A few weeks ago, one of my friends told me she had bought tickets to the Shen Yun performance, yes the one you’ve seen advertised incessantly all over with posters in your local coffee shop. In the advertisements they herald “China before Communism ” and it is true there’s a lot of history before the 1949 rise of modern communist China. And there’s much to criticize about China today like their suppression of free speech, civil and religious rights. What the Shen Yun ads don’t explain is that it is an offshoot of the Falun Gong, a religious cult repressed in China. It was founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a 427-acre compound in Deerpark, New York, near the residence of Li Hongzhi.
Back in Feb. 2021, we published a story on the Epoch Times. We wrote then, “Last month, many local residents were amongst the thousands of Southern Californians who received a copy of The Epoch Times in their mailboxes — the newspaper “freedom loving people wanting news without spin prefer to read.” What the Epoch Times doesn’t tell you is that it’s connected to and has the same function as the long-running Chinese performing arts show, Shen Yun. You probably recognize the show from the ubiquitous billboards promoting the show. Shen Yun is the public relations — some say propaganda — arm of Falun Gong, a controversial spiritual movement which has been banned in China.”
What most Western readers are unfamiliar with is the very long history of dynastic China and how before World War I, it collapsed following the first Sino-Japanese war. and the Western colonial powers, including the USA, moved in to control the economy of China, based mostly on the heroin trade. This is how the British empire held onto Hong Kong as a colony for so long. And why Hong Kong was and is so resistant to the PRC (People’s Republic of China) takeover.
However, let’s be clear, all nations have used some form of propaganda to promote their own nationalist world views. The USSR and the USA have been using it against each other since the beginning of the Cold War. And our country has used it extensively during both World Wars and even enlisted the movie industry with Walt Disney and other major studios actively producing propaganda to support the war efforts. The difference between propaganda and advertising is one sells a perspective or ideology. The latter sells goods and services. In one there’s some truth in advertising standards, in the other there is not.
Just to be clear on the definition:
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response.
Here is what the Shen Yun say about their performances:
Shen Yun’s unique artistic vision expands theatrical experience into a multi-dimensional, inspiring journey through one of humanity’s greatest treasures—the five millennia of traditional Chinese culture. This epic production immerses you in stories reaching back to the most distant past.
They are currently performing in San Luis Obispo, Long Beach, Thousand Oaks, and Hollywood before taking it onto other parts of the nation. Make no mistake that with all of the dazzling acrobatics, music and special effects there’s one underlying anti-communist message, which by itself might not be so bad (if it were based on facts) but their connection to the religious cult and Epoch