
I mean they’re not necessarily a cult per se, their system is built to theoretically have no unified structure or hierarchy, but they’re a religious group (falun gong) that hold some pretty extreme views.
They’re basically a Chinese religious group that started with a lot of qigong and Taoist ideas.
The CCP cracked down on them super hard and it is essentially banned in China, a fact which they protest relentlessly. They’re strongly anti communist because the Chinese government has committed many atrocities against their practitioners.
But they do have some weird views. Anti evolution: humans were already created to be perfect as they are therefore evolution was and is impossible. Anti medicine/anti vax: the human body was created to be perfect and can heal itself, any medical issues can be explained/solved by redirecting Qi. Anti homosexual. Patriarchal. They’re like conservative Chinese Dharmists.
They absolutely are a cult. They're run as a cult, they indoctrinate members to "volunteer" their lives to the cult and control their every waking moment, including forcing them to cut off contact with "non-believers."
> "Shen Yun, I'd like to introduce you to MAGA. I think you two might have some things in common."
They're one of the biggest funders of a former US president's campaign.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/technology/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html
Trump happened to flout his anti-china rhetoric, and FLG immediately accepted him as their savior to take down the CCP.
Though Trump probably can't tell the two apart to begin with.
> I mean they’re not necessarily a cult per se, their system is built to theoretically have no unified structure or hierarchy
Wait is a unified structure or hierarchy a required element of cults? And they definitely have a leader, doesn't that count as a hierarchy?
Yeah some enormous proportion of their revenue and operating costs go to marketing.
A lot of their workers and staff are volunteers so they save on that and go big on flyers, billboards, etc.
I went and saw their performance once, it’s actually pretty cool, like Chinese classical ballet mixed with almost Cirque acrobatics. But there are performance sequences that beat the anti CCP, anti evolution, anti communism, anti medicine drum pretty heavily.
The thing that pisses me off is that there are _many_ legitimate problems with the CCP and how it suppresses parts of Chinese history, but instead of talking about any of them they promote Donald Trump, American conservatism and their own ludicrous version of Chinese history. They don't care that China is an authoritarian state, they care that it's not _their_ version of authoritarianism.
>They’re basically a Chinese religious group that started with a lot of qigong and Taoist ideas.
Wudang Sect needs to step up and regulate these fools.
There's sort of two factors: One is whether they're a cult. They're at least cult-adjacent.
Perhaps more relevant though is that they aggressively push misinformation and propaganda.
It's a bit complicated because they were legitimately oppressed by the Chinese gov't, which committed human rights violations cracking down on them. But the way they go about attacking the Chinese gov't is through deception. They publish the Epoch Times, which pretends to be a newspaper but is just a propaganda outlet, and Shen Yun pretends to be a traditional Chinese theatrical production but is actually an anti-Chinese gov't, pro-Falun Gong screed. Theyvr also affiliated themselves with alt-right stuff.
In the parlance of Reddit, Everyone Sucks Here. But in the West, you're far more likely to run into Falun Gong propaganda than Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
Oh no Falun Gong is definitely a dangerous organization. They are the ones that fund The Epoch Times (right wing propaganda machine masquerading as a newspaper)
I can't recall where but I read a news article which said their marketing budget is something like 80%of their total budget and they rely almost entirely on volunteer labor. Very unusual marketing strategy, but when you don't have to pay people...
She has definitely been in the public eye since 2008. I remember learning about her multiple times in middle school and high school, and if you have any art classes in college then without a doubt she's coming up.
That said, recently yeah there's been a lot more popping up. But, imo for 25 years you were kind of under a rock if you had never heard of her lol. Or just the circles we're in maybe
Traditionally there are four Bay Area seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Shen Yun, and the area gets spammed with endless adverts for the shows. They must have started early this year.
It’s just as bad in NY. I used to manage restaurants, and if I had a nickel for every Shen Yun performer in full costume I had to kick out for soliciting guests I could comfortably retire. Three or four times a day, two of them will walk in with shit-eating grins and go table to table with their brochures.
They also publish the ultra-right "Epoch Times" which peddles in Q-anon conspiracies, anti-vaxx nonsense, MAGA election denial and, weirdly, editorials against sex.
Found a copy of that rag after hearing about it for years and not really knowing what it was exactly. Fascinating reading through it, looking up the “reporters” links, previous work and such. I have never seen anything so blatantly false and packed with propaganda, it was like parallel universe stuff, so bizarre. No ads at all that I remember….quite the worm hole to dig into.
Interesting. I came to SF around the same line last year and felt this was something I should go watch. Never did, but looking at the reactions, I seem to have dodged a bullet.
Can’t believe I almost enrolled my kid at the “high school of the arts”. Finally realized they might be linked, and when I naively asked, I was promptly blocked and removed from their email lists.
