Uncovering Shen Yun's Alleged Abusive Practices

Summary

ALL OF IT: Uncovering Shen Yun's Alleged Abusive Practices

Episode Overview

In the December 3, 2024 episode of ALL OF IT hosted by Alison Stewart, WNYC delves into the controversial practices of Shen Yun Performing Arts, a renowned dance troupe affiliated with the Falun Gong movement. This investigative episode features insights from New York Times reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, who have uncovered disturbing allegations of abuse, coercion, and exploitative labor practices within the organization.

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1. Introduction to Shen Yun and Recent Allegations

The episode opens with Alison Stewart highlighting recent developments concerning Shen Yun Performing Arts. Despite the troupe's positive publicity through advertisements in New York City subways and billboards promoting "China before Communism," serious accusations have emerged. A former Shen Yun dancer recently filed a lawsuit alleging the use of child labor within the organization, adding to the growing list of complaints sparked by investigative journalism.

Notable Quote:

“You’ve seen ads for Shen Yun Performing Arts on the subway and on billboards. The performance troupe advertises a show celebrating, quote, China before Communism. But just last week, a former Shen Yun dancer filed a lawsuit accusing the group of using child labor.”
– Alison Stewart [00:16]

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2. Background on Falun Gong

Falun Gong, the religious movement behind Shen Yun, originated in China in the early 1990s, founded by Li Hongzhi. It combines meditation and qigong exercises with a moral philosophy centered on truth, compassion, and tolerance. Over time, Falun Gong has integrated more mystical and apocalyptic beliefs, with Li Hongzhi asserting supernatural abilities for advanced practitioners.

Notable Quotes:

“It's a spiritual movement that started in China in the early 1990s... Their core tenets are truth, compassion, and tolerance.”
– Alison Stewart [03:19]

“Li fled China a couple of years before [the 1999 persecution] and was not there when that happened. But that has sort of galvanized the movement ever since then...”
– Michael Rothfeld [05:14]

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3. The Rise and Influence of Shen Yun

Shen Yun is presented as the cultural flagship of Falun Gong, performing globally to spread its beliefs and counter Chinese government propaganda. The troupe is headquartered in Dragon Springs, Orange County, New York, and has amassed over $265 million in assets. Shen Yun's performances are intended not only as cultural showcases but also as tools for religious evangelism, emphasizing flawless execution to persuade audiences of Falun Gong's virtues and the Chinese government's evils.

Notable Quotes:

“A key message that they repeatedly tell Shen Yun performers is that they are on this urgent mission to save people before the coming destruction, the coming end of days...”
– Alison Stewart [08:06]

“Shen Yun is kind of the crown jewel of their business empire... engaging in concerning and what their former members describe as abusive and coercive practices.”
– Alison Stewart [07:06]

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4. Alleged Abusive Practices and Coercion

Reporters Hong and Rothfeld reveal that Shen Yun subjects its performers, many of whom are children of Falun Gong devotees, to intense and often abusive conditions. Dancers operate under grueling tour schedules, limited access to medical care, and strict control over their personal lives. Emotional abuse is prevalent, with threats used to prevent dancers from leaving the organization.

Notable Quotes:

“If you try to quit, Falun Gong leadership often threatened you.”
– Alison Stewart [01:54]

“They can only watch things or read things that are approved by Falun Gong... it's a very controlled environment.”
– Michael Rothfeld [10:25]

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5. Impact on Dancers and Personal Testimonies

Former dancers express how their experiences within Shen Yun and Falun Gong led to significant personal and emotional turmoil. Many initially believed in the movement’s mission but grew disillusioned after facing physical injuries, emotional manipulation, and social ostracization upon attempting to leave.

Notable Quotes:

“A violinist who hurt his shoulder... was told that Li Hongzhi put his hands on his shoulder and on his body and said, ‘Now you’re healed.’ And of course he wasn’t healed.”
– Michael Rothfeld [09:09]

“The most powerful and effective way to convince people of this is to have them watch a Shen Yun show.”
– Alison Stewart [08:06]

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6. Legal Actions and Organizational Response

The lawsuit filed by the former dancer alleges forced labor and child trafficking, challenging Shen Yun's legitimacy and business practices. In response, Shen Yun has publicly accused the plaintiff of being a communist agent and questioned the integrity of her husband's dance studio in Taiwan, attempting to discredit the allegations by aligning them with Chinese governmental criticisms.

