In part 12 of this expose on Falun Gong’s transformation from a meditation practice in China to a global right wing disinformation machine, I will talk about the performing arts side of Falun Gong, the central role that it has played in FLG since 2006, and how Li Hongzhi’s management of Shen Yun is a microcosm of his management of FLG. I practiced FLG for nearly three decades and recently quit due to FLG going off the rails. I am using the anonymity of Blind to safely expose the dark side of FLG (and bit of the CCP in its persecution of FLG) without endangering myself. I apologize beforehand for doing this. Please bear with me. Many people have seen ads for Shen Yun which basically means Divine Arts and you can see online complaints about it being Falun Gong propaganda, bait and switch, and heavily influenced by the CCP’s Eight Model Plays of the Cultural Revolution. All of that is true and I won’t talk about it here. Instead I will share how Shen Yun works on the inside and what it says about Li Hongzhi. Shen Yun is a large performing arts troupe and affiliated with it is FLG’s Fei Tian Arts School which is an accredited university owned and operated by FLG. The Fei Tian Arts School is used to train young FLG disciples (children of adult disciples) to become Shen Yun performers and also become the next generation of FLG activists to carry the torch. Shen Yun exists for both the purposes of being the face of FLG for non-practitioners and a revenue generator. Li Hongzhi’s goal ever since he dreamed of being a Qigong master while living on his brother-in-law’s financial support in Thailand in 1991 was always to make a lot of money. This is not unusual: so does everyone. But after the CCP destroyed his FLG business in China in 1999, Li Hongzhi struggled to gain that kind of traction overseas because 1) Different cultural environment 2) Higher levels of education which makes people less susceptible to Qigong mysticism 3) Lack of state support (ironically the CCP from 1993-1998 helped FLG more than any other government since in spreading it) 4) Advent of the internet The last point is an important one because a major factor in Li Hongzhi being able to convince so many Chinese during the 1990s of supernatural events, paranormal phenomena, pseudo history, and pseudo-science was that people could not quickly verify his claims via a web query. Nor could people easily look up his past lecture videos and see how he was contradicting himself or how his previous prophecies had failed to come true. With the religious/spiritual market overseas looking unfruitful, and the political market both risky and not immediately yielding results, Li Hongzhi had a new idea. He would turn his overseas disciple population into a performing arts cultural revival enterprise. This would generate money and serve as a new center for disciples to gravitate towards as the religious side of FLG proved shakier and shakier with each failed prophecy. This led to the creation of Shen Yun in 2006. As mentioned in an earlier post, Li Hongzhi had musical talents in his family: he was a trumpet player in the army back in China and his sister who had married his Thai benefactor Sun Senlun in 1989 had been an army singer. Shen Yun would later grow beyond just performing arts to also include beauty pageants, other traditional art forms and more. As of 2023, US tax records show that Shen Yun which is registered as a religious non-profit has more than 200 million dollars on its books while Li Hongzhi and his wife Li Rui own multiple houses including one in New Jersey. Shen Yun is headquartered in Falun Gong’s complex called Dragon Springs Temple aka The Mountain in rural Deer Park located in upstate New York. The complex consists of elegant wooden Tang Dynasty style architecture built in traditional Chinese methods. The outside of the complex is guarded by security guards carrying semi-automatic rifles to protect FLG HQ from its enemies. But within this serene and beautiful Mountain is a traditional Chinese dictatorship led by a wannabe emperor. The enemies that the gun-toting guards protect against are not only the CCP. Li Hongzhi had a huge problem when he came to the US in the 1990s. He was simply too ignorant, unskilled, and poorly educated to lead a massive multinational group. That task required either supernatural abilities which he lacked or a core of highly uneducated and skillful people of which he wasn’t one. Fortunately overseas FLG disciples did include some highly educated or skilled people including the Harvard PhD holder Zhang Erping, other Chinese immigrants with advanced degrees like Zhang Tianliang, and once famous male singer Guan Guimin (popular in 1980s China). Li Hongzhi on the other hand had only graduated from middle school in China during the Cultural Revolution. His work experience consisted of army service, forestry band, and grain clerk. He was so poorly educated that not only did he not know any language other than Chinese but as an adult in his forties, Li Hongzhi’s handwritten applications for FLG to join the Qigong Research Association in the 1990s were full of typos. Even his knowledge of Buddhism was cursory as shown by his misuse of Buddhist concepts in FLG texts. To