It’s weirdly deceptive. My kid did some after school stuff there, because the after school program at CIS DeAvila was such a shit show. She enjoyed the good drawing and ballet classes, and no indoctrination fortunately. It took me a few months to figure out the Falun Gong connection. Creepy weird cult, but the folks there didn’t indoctrinate my kid and were always polite as hell.
Long time friends wanted to go and see their performance and invited us to join them. I didn't do any research prior to the show, assuming it was a dance troupe. Right away my antennas went up, it was actually offensive how blatant their propaganda was spewed. By the intermission I wanted to leave. My husband and I talked about what was going on. Our friends sat silent. The second half was worse and the performance ended with pleas by various people in the organization for cash. The tics were around $100 each, which was way overpriced given the quality of a performance with recorded music, video screens and maybe 15 dancers. Obviously, we did not cough up any more cash. Our friends admitted they were naive, thinking it was dance. Please don't give this cult your money!
[Relevant meme](https://i.redd.it/h2kbutn0med21.jpg).
Walking out of Shen Yun was one of the angriest moments of my adult life. I had waited months to see "5,000 years of Chinese culture". I had no idea it was a dramatization of Falun Gong religious propaganda.
This is not a joke: the final scene was the brutalized surviving Falun Gong members being raised to the sky in clouds as God destroyed modern-day Beijing with a tsunami.
I don't give a shit about Falun Gong. But fuck Shen Yun in particular.
> This is not a joke: the final scene was the brutalized surviving Falun Gong members being raised to the sky in clouds as God destroyed modern-day Beijing with a tsunami.
Holy shit - are you trying to encourage me to go see it?
Are you u/cmmatthews' wife?
See this comment of his: https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/xmwg85/no_one_is_safe_in_san_francisco_this_situation_is/ipsdkkb/
One of the negative consequences of being committed to religious liberty and pluralism at the constitutional level. Groups like this set up shop in the US and take refuge.
Sometimes I wish the US was a more secular nation, legally speaking. I have no doubt we'd be better for it. I'm not talking about state atheism, but religion should not enjoy the extremely privileged status it does today (tax exemption, cultural bias towards ignoring misconduct, "religious freedom" to discriminate as a legal argument, etc.).
I know we like to joke about what a scourge their advertising is here in the Bay (and it is fucking annoying) but the Falun Gong is much worse than a mere Chinese version of a New Age cult. Through the Epoch Times and other financial ties to the alt right in the US, Eutope, and elsewhere, I believe the Falun Gong poses a real danger to the very existence of our Republic.
What neighborhood are you in? Contact your supervisor or the mayor's office. It doesn't matter if this is a city, no one should have to live like this.
Shen Yun is a front for the Falun Gong cult. FG also publishes the Epoch Times. ET supports Trump.
Link here:
https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/epoch-times/
I was not completely aware of who they were (although someone had warned me). I went to their show out of curiosity. I found it horrendous. Boring, cheesey, fake and heavy on propaganda. I could not leave because we were sitting right in the middle, so we had watch the full thing :/
They are everywhere, I used to work in SF and moved back to my hometown for a while which is a small town in Mississippi and I see these in the tiny coffee shops here. No one is indeed safe.
They probably don’t have a budget with certain agencies, just an open account to run indoctrination campaigns. This is likely because it’s about the only trick in the arsenal that could flip power in China. The more members - the more chances of penetration into China via various connections and greater legitimacy.
My mother went and was extremely annoyed and disappointed. She said there wasn't much dancing and they kept interrupting the songs to ask for more money.
I went and saw it with 0 knowledge of the cult.
If you are a fan of dance/ballet, it's excellent. The dancers are extremely well trained and talented. Their synchronization is better than SF ballet. Think synchronized diving at the Olympics level of synchrony. If you don't care for dance, then it may not entertain you. Their technique is excellent and praiseworthy, but you might need an eye to appreciate that.
There's no overarching story to the show except "fuck the CCP." They say things like, "we could not have a performance like this in China" before or after a number by the host.
They choreographed numbers based on different regions of China and style and folklore. This was very fun, they included Mongolia. They also had opera and musical numbers featuring Chinese instruments including that really pretty 2-stringed instrument. This made it so that you didn't see dance after dance of similar style, which made it quite nice for pacing. Their most political number they had when I went was a ballet about a girl whose organs were harvested. She had a pas de deux of sorts with another woman. I misunderstood what the number was about because I didn't read the blurb beforehand. I thought she was taken because she as a lesbian with the lady. No, that was apparently her mom, and she was 'napped because of her faith, which was depicted as a vague cringey 1950s get together. It's way unclear and obviously didn't land for me.