Notable Quotes:

“They accused her of basically being a communist agent... essentially repeated all of the criticisms... influenced by the communist government.”
– Michael Rothfeld [17:23]

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7. Financial Transparency and Organizational Wealth

Shen Yun's substantial financial resources raise questions about the allocation and purpose of its wealth. The investigation seeks to uncover where the $265 million in assets is directed and how it supports Shen Yun's expansive operations, including various affiliated businesses and media outlets like the Epoch Times.

Notable Quote:

“Shen Yun has a lot of money, right? Like, where is this money going? What is the purpose of having all this money?”
– Alison Stewart [23:13]

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8. Community Integration and Public Perception

Despite allegations, Shen Yun and Falun Gong maintain a presence in local communities through participation in events like parades and investments in local businesses. Their activities have sparked mixed reactions, with some community members appreciating their cultural contributions while others express concern over their growing influence and integration.

Notable Quotes:

“It's part of their sort of spiritual mission to spread the message of Falun Gong and convince people to get on board with their belief system.”
– Alison Stewart [13:41]

“The town officials in Middletown were very supportive of a lot of the investment that has happened as a result of the Falun Gong presence there...”
– Michael Rothfeld [15:50]

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9. Government and Legal Oversight

The New York State Department of Labor has initiated an inquiry into Shen Yun, focusing on compliance with child labor laws and working conditions. However, prior to this, there appears to have been minimal proactive investigation despite widespread advertising and performances.

Notable Quotes:

“They [Labor Department] have tried to stop Shen Yun shows in the United States. People have been arrested recently...”
– Michael Rothfeld [05:14]

“The Labor Department... have not done any proactive investigation. They’ve only responded based on complaints...”
– Michael Rothfeld [21:34]

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10. Future Implications and Ongoing Investigations

Hong and Rothfeld indicate that their investigation is ongoing, with further reporting expected to shed more light on Shen Yun's operations and Falun Gong's broader organizational structure. They express interest in understanding the future trajectory of Shen Yun, especially concerning its leadership and financial management.

Notable Quotes:

“We are still reporting on it, so we’re going to have more work coming out.”
– Michael Rothfeld [23:49]

“It’s fascinating reporting done by Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld from the New York Times.”
– Alison Stewart [24:16]

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Conclusion

This episode of ALL OF IT provides an in-depth exploration of the complex relationship between Shen Yun Performing Arts and the Falun Gong movement, unveiling serious allegations of abuse and coercion. Through the investigative work of Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the internal dynamics, financial intricacies, and broader societal impacts of one of the world's most prominent cultural organizations.

Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

Listener supported WNYC Studios.

[Nicole Hong]

This is All OF IT on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. Happy Tuesday. It's Giving Tuesday a day to support the nonprofit organizations that mean a lot to you. And we hope that WNYC is one of them. A gift to wnyc. It supports independent journalism and conversations like the ones you hear every day on ALL OF it. If you haven't given to us yet this year, please do so now. Go to wnyc.org or call 888-376-WNYC. Now, let's get this hour started. You've seen ads for Shenyang Performing Arts on the subway and on billboards. The performance troupe advertises a show celebrating, quote, china before Communism. But just last week, a former Shenyang dancer filed a lawsuit accusing the group of using child labor. The lawsuit is the latest development set off by investigative reporting from my next guests. New York Times reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld spoke to former Shenyang dancers about their experiences with the dance group and with Falun Gong, the religious movement behind Shenyang. These former dancers alleged that Shenyang worked dancers with a grueling tour schedule and a culture that is discouraged, seeking medical treatment for injuries. And then there was the emotional abuse. They alleged that if they tried to quit, Falun Gong leadership often threatened them. And this is really a local story. The Falun Gong compound is located in Orange County, New York, and Shenyang often performs at Lincoln Center. It's scheduled to run at the David A K. Koch Theater next March. In April, we reached out to Lincoln center and we did not get a response by airtime. Joining me now to discuss the reporting are Nicole Hong. Hi, Nicole.

[Alison Stewart]

Hi.