manage a bunch of much more skillfull and knowledgeable and smarter people, he knew only two ways: create an aura of divinity around himself and keep his closest followers in constant fear. Most FLG disciples never or rarely see Li Hongzhi in person. For them, it was possible to convince them that Li Hongzhi was divine. First, the disciple would be hooked by health improvements acquired from practicing the exercises. Then the disciple would start believing more and more of what Li Hongzhi said. Before 1998 or so, Li Hongzhi was simply addressed as Teacher Li. Starting around 1998, this was upgraded to Master. By the 2000s, Li Hongzhi taught that he was in fact the highest of all Buddhas whom all Buddhas, Gods, and Daos of all ages respected. He became the Primary Buddha of the Universe. Then with inspiration from Christianity, Li Hongzhi taught that he was the Creator who created the universe and everything in it and saved all of his disciples from Hell (which they were supposed to be in due to karma accumulated from sins in previous lives). If you believe that then you gotta do anything that Li Hongzhi tells you such as sending your kids to Shen Yun or working all night on an Epoch Times article as a volunteer for zero TC or badgering random strangers to get them to quit the CCP in order to “clarify the truth” and “save sentient beings”. However, the FLG disciples on the Mountain at Dragon Springs interact with Li Hongzhi aka Master regularly and at such close quarters the aura of divinity wears off real quick. It’s hard to think of someone as the Creator when he plays cards late into the night, drinks beer at meals (his teachings from the 1990s forbade it), and yells at young Shen Yun dancers in frustration. To control them, Li Hongzhi creates a culture where everyone in Shen Yun lives under strict rules, is closely monitored by everyone else, telling on your peers is encouraged, and punishment is public and done by everyone around you. Each staff member, student, teacher, and performer at Shen Yun and Fei Tian lives in constant fear that they broke a rule and will be discovered so they try to be on their best behavior. Li Hongzhi and his wife Li Rui sometimes make unfounded accusations against someone and that person will have to admit it or else they will be even more guilty for denying their guilt. For example, Li Hongzhi would loudly insinuate that Shen Yun’s bookkeeper may have embezzled funds and she would admit it. In reality, the bookkeeper is a volunteer from a wealthy family who upon her death donated nearly all of her wealth to Shen Yun. When a minor (eg Shen Yun young performer or student) is accused of a wrongdoing, his or her crime will be announced to his or her entire class and everyone is supposed to “help” him or her recognize his or her error and monitor him or her for any future transgressions. This once happened to a teenage girl who was falsely accused of watching pornography. Shen Yun teachers will often accuse a student or performer of a vague transgression and gather a class around the student to demand that he or she recognize his or her crime without even specifying what he or she did wrong. The idea is that the student should reveal his or her own crime and the process continues until he or she does so. Sometjmes, Li Rui will pull someone aside privately and accuse him or her of a wrongdoing or failing that he or she may or may not be guilty of and offer him or her a way out of punishment and public humiliation by accusing someone else of the same thing. Other times, Li Rui and Li Hongzhi play good cop, bad cop with Li Rui or one of the teachers making life difficult for a person while Li Hongzhi swoops in to save the day to the affected disciple’s infinite gratitude. Even some of FLG’s propagandists like Zhang Tianliang are not safe from this. Li Rui has at times deliberately caused marital discord between Zhang Tianliang and his wife and then asked Zhang Tianliang to seek fault from within himself (this is the forbearance part of FLG’s Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance) and after doing so Zhang Tianliang would credit FLG teachings for his marital harmony. This has led to bullying, depression, and at least one suicide among Shen Yun students. When the Shen Yun performer who returned to Taiwan committed suicide, Li Hongzhi even told Shen Yun members that the suicide was a great example of what happens when a Shen Yun member turns against FLG. A number of Shen Yun members have quit in disgust and at least one has deliberately visited China and retaliated against FLG by informed the CCP of the inner workings of Shen Yun and providing the latest intelligence on Dragon Springs complex. This kind of behavior comes straight out of the struggle sessions of the Cultural Revolution. Li Hongzhi grew up during the Cultural Revolution and Mao’s methods from that time were imprinted in the brains of many Chinese of that era including Li Hongzhi. Knowing little else, he can only turn to these Cultural Revolution tactics to manage people. It is the same method that he uses to manage the rest of FLG. Mao Zedong used the same tactics of getting better educated intellectuals to feel scared of doing something wrong