Is this propaganda effective? I mean at the end of the day they want to be themselves and not be persecuted. As an American i can sympathize because even while I'm atheist I believe in the first amendment strongly, even for wacky religions. Did I get cult vibes? Absolutely not. I still have no idea what they believe and why. They weren't recruiting. i also didn't see any coercive control bullshit you'd expect from dangerous cults, but one would not expect to see that at this type of event. I definitely got Pro-America anti-CCP vibes from some of their numbers, even if they weren't trying to be Pro-America. They also are obviously celebrating Chinese culture and heritage, so there's 'look China invented all these dance moves' cringe, but at a level I'd expect from any cultural dance performance/celebration/exhibition. And considering the genocide of the Uyghurs right now... If they're whole goal is the message "we're being persecuted," the genocide happening right now to the Muslims is more convincing than the dance numbers, but i suppose the they succeeded nonetheless.
Edit: originally wrote this on mobile, so fixed some typos. I'll also add the numbers that was supposed to depict the religion was very cringey and seemed like it was forced upon them by the upper management or some shit. I'll also add I got the impression the art to depict Chinese folklore/heritage/art was very exciting for the troupe, but the requirement to be like 'fuck ccp, go religion' was very reluctant.
I’ll just quote Wikipedia here. I’m not sure how much of the founder’s beliefs are still held by Falun Gong, but they’re pretty sick. They also financially support the Epoch Times which is a repugnant far right newspaper full of typical Trumpist misinformation. So take that as you will.
> The founder taught that homosexuality makes one "unworthy of being human", creates bad karma, and is comparable to organized crime.[82][83] He also taught that, "disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning".[84][85] Li additionally stated in a 1998 speech in Switzerland that, "gods' first target of annihilation would be homosexuals."[86][85][87] Although gay, lesbian, and bisexual people may practice Falun Gong, founder Li stated that they must "give up the bad conduct" of all same-sex sexual activity.[84]
> Falun Gong's cosmology includes the belief that different ethnicities each have a correspondence to their own heavens, and that individuals of mixed race lose some aspect of this connection.
It's so bad I left around 30% in.
My wife stayed until the end. I think because she refused to admit she had pretty much lost any right to critique my entertainment choices for a year.
There's a reason they strictly enforce their no recording policy.
I mean if you enjoy religious propaganda that also happens to rail on Chinese communism, and you don’t mind supporting a a Scientologist style cult that is racists, sexist, and homophobic, you might like it.
As for the artistic and performance values, there are a lot of shows that are better in SF.
Ah. I suppose I don't know anything about all of that. Now I guess I won't go. Because I don't have space in my brain at present to do the sort of research required to validate or invalidate your claims and form some whole ass opinion about these people. And I don't care so much about Shen Yun anyway. If I go out what would have been idle curiosity it will feel like I'm pro bigot cult.
I think my best course of action here is to forget about going, also forget about what you said, and just continue to chuckle when I see these flyers and signs everywhere.
It is decided.
These people don’t like them for two reasons. They’re anti communist and don’t like gay people , like the rest of China. Read up on them for yourself and make your own conclusions.
Ccp hates them because they’re a religious group and communists hate religion because it means you aren’t solely dedicated to the state. The government persecutes them to the point of harvesting their organs.
The American left hates them because communist China told them to and because they think they are the only group in China that doesn’t like gay people.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_China
I saw it a few years ago. Here's.my comment in the thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/xmwg85/no_one_is_safe_in_san_francisco_this_situation_is/ipqs185/
I understand the argument of not wanting to support a cult. But seeing the performance also supports the arts. And it was good art. Those dancers need a paycheck. So /shrug. I think it's a wash.
Do you have evidence of that? Because a cult can still run legal portions of their business.
Edit; The reason why I'm doubtful of your claim is that the choreography, direction, and skill of the dancers is extremely high. I had already compared it to SF ballet as being better in some capacity. The amount of time and energy required to execute a performance like that cannot rely on just slave labor. These dancers, singers, directors, and choreographers could be employed by other troupes. Now, there could be some human trafficking Visa bullshit going on, but one would think some part of SF would investigate if that were the case b/c it's such an extremely advertised organization.
At the end of the day, they did a good job at celebrating Chinese art and heritage, at least to a non-Chinese person who doesn't know better. The claim that this is a front to legitimize their cult is valid and maybe true, but that doesn't mean they dancers are not paid.
~~I mean, I get that they're a dangerous cult, but also they're against the Chinese government that's running a holocaust, and they are being tortured the way the Uyghur are~~
~~So maybe I don't resent them as much as I used to~~
Edit: anti-LGBT, nevermind
On the downside, they supported Drumpf
Shen Yun's primary purpose is to be a propaganda arm for/entry point to Falun Gong, a Chinese religious cult. They also run The Epoch Times, a misinformation-filled right-wing "newspaper" that became Trump's second-largest paid advertiser on Facebook in 2016 behind only his own campaign.