[Nicole Hong]

And Michael Rothfeld. Hi, Michael. Hello, listeners. We would like to hear from you. Have you been to a Shenyang performance? What did you think? Do you know anyone who used to be a Shenyang dancer, or maybe you're a former dancer yourself or have been affiliated in. We are taking your calls. 2124-3396-9221-2433-WNYC. You can also text to us at that number as well. Michael, when did you first decide that this was worth looking into Shenyang and Falun Gong?

[Michael Rothfeld]

Last year, towards the end of the year, a little more than a year ago, someone reached out to us who had some inside knowledge of this movement and told us about various problems that they felt there were with Shenyan and Falun, both relating to some of the performers who started as children there and sort of grew up on this compound, going to school and Performing and under what they really said were abusive conditions. And it was very compelling what we were told was happening there. And so from then we started to investigate and look for other people to see if this was true and corroborate what we had heard.

[Nicole Hong]

Well, there are two stories here, or they two separate part parts of the story, the Falun Gong part of the story and the Shenyang part of their story. Let's start with Falun Gong. Nicole, what are the tenants of Falun Gong? It's a Chinese religious movement and it's behind Shenan.

[Alison Stewart]

So it's a spiritual movement that started in China in the early 1990s. It was founded by this guy named Li Hongzhi, so his last name is Li. And you know, it's sort of this self improvement meditation and exercise practice. Their core tenets are truth, compassion, and tolerance. But there are also aspects of the practice that are more sort of mystical and supernatural. For instance, Lee tells his followers that advanced practitioners can see through walls and levitate. And as the years progressed, he also added some apocalyptic elements, suggesting that there's an end of days coming. And as a result, the major spiritual mission for his followers is to save people by telling them that Falun Gong is good.

[Nicole Hong]

I want to ask about Li. He's described in your reporting as going, he was a grain clerk initially. How do you go from being a grain clerk to being the leader of followers, Millions of followers.

[Alison Stewart]

So a lot of his backstory in China is pretty murky, and it's very difficult to get primary documents on that because they're in China. But what we do know is that his move movement took off at a time when a lot of these kind of ancient energy based exercises were becoming very popular in China. It was called the qigong boom at the time. And so he kind of rose along with this broader movement. It was a very tumultuous time in Chinese history. We spoke to a lot of the early followers who said that they were looking for a moral compass, you know, just like a blueprint for how to be a better person. And he was able to offer that.

[Nicole Hong]

Michael, how does the Chinese government view Falun Gong?

[Michael Rothfeld]

Well, they've banned Falun Gong in China and have persecuted their followers. And there was a big sort of protest in 1999 where a lot of people were beaten in China. And that was. That's sort of the signal moment in the persecution of the Falun Gong. Li fled China a couple years before that and was not there when that happened. But that has sort of galvanized the movement ever since then, for the last 25 years. And they point to, and truthfully, the fact that the Chinese government still is very threatened by his popularity because it's an authoritarian regime, and they have tried to stop Shenyan shows in the United States. People have been arrested recently. There was a case where some people here were trying to get the IRS to look into Shenyang and Falun Gong. So that's a real threat to them.

[Ira Flatow]

Nicole, what do you think is important for people to understand about Falun Gong?

[Alison Stewart]

You know, I think it's one of these things where the way we approached our reporting is that two things can be true at the same time, right? This is a movement that has been persecuted. They are, you know, the victims of transnational repression to this day, as Michael said. But at the same time, in our reporting, particularly through the lens of Shenyan, which is kind of the crown jewel of their business empire, this is a dance group that is sitting on more than $265 million in assets that this is a group that we have found is engaging in concerning and what their former members describe as abusive and coercive practices.

[Ira Flatow]

Who joins Shenyang? Michael?

[Michael Rothfeld]

It's primarily the children of devoted Falun Gong followers, and they send their children to audition at young ages, as young as 11, we found in their headquarters in Orange county, which is called Dragon Springs, and informally it's known as the mountain. And that's sort of almost like a biblical reference where you go up to the mountain and Li Hongzhi lives there. He's. He's a God. He's holy. And so they want their children to go to join him on the mountain and to be near him, and they believe that's a great honor. But, you know, they're children. So in a way, it's like any child who's brought up in a religion, you sort of do what your parents tell you. But over time, as they got older, they started to think for themselves, many of them, and say, well, hey, what's going on here? Why am I here?