and fearful of other intellectuals accusing them of something. This kept intellectuals and other CCP revolutionaries who had great merits or skills of their own loyal to Mao since he was the only person in the system who could absolve them. Chinese emperors throughout history have used this technique to manage a nation full of mandarin officials and military talents. Li Hongzhi does the same with his talented practitioners who he needs to use but also control. A few more things worth mentioning are: Deaths at Dragon Springs: During the construction of Dragon Springs, at least one practitioner was reported in the media to have died when he accidentally fell. Note believing in modern medicine, other practitioners put him in a makeshift room and Sent Righteous Thoughts until he died rather than take him to a hospital. There are internal rumors about more deaths during construction but those are hushed up and unconfirmed. In addition there was also a Shen Yun -affiliated practitioner who died in a car crash which was supposedly an accident but some Shen Yun performers think it was not an accident. I have no proof either way though. Censorship: FLG is famous for having made one of the first VPNs available for mainland Chinese to circumvent China’s Golden Shield firewall. This was 自由门or Freedom Gate. Ironically, at Dragon Springs, Li Hongzhi makes all practitioners install FLG’s own firewall on all electronic devices. FLG’s firewall is called 得了道which means Got the Dao and it filters out not only content that is critical of FLG but many ordinary websites as well—it might be even more restrictive than China’s Golden Shield. Li Hongzhi’s most trusted lieutenants can check anyone’s phones and laptops at any time. Being caught deleting one’s browsing history before such a checkup is punished. Signing with your Eternal Future: Shen Yun performers a few years ago had to sign a pledge to follow all of Li Hongzhi’s stringent rules or else forfeit their eternal lives: this means they might lose their current life (ie die) and go to Hell. This was what Li Hongzhi was talking about when the disgruntled Taiwanese Shen Yun performer returned to Taiwan and committed suicide. This contract is taken seriously by many of the teenage performers who grow up at Dragon Springs and it serves as powerful mental control. There is an exception however. Remember how Li Hongzhi separated the two sons of Sun Senlun (Thai-Chinese businessman who was married to Li Hongzhi’s singer sister from 1989 until 2000 and financially support Li’s whole family in the 1991-1998 period and inadvertently got Li Hongzhi started on creating FLG) from their father back in 1998? Well these two boys named originally Sun Baoyuan and Sun Baoman were renamed by Li Hongzhi to Li Baoyuan and Li Baoman and later both joined Shen Yun. Their mother and Li Hongzhi’s daughter are in Shen Yun as well. At Shen Yun, Li Baoyuan is informally considered the heir apparent to Li Hongzhi whenever he dies and he doesn’t need to follow Li Hongzhi’s rules. In fact, Li Baoyuan has a YouTube channel called the 3 Musketeers which he co-runs with a few other male dancers and several attractive female dancers. Check it out. Separation from Family: I know of at least one Shen Yun performer who was pressured into joining because his parents were regional coordinators for FLG. When he arrived at Shen Yun, his parents weren’t so sure about having him stay but Li Hongzhi simply pressured him to stay, separated him from his parents and then told his parents that he had chose to stay. Once a person joins Shen Yun, they are not allowed much contact with their family. Not only are phone calls strictly controlled and travel out of the complex strictly controlled via a handful of vehicles driven by a few designated drivers but parents are only allowed occasional visits to the complex and even then they must first do some work for Shen Yun at the Dragon Springs complex before being allowed a short visit with their kids. That’s the inside of Shen Yun as far as I have experience with. Note: this issue is currently causing consternation within FLG circles and Li Hongzhi feels threatened by it.
ChatGPT?
0.5 social credits have been added to your account
Boy oh boy, you need to check out my next post which will deduct social credits
Should we avoid watch these SHEN YUN shows then?
I would but if you don’t mind blowing $80-$100 to find out what these are actually like, go and watch. Honestly I think watching these shows gives the audience a better idea of just what FLG is like. The only reason I wouldn’t go anymore is because I once spent countless hours selling tickets for the shows and helping host them.
Mental illness is really sad.
Fitness
Yesterday
3296
Very thin yoga pants
Cars
Yesterday
1728
Electric cars depreciate 10 times faster than gasoline cars
India
2h
1423
Why is it so G*damn difficult to move money out of India
Tech Industry
Yesterday
820
East Asian Men don’t talk to me bc I’m Vietnamese
Tech Industry
Yesterday
1614
Absurdities of the Bay Area 😒
Dang this is a long post. Is the tldr still falun gong is a cult?
You can think of it that way. Today it sure has become a cult, but it’s more than that. Stay tuned for more in this series.