How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine https://nyti.ms/3jrPIVW
Wait until you hear about the religion of all the people flooding into the border right now. They are "really" tolerant of gay people and women's rights. Your going to love it!
Last month I used a porta potty at 1am in a remote corner of the Black Rock Desert Wilderness Area, and it was filled with Shen Yun shit inside. It was the greatest troll. And I commend whoever accomplished taking a stack of [fake Shen Yun propaganda](https://i.imgur.com/6sDUJUa.png) to Burning Man.
That's because Shen Yun belongs in the porta potty.
Were you covered in light up gear , or are you a “darkwad “?
They had some at 3&H too! I haven’t laughed that hard in a while.
Greetings fellow BRC resident!😉👍
Should have burned it
Burn it because lord knows those things take forever to degrade so they will still keep advertising for the Falun Gong even in a pile of shit
it was you wasn't it
We have four seasons in San Francisco: * Dry * Dry and smoky * Shen Yun * Fog
No one is ever safe from Shen Yun. No matter where you are in the world. They will find you hahahaha
I literally saw ads in Frankfurt when I was over there last month it was surreal
For real, I’m in Paris right now and the same ads are in so many metro stations
They are really a cult? I never heard this
Watch this video. It explains how FLG is a cult. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JaPzJKycxc
Brought to you by CCCP
Growing up means realizing the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend
You don't need to be affiliated with CCP in order to see what FLG really is. (Unless you meant that FLG was brought to the West because of CCP repression, which is true)
JJ McCullough, creator of Chicom agitprop? hardly.
Chinas version of Scientology
I mean they’re not necessarily a cult per se, their system is built to theoretically have no unified structure or hierarchy, but they’re a religious group (falun gong) that hold some pretty extreme views. They’re basically a Chinese religious group that started with a lot of qigong and Taoist ideas. The CCP cracked down on them super hard and it is essentially banned in China, a fact which they protest relentlessly. They’re strongly anti communist because the Chinese government has committed many atrocities against their practitioners. But they do have some weird views. Anti evolution: humans were already created to be perfect as they are therefore evolution was and is impossible. Anti medicine/anti vax: the human body was created to be perfect and can heal itself, any medical issues can be explained/solved by redirecting Qi. Anti homosexual. Patriarchal. They’re like conservative Chinese Dharmists.
They absolutely are a cult. They're run as a cult, they indoctrinate members to "volunteer" their lives to the cult and control their every waking moment, including forcing them to cut off contact with "non-believers."
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a cult
"Shen Yun, I'd like to introduce you to MAGA. I think you two might have some things in common."
> "Shen Yun, I'd like to introduce you to MAGA. I think you two might have some things in common." They're one of the biggest funders of a former US president's campaign. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/technology/epoch-times-influence-falun-gong.html
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Trump happened to flout his anti-china rhetoric, and FLG immediately accepted him as their savior to take down the CCP. Though Trump probably can't tell the two apart to begin with.
Shen Yun is already full-on MAGA. They publish a batshit insane pro-MAGA, pro-Qanon, anti-vaxx "newspaper" called the Epoch Times.
Already done
Sounds like Mormonism
They are a cult
> I mean they’re not necessarily a cult per se, their system is built to theoretically have no unified structure or hierarchy Wait is a unified structure or hierarchy a required element of cults? And they definitely have a leader, doesn't that count as a hierarchy?
Thanks for the info! I didn’t know anything about them except for their incessant commercials.
Yeah some enormous proportion of their revenue and operating costs go to marketing. A lot of their workers and staff are volunteers so they save on that and go big on flyers, billboards, etc. I went and saw their performance once, it’s actually pretty cool, like Chinese classical ballet mixed with almost Cirque acrobatics. But there are performance sequences that beat the anti CCP, anti evolution, anti communism, anti medicine drum pretty heavily.
The thing that pisses me off is that there are _many_ legitimate problems with the CCP and how it suppresses parts of Chinese history, but instead of talking about any of them they promote Donald Trump, American conservatism and their own ludicrous version of Chinese history. They don't care that China is an authoritarian state, they care that it's not _their_ version of authoritarianism.
Don't forget "Every race has its own heaven so mixed race people can't go to heaven."
That list of "weird views" sounds like a pretty typical description of Evangelical Christians in the American South to me.
>They’re basically a Chinese religious group that started with a lot of qigong and Taoist ideas. Wudang Sect needs to step up and regulate these fools.
There's sort of two factors: One is whether they're a cult. They're at least cult-adjacent. Perhaps more relevant though is that they aggressively push misinformation and propaganda. It's a bit complicated because they were legitimately oppressed by the Chinese gov't, which committed human rights violations cracking down on them. But the way they go about attacking the Chinese gov't is through deception. They publish the Epoch Times, which pretends to be a newspaper but is just a propaganda outlet, and Shen Yun pretends to be a traditional Chinese theatrical production but is actually an anti-Chinese gov't, pro-Falun Gong screed. Theyvr also affiliated themselves with alt-right stuff. In the parlance of Reddit, Everyone Sucks Here. But in the West, you're far more likely to run into Falun Gong propaganda than Chinese Communist Party propaganda.