[Ira Flatow]

Nicole, how are the religious beliefs of Falun Gong tied to dance productions?

[Alison Stewart]

It's a leap. So a key message that they repeatedly tell Shenyan performers is that they are on this urgent mission to save people before the coming destruction, the coming end of days, and that to do that, they need to perform a flawless Shenyan show, because the idea is people will be saved if they are convinced that Falun Gong is good and that the Chinese government is bad. And Li has said the most powerful and effective way to convince people of this is to have them watch a Shenyan show. So it really is important in their religious belief system. And for a lot of the young performers, particularly, you know, when they're children, they fully buy into this. And as a result, they're pushing themselves to their physical and mental limits because they see themselves as part of this kind of higher mission.

[Ira Flatow]

Michael, in your research, did the dancers, the ones you spoke to, did they truly believe in Falun Gong?

[Michael Rothfeld]

Many of them did, yeah. In fact, I think most of them did starting out. And it was also very hard for them to leave and to actually speak to us and many of them eventually to use their names in our article. But there were things that happened that caused them to have doubts. And for instance, they were discouraged by peer pressure from getting medical care for injuries. There was a violinist who hurt his shoulder and he was told that Li Hongzhou put his hands on his shoulder and on his body and said, now you're healed. And of course he wasn't healed. And when it didn't heal, his peers told him, hey, that's just because you don't believe. That's why you're not a good enough believer and that's why your injuries didn't heal. And so those sorts of incidents and many others caused some of these people to have doubts.

[Nicole Hong]

My guests are New York Times reporter Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld. We're discussing their reporting into the alleged abusive practices of Shen Young Performing Arts Group, including a lawsuit filed last week by a former dancer. So you talked about the mountaintop where they lived up in Orange County. How does Falun Gong control the dancers exposure to the outside world? People who live on the mountain, the.

[Michael Rothfeld]

Mountain, they tell them they can't use cell phones, they can't access outside media, they're not really allowed to watch movies or listen to music. In fact, no music after 1900 is permitted to be performed or listened to. And they can only watch things or read things that are approved by Falun Gone. Many of them do sneak some of this stuff and they have illicit cell phones and we told there were searches of their rooms to find these things. But yeah, it's very controlled environment.

[Ira Flatow]

I was going to say, I don't know if you can truly do that.

[Nicole Hong]

If you can keep somebody from the.

[Ira Flatow]

Outside world from the people you spoke to.

[Nicole Hong]

Nicole, when did they first have a realization that maybe something was wrong?

[Alison Stewart]

Like Michael said, for some of them it was when they suffered some type of injury that just would not get better and caused long term damage. And that's when they started to lose their faith in the power of Lee to heal them. For other people, it was, you know, just getting older and seeing what happened to people who did quit the organization. Right. They are often ostracized. They are publicly denounced and attacked, and you're supposed to cut off contact with them after they leave. And so for other people, that was when they started to have doubts of, like, why are we treating people this way?

[Ira Flatow]

We got a text and I'll get you to respond. It says Shenyang is a cult. Just because it's against China, the US Government supports it. It's reversing. Wait, sorry. Yes, it's a cult. Let's start there. Is it a cult? When you think about the definition of.

[Alison Stewart]

A cult, I guess what I'll say to that is the group has vehemently denied being a culture. That's a word that the Chinese government has used against them in Chinese state propaganda for many decades. The group itself, you know, they've gone back and forth in terms of identifying as a religion. In court documents. They have previously said they are a religion. The entity that comprises of the compound in Orange county is registered as a religious organization. Right. So, yeah, that's how I would respond to that.

[Michael Rothfeld]

And just to add, some of the people we spoke to who were in it, they believe they were in a cult. They say they were in a cult. We don't use that language. But one of them was given a satirical video to watch about the definitions of a cult. Some having a strong leader and some of the indoctrination techniques. And he identified with it and actually showed it to some other people. And when he was found out, he got kicked out for showing that video around.

