Art by SAMANTHA HO
DRAWING BACK THE CURTAINS Text by TIM HUNG and JASMINE VENET
SHEN YUN: DANCE TROUPE OR PERSECUTED SECT?
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ID-LEAP, a young Chinese woman bares her billowing white skirt for what seems to be the thousandth time today. Beneath her feet reads the phrase: “5,000 years of civilization reborn.” To many of us, the image is all too familiar; every winter, billboards, buses, flyers and online media advertisements incessantly herald the arrival of the Shen Yun touring season. In this article, Verde decided to investigate the mysterious production. From a diligent advertising coalition to a religious group’s stories of persecution, one thing is for certain: Shen Yun is much more than its advertisements suggest. Marketing madness Despite its ubiquitous marketing, Shen Yun itself spends no money on advertising. Instead, the organization relies on networks of volunteers throughout the world to raise money and promote the show in their areas. With volunteer contacts in 11 cities in the Bay Area alone, according to Falun Dafa’s official website, including Palo Alto, San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Fre-
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mont, it is easy to see why we so often feel like we are barraged by Shen Yun’s ads. In 2017, Shen Yun-linked nonprofit groups spent at least $18.5 million on advertising in the United States, while Shen Yun’s total revenue for that year was $30 million, according to IRS tax returns compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle. That results in a marketing to revenue percentage of 62%, whereas the industry benchmark is 7.5%. “By looking at those relative figures, my belief about Shen Yun is that they are more interested in getting their message out than generating revenue and making money,” said Eric Bloom, an economics teacher at Palo Alto High School. “My understanding is that Shen Yun has a different agenda.” So what is the motivation behind such dedicated pro bono advertising? These advertising entities are linked to Shen Yun through a surprising connection: a religious movement called Falun Dafa that once boasted over 70 million worldwide followers,W many of whom are now dead, imprisoned or practicing behind closed doors. Those who remain, like Mountain View resident Jianglan Xiong, have ded-
icated their lives to sharing their stories and practice, and spreading awareness of religious persecution at the hands of the Chinese government. Religious roots Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, emerged from the “Qigong boom” of the 1980s and 1990s, a social phenomenon that saw an explosive rise in the popularity of Qigong, a tai chi-like practice that claimed to promote health and spirituality through specific movements and breathing techniques. At its peak, it is estimated that the number of Qigong practitioners reached up to 200 million worldwide. Falun Dafa is a prominent submovement of Qigong first taught publicly in 1992. It focuses on moral philosophy — specifically the three tenets of “truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance,” according to Falun Dafa’s primary text, Zhuan Falun. The text holds that Falun Dafa practitioners can acquire supernatural abilities through a combination of moral cultivation, meditation and exercises. Independent from the state, uber-zealous and ambitious, Falun Dafa