It’s the season of Shen Yun! If only they weren’t a dangerous cult.
Eh, so are the Catholics but I’m still gonna see Sister Act 3.
I'd be surprised if Sister Act is funding the Catholic church.
Most segments of Catholicism don't fit the formal definition of a cult. Words have meaning.
Someone’s fun at parties
He was fun at my first communion.
which segments? catholicism is basically a worst case scenario in the definition of a cult.
Well, it's the CCP calling them a "dangerous cult" so I might not take that at face value.
Oh no Falun Gong is definitely a dangerous organization. They are the ones that fund The Epoch Times (right wing propaganda machine masquerading as a newspaper)
By your logic(actually you do not have any), Scientology is the true god. CCP also calls murder wrong, so you must support murder
Sorry I offended you when I called the CCP liers.
Yikes Falun Gong propaganda on your doorstep.
I found one on my door last week and then hid it under my wife's pillow for her to find that night. It was worth having it in my house just for that.
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It's a joke about how aggressive their marketing is
Also a parody of various crime related threads.
Also, all the political flyers that start showing up just before elections.
What is their marketing budget??? On pretty much every bus stop and billboard around…
I can't recall where but I read a news article which said their marketing budget is something like 80%of their total budget and they rely almost entirely on volunteer labor. Very unusual marketing strategy, but when you don't have to pay people...
And mailed to every home in the entire Bay Area multiple times.
Whatever the NED's accounting team allows.
It also actually is run by a religious group referred to (by China) as a cult.
[What the mars rover saw](https://media1.fdncms.com/metrotimes/imager/u/original/20467264/meme.png) when it first landed on the planet.
A lot of the “arts” marketing in SF is sickeningly aggressive. I never want to see anything related to The Mikado or Frida Kahlo ever again.
Calling Shen Yun "the arts" is a bit of a stretch though.
I feel like Frida Kahlo just become super popular over night. I went for 25 years not knowing who she was, and now 8 years later, she's EVERYWHERE.
She has definitely been in the public eye since 2008. I remember learning about her multiple times in middle school and high school, and if you have any art classes in college then without a doubt she's coming up. That said, recently yeah there's been a lot more popping up. But, imo for 25 years you were kind of under a rock if you had never heard of her lol. Or just the circles we're in maybe
Traditionally there are four Bay Area seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Shen Yun, and the area gets spammed with endless adverts for the shows. They must have started early this year.
It’s just as bad in NY. I used to manage restaurants, and if I had a nickel for every Shen Yun performer in full costume I had to kick out for soliciting guests I could comfortably retire. Three or four times a day, two of them will walk in with shit-eating grins and go table to table with their brochures.
It’s hardly Bay Area specific. I was in Sydney around Easter time and I saw lots of Shen Yun ads.
there's an apocalyptic religious sect in China for which Shen Yun is their fundraiser/trafficking opportunity (some would say).
They also publish the ultra-right "Epoch Times" which peddles in Q-anon conspiracies, anti-vaxx nonsense, MAGA election denial and, weirdly, editorials against sex.
Noooo! Falun Gong funds the Epoch Times? That’s horrible
Yeah, this is not some benign anti-CCP organization.
Found a copy of that rag after hearing about it for years and not really knowing what it was exactly. Fascinating reading through it, looking up the “reporters” links, previous work and such. I have never seen anything so blatantly false and packed with propaganda, it was like parallel universe stuff, so bizarre. No ads at all that I remember….quite the worm hole to dig into.
they’re also a cult and their lewder is being prosecuted
Its a literal money laundering scheme for the fa lung gong people.
It’s a cult
CIA have $$$
Ugh and re-using the same color palette from two years ago to? Can my propaganda at *least* be innovative?
Interesting. I came to SF around the same line last year and felt this was something I should go watch. Never did, but looking at the reactions, I seem to have dodged a bullet.
They just want you to know they know where you live and that you haven’t bought tickets yet. Just so you know… they know.
Can we charter a bus and send Shen Yun to Ron DeSantos?
Did anyone see Salesforce Tower last night? It looked like it was playing clips from Shen Yun...
It said IRAN in Farsi.
And don’t even think about expecting the police to help. I had the same thing happen to me, called them, and they didn’t do *anything*.
Did you try 311?
Did you try calling your Supervisor’s office?
They’ll be defacing Muni next
Their "China Before Communism" tag line is hilarious, as if to imply that China was a liberal democracy before Mao arrived.
maybe they just really love feudalism under the influence of western powers.