[Ira Flatow]

We got a Texas says in Northeast Queens, where I live, they are now a part of the memorial parade every May. The group is absolutely not connected in any way to pass wars of American military was involved, nor have any association with local schools or scout troops that usually march. When I asked the parade organizers one year about this incongruity, I was told they're great dancers. Really? I was also told to take my complaint to local elected officials. Did you run into that at all?

[Alison Stewart]

No, although we know that they're very active in parades all around the country. I mean, we've spoken to people who have participated in the Falun Gong marching ban, for instance. It's all part of their sort of spiritual mission to spread the message of Falun Gong and convince people to kind of get on board with. Yeah. Their belief system.

[Ira Flatow]

Let's talk to Maggie Hi, Maggie. Thanks so much for calling.

[Maggie]

Hi. Thanks. I live near Middletown, New York, and I'm just curious about the Falun Gong's presence here, because it seems to be growing recently. There's a building that the Epoch Times sold to the Falun Gong to a website company called Ganjing World. And there's also this fancy department store that opened in downtown Middletown, which is a kind of rundown downtown. And it's. It totally doesn't fit into the character of the town. But when I went in there, you know, they started to talk to me about, you know, their beliefs. And it just seems like more and more little, like a coffee shop is being, you know, bought by the Falun Gong. There's a lot of flyers with the dancers. And I'm just curious what the Middletown, New York, connection is.

[Michael Rothfeld]

Well, Middletown is probably about 20 minutes from Dragon Springs, the Falun Gong headquarters. It's not necessarily the organization itself that's doing all the things you're talking about in Middletown, but their practitioners, they are connected. But many practitioners have settled there because it's so close to what they consider to be this holy place, and they have done. I know that the town officials in Middletown were very supportive of a lot of the investment that have happened as a result of the Falun Gong presence there, and including the Ganjing World building that you mentioned, which is sort of like their version of YouTube, except it's called. Means clean world in Chinese. And so it doesn't allow any kind of erotica or violence or anything like that.

[Ira Flatow]

Nicole, I mentioned at the top of the segment the emotional abuse that some of the Shenyang dancers received. Would you share what some of the. What they were told by people who they worked for, people who led the movement?

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is that, you know, it really was difficult for them to quit. So we know that many of the people we spoke to, when they tried to leave, they were threatened with having to repay the amount of scholarships they got to go to school in the compound. So everyone there gets full tuition, room and board, and they were basically told, okay, if you leave, you need to pay back the value of the scholarships that we gave you, which is tens of thousands of dollars for each year that they were there. Right. So that's an example of the kind of coercive tactics that they use. You know, for the female dancers in particular, they're. There's also a lot of control around their physical bodies. Right. In our article, we talk a lot about how much they controlled their weight, monitored their Eating, you know, publicly posted their weights for their peers to see, were berated if they did not lose a sufficient amount of weight. Things like that.

[Ira Flatow]

Let's talk a little about the lawsuit that you wrote about last week. One of the former dancers you spoke to filed a lawsuit last week accusing Shenyang Performing Arts of forced labor and child trafficking. What's been the response to the lawsuit, Michael?

[Michael Rothfeld]

Well, they didn't respond when we wrote about it. We asked them for comment. They did. Shenyang, that is posted sort of a response, I don't know if it was yesterday, but very recently online and accused her of basically being a communist agent. And as well as her husband, she has a dance studio in Taiwan. And they've accused her of having that funded by the Chinese government and essentially repeated all of the criticisms are reporting in this response, which is basically that we've cherry picked a handful of former performers and just told a story that's been influenced by the communist government, which I will say is not the case.

[Ira Flatow]

You obtained audio recordings from inside Shenyang. What insights did these give you for telling your story?

[Alison Stewart]

They were incredibly helpful. So, for example, one of the audio recordings was a lecture that Lee gave to the students last year. And in it he says, I created the earth. He says he created the music and dance of mankind.

[Ira Flatow]

Right.

[Alison Stewart]

Like really using the rhetoric of him as being a God, being a creator. So it did give us a lot of insight into just what the dynamic is between him and the performers and, you know, how they see him. You know, we were told that when he comes into a room, everyone kind of drops everything to bow to him. And you know, a lot of people there really treated him with just extreme reverence and feeling like they could not question any of his teachings.

[Nicole Hong]

Do the dancers get paid in any way?