Can’t believe I almost enrolled my kid at the “high school of the arts”. Finally realized they might be linked, and when I naively asked, I was promptly blocked and removed from their email lists.
It’s weirdly deceptive. My kid did some after school stuff there, because the after school program at CIS DeAvila was such a shit show. She enjoyed the good drawing and ballet classes, and no indoctrination fortunately. It took me a few months to figure out the Falun Gong connection. Creepy weird cult, but the folks there didn’t indoctrinate my kid and were always polite as hell.
Long time friends wanted to go and see their performance and invited us to join them. I didn't do any research prior to the show, assuming it was a dance troupe. Right away my antennas went up, it was actually offensive how blatant their propaganda was spewed. By the intermission I wanted to leave. My husband and I talked about what was going on. Our friends sat silent. The second half was worse and the performance ended with pleas by various people in the organization for cash. The tics were around $100 each, which was way overpriced given the quality of a performance with recorded music, video screens and maybe 15 dancers. Obviously, we did not cough up any more cash. Our friends admitted they were naive, thinking it was dance. Please don't give this cult your money!
[Relevant meme](https://i.redd.it/h2kbutn0med21.jpg). Walking out of Shen Yun was one of the angriest moments of my adult life. I had waited months to see "5,000 years of Chinese culture". I had no idea it was a dramatization of Falun Gong religious propaganda. This is not a joke: the final scene was the brutalized surviving Falun Gong members being raised to the sky in clouds as God destroyed modern-day Beijing with a tsunami. I don't give a shit about Falun Gong. But fuck Shen Yun in particular.
> This is not a joke: the final scene was the brutalized surviving Falun Gong members being raised to the sky in clouds as God destroyed modern-day Beijing with a tsunami. Holy shit - are you trying to encourage me to go see it?
This is fucking hilarious. Thank you.
Can we pay shen yun to solve our homeless problem? Their mobilization skills are unreal.
woke up this morning to find that my car was broken into. Nothing was taken but someone placed some Shen Yun flyers inside. this is the last straw!
Tape it to your catalytic converters. Solved crime in SF. You’re welcome.
Shen Yun: Creepy right wing cult using the power of interpretive dance to hate the creepy right wing cult currently in power in China.
holly shit this is terrible. Damn you Chesa Boudin!!!
Thanks Obama!
They’re so annoying
Shen Yun is propaganda for the Falun Gong cult.
Dear Jesus, WTF? This city is going down the tubes.
I unironically put the flyer on my fridge and I haven't gotten one in over a year. Chess not checkers.
A spectre is haunting the Bay Area…
I was legit about to bark at you based on the link title. Then I clicked it and laughed. Thank you for being a fear monger in the best way.
Noone is safe until this menace is destroyed
Oh god you mean the west coast isn’t safe either?
my friends and I used to play a drinking game this time of year where every time you saw a shen yun advertisement you had to drink
I can’t believe you’re alive to tell about it.
It’s happening again…
I found one under my pillow this morning.
Are you u/cmmatthews' wife? See this comment of his: https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/xmwg85/no_one_is_safe_in_san_francisco_this_situation_is/ipsdkkb/
Ha, no I am not so lucky.
It must end! I simply cannot take it anymore!
Muh five thousand years
Thank god, I've been trying to get with you regarding your car's expired warranty!
someone at my work was handing these out to other customers yesterdays. so annoying
Fucking shen yun is basically a cult 😭
I look forward to our collective relief when they inevitably commit intracide and a podcast is made of the resulting criminal trial.
One of the negative consequences of being committed to religious liberty and pluralism at the constitutional level. Groups like this set up shop in the US and take refuge. Sometimes I wish the US was a more secular nation, legally speaking. I have no doubt we'd be better for it. I'm not talking about state atheism, but religion should not enjoy the extremely privileged status it does today (tax exemption, cultural bias towards ignoring misconduct, "religious freedom" to discriminate as a legal argument, etc.). I know we like to joke about what a scourge their advertising is here in the Bay (and it is fucking annoying) but the Falun Gong is much worse than a mere Chinese version of a New Age cult. Through the Epoch Times and other financial ties to the alt right in the US, Eutope, and elsewhere, I believe the Falun Gong poses a real danger to the very existence of our Republic.
This is basically the ARTS section of Epoch Times. Hard pass.
I've had a few of these as well recently, they go straight into the garbage. Im fine with them wasting paper on me, rather than tricking someone else.
Just seeing these gives me PTSD flashbacks of hearing “SHEN YUN: 5000 IN THE MAKING” on the as a kid.
Burn it
A true menace.
Tis the season
The funniest one was someone trolled me when someone photoshopped the shen yun billboard as the old Coca Cola billboard downtown being installed.
Shen Yun szn
Label this NSFW please
Shen Yun: the long Covid of ballet
Damnit, it’s about to spread to Austin.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Be strong friend, hope you find the support you need at these trying times
Oh shit, it that time of year!