[Michael Rothfeld]

Yeah, well, many of them don't get paid their first year, probably most of them on tour. But then they have stipends that get ramped up. And it could start very low, like I think $100 a month during the season. And it could ramp up to like maybe 12,000 for the year or something when they're at, at the higher end or maybe a little more. But it's a very small amount of money and it's certainly not anything approaching a minimum wage. And of course, Falun Gong, Shen Yun and Falun Gong say this is their students. They're in school, they're learning. This is typical. But the reality is that they are worked as if they are more than full time employees. The work that they do is in Addition to performing, they also, like, load the stages. They carry equipment. Some males have, at times, guarded buses from the communist attacks. So while they are in school, it really isn't comparable to any kind of, like, an internship that you might have in another setting.

[Nicole Hong]

We got a text that says, can you talk about its connection to Epoch Times?

[Ira Flatow]

Excuse me?

[Nicole Hong]

Epoch Times newspaper?

[Alison Stewart]

Yes. So Epoch Times is a newspaper that was founded by Falun gong practitioners around 2000 and similar idea as Shenyan, actually. So the. The original kind of intent behind Epoch Times is that they felt like mainstream media was not sufficiently covering the persecution of Falun Gong in China. So the idea was, okay, let's create a newspaper that will shine a spotlight on this issue and also kind of more generally on, you know, China's human rights abuses that people are not paying attention to. But then, yeah, of course, since then, particularly kind of with the first Trump campaign, the newspaper has really taken on this new national prominence. And, yeah, particularly during the Trump era, Trump's kind of hawkish China message really resonated with a lot of Falun Gong practitioners, so many of them support him.

[Ira Flatow]

This year, the New York State Department of Labor has opened an inquiry into Shenyang. Had the state not been aware of.

[Michael Rothfeld]

This before, we don't really know exactly what they were aware of, but it doesn't appear that they did any inquiry into this group, even though they have advertisements that blanket New York and really the entire world. But, yeah, the Labor Department, which enforces this law that requires children, performers. Child performers, anyone under 18, to have a permit and for their employers to abide by certain working conditions relating to education and hours and rests. They, for a long time, haven't done any proactive investigation. They've only responded based on complaints, and they said they didn't get any complaints. And, you know, that may be because many of these people were children. They were, you know, from. Many of them from other countries. And so they didn't necessarily have the awareness or the wherewithal to file complaints. And so nothing was ever looked into.

[Ira Flatow]

Are there certain sort of protections for Falun Gong and Shenyang because of its religious organization?

[Michael Rothfeld]

That may be true. I mean, we're not lawyers, so, I mean, I think there are definitely for. In terms of employment for charities, nonprofits, and relating to volunteers, there are some, you know, special things that don't. Aren't. Aren't the same as with a regular company and employer. But, you know, it gets kind of down into the nitty gritty.

[Ira Flatow]

Nicole, what questions do you still have about Falun Gong? And Shenyang.

[Alison Stewart]

I think just looking at, you know, well, number one, you know, Shenyang has a lot of money, right? Like, where is this money going? What is the purpose of having all this money? And then I think we're also just interested in kind of the broader empire, right? They run a lot of different businesses and entities. Some of them are public about their affiliation with Falun Gong, others are not. So that's something else that we are interested in.

[Nicole Hong]

Anything else you think is important for people to know about either group? MICHAEL.

[Michael Rothfeld]

Well, I mean, we're still reporting on it, so we're going to have more work coming out. And I mean, I think one thing, Mr. Lee is in his 70s, so it's unclear what will happen with this group if he dies. I assume he will, but I mean, since he is some say he's a God, but I assume he will pass away. And then at some point it will be interesting to see what happens.

[Nicole Hong]

It's fascinating reporting done by Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld from the New York Times. Thank you so much for sharing your reporting. We really appreciate it.

[Michael Rothfeld]

Thank you for having us.

[F]

I'm Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday. For over 30 years, our team has been reporting high quality news about science, technology and medicine, news you won't get anywhere else. And now that political news is 24 7, our audience is turning to us to know about the really important stuff in their cancer, climate change, genetic engineering, childhood diseases. Our sponsors know the value of science and health news. For more sponsorship information, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.