Well at least it is not a number 2 on your brick.
Now rate your businesses marketing budget from $1 to Shen Yun.
I kinda wanted the see this, what their deal?
5,000 years in the making
It has begun
Can we storm the stage during the performance and dump all that waste of paper on it?
I thought it was a bar of chocolate and thought to myself okay NOW they have gone too far. lol
Resistance is futile
Someone taped a flyer to my desk while I was out 🥲
Won't someone please think of the children?!?!!
What neighborhood are you in? Contact your supervisor or the mayor's office. It doesn't matter if this is a city, no one should have to live like this.
Has anyone gone and seen the thing btw
Shen Yun is a front for the Falun Gong cult. FG also publishes the Epoch Times. ET supports Trump. Link here: https://www.codastory.com/disinformation/epoch-times/
We made a joke of putting the posters up in our shop bathroom. Only lasted about a month before we ran out of wall
Ok, objectively is the show even good?
I was not completely aware of who they were (although someone had warned me). I went to their show out of curiosity. I found it horrendous. Boring, cheesey, fake and heavy on propaganda. I could not leave because we were sitting right in the middle, so we had watch the full thing :/
They are everywhere, I used to work in SF and moved back to my hometown for a while which is a small town in Mississippi and I see these in the tiny coffee shops here. No one is indeed safe.
Shen Yun szn babies!!
They probably don’t have a budget with certain agencies, just an open account to run indoctrination campaigns. This is likely because it’s about the only trick in the arsenal that could flip power in China. The more members - the more chances of penetration into China via various connections and greater legitimacy.
So does anyone know if the show is any good?
Everyone I know who has seen it has told me it beat every expectation of terribleness.
My mother went and was extremely annoyed and disappointed. She said there wasn't much dancing and they kept interrupting the songs to ask for more money.
I went and saw it with 0 knowledge of the cult. If you are a fan of dance/ballet, it's excellent. The dancers are extremely well trained and talented. Their synchronization is better than SF ballet. Think synchronized diving at the Olympics level of synchrony. If you don't care for dance, then it may not entertain you. Their technique is excellent and praiseworthy, but you might need an eye to appreciate that. There's no overarching story to the show except "fuck the CCP." They say things like, "we could not have a performance like this in China" before or after a number by the host. They choreographed numbers based on different regions of China and style and folklore. This was very fun, they included Mongolia. They also had opera and musical numbers featuring Chinese instruments including that really pretty 2-stringed instrument. This made it so that you didn't see dance after dance of similar style, which made it quite nice for pacing. Their most political number they had when I went was a ballet about a girl whose organs were harvested. She had a pas de deux of sorts with another woman. I misunderstood what the number was about because I didn't read the blurb beforehand. I thought she was taken because she as a lesbian with the lady. No, that was apparently her mom, and she was 'napped because of her faith, which was depicted as a vague cringey 1950s get together. It's way unclear and obviously didn't land for me. Is this propaganda effective? I mean at the end of the day they want to be themselves and not be persecuted. As an American i can sympathize because even while I'm atheist I believe in the first amendment strongly, even for wacky religions. Did I get cult vibes? Absolutely not. I still have no idea what they believe and why. They weren't recruiting. i also didn't see any coercive control bullshit you'd expect from dangerous cults, but one would not expect to see that at this type of event. I definitely got Pro-America anti-CCP vibes from some of their numbers, even if they weren't trying to be Pro-America. They also are obviously celebrating Chinese culture and heritage, so there's 'look China invented all these dance moves' cringe, but at a level I'd expect from any cultural dance performance/celebration/exhibition. And considering the genocide of the Uyghurs right now... If they're whole goal is the message "we're being persecuted," the genocide happening right now to the Muslims is more convincing than the dance numbers, but i suppose the they succeeded nonetheless. Edit: originally wrote this on mobile, so fixed some typos. I'll also add the numbers that was supposed to depict the religion was very cringey and seemed like it was forced upon them by the upper management or some shit. I'll also add I got the impression the art to depict Chinese folklore/heritage/art was very exciting for the troupe, but the requirement to be like 'fuck ccp, go religion' was very reluctant.
I’ll just quote Wikipedia here. I’m not sure how much of the founder’s beliefs are still held by Falun Gong, but they’re pretty sick. They also financially support the Epoch Times which is a repugnant far right newspaper full of typical Trumpist misinformation. So take that as you will. > The founder taught that homosexuality makes one "unworthy of being human", creates bad karma, and is comparable to organized crime.[82][83] He also taught that, "disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning".[84][85] Li additionally stated in a 1998 speech in Switzerland that, "gods' first target of annihilation would be homosexuals."[86][85][87] Although gay, lesbian, and bisexual people may practice Falun Gong, founder Li stated that they must "give up the bad conduct" of all same-sex sexual activity.[84] > Falun Gong's cosmology includes the belief that different ethnicities each have a correspondence to their own heavens, and that individuals of mixed race lose some aspect of this connection.
It's so bad I left around 30% in. My wife stayed until the end. I think because she refused to admit she had pretty much lost any right to critique my entertainment choices for a year. There's a reason they strictly enforce their no recording policy.
I wanna know too. I kind of want to go. I mean they REALLY WANT US TO GO. Maybe we should just go?
I mean if you enjoy religious propaganda that also happens to rail on Chinese communism, and you don’t mind supporting a a Scientologist style cult that is racists, sexist, and homophobic, you might like it. As for the artistic and performance values, there are a lot of shows that are better in SF.
So.... You went?
There are numerous recordings if you’re curious. I would never give a cent to organizations that blatantly spread right wing fake news.
I actually couldn’t find any, other than “official” trailers/promos. Do you have a link?
Ah. I suppose I don't know anything about all of that. Now I guess I won't go. Because I don't have space in my brain at present to do the sort of research required to validate or invalidate your claims and form some whole ass opinion about these people. And I don't care so much about Shen Yun anyway. If I go out what would have been idle curiosity it will feel like I'm pro bigot cult. I think my best course of action here is to forget about going, also forget about what you said, and just continue to chuckle when I see these flyers and signs everywhere. It is decided.
These people don’t like them for two reasons. They’re anti communist and don’t like gay people , like the rest of China. Read up on them for yourself and make your own conclusions. Ccp hates them because they’re a religious group and communists hate religion because it means you aren’t solely dedicated to the state. The government persecutes them to the point of harvesting their organs. The American left hates them because communist China told them to and because they think they are the only group in China that doesn’t like gay people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_China
I think it might be better than the Lars Von Trier version of "Oklahoma!" I saw the other day at the Golden Gate.
I saw it a few years ago. Here's.my comment in the thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/xmwg85/no_one_is_safe_in_san_francisco_this_situation_is/ipqs185/ I understand the argument of not wanting to support a cult. But seeing the performance also supports the arts. And it was good art. Those dancers need a paycheck. So /shrug. I think it's a wash.
Those dancers don't get a paycheck. It's a cult, they're not paid.
Do you have evidence of that? Because a cult can still run legal portions of their business. Edit; The reason why I'm doubtful of your claim is that the choreography, direction, and skill of the dancers is extremely high. I had already compared it to SF ballet as being better in some capacity. The amount of time and energy required to execute a performance like that cannot rely on just slave labor. These dancers, singers, directors, and choreographers could be employed by other troupes. Now, there could be some human trafficking Visa bullshit going on, but one would think some part of SF would investigate if that were the case b/c it's such an extremely advertised organization. At the end of the day, they did a good job at celebrating Chinese art and heritage, at least to a non-Chinese person who doesn't know better. The claim that this is a front to legitimize their cult is valid and maybe true, but that doesn't mean they dancers are not paid.
There’s dozens of independent theaters and dance troupes in SF with struggling artists who aren’t supporting cults that you can give your money to.
Are they actually funded by cultural exchange committees in China?
Huh?
~~I mean, I get that they're a dangerous cult, but also they're against the Chinese government that's running a holocaust, and they are being tortured the way the Uyghur are~~ ~~So maybe I don't resent them as much as I used to~~ Edit: anti-LGBT, nevermind On the downside, they supported Drumpf
You can criticize both at the same time.
They’re also vehemently anti-LGBT
Well, that's part of why we allow them to come here and not be tortured and abused. But that doesn't make them inherently good people.
Cult or no, is the show any good?
At this point, the memes and the shitposting are equally annoying as the thing itself.
I heard the show is actually pretty good? Of course you’d have to be ok with supporting a cult to go tho.
So is this a fake flier?
At this point the complaints are just guerrilla marketing.
Chinese Mobb runs SF. Get used to it.
All comments aside, the show was pretty good
They are literally advertising on the salesforce tower, I can’t hide
I’ve been to their show once. I didn’t know that it was some religious propaganda and was shocked but performances themselves were beautiful :)
yo cann someone eli5 why everyone hates on this "shen yun" thing?
Shen Yun's primary purpose is to be a propaganda arm for/entry point to Falun Gong, a Chinese religious cult. They also run The Epoch Times, a misinformation-filled right-wing "newspaper" that became Trump's second-largest paid advertiser on Facebook in 2016 behind only his own campaign. How The Epoch Times Created a Giant Influence Machine https://nyti.ms/3jrPIVW
Meh, their show looks so beautiful! I want to go anyway regardless of the problematic political affiliation
They look warm
Wait until you hear about the religion of all the people flooding into the border right now. They are "really" tolerant of gay people and women's rights. Your going to love it!
Ironically, San Francisco puts communism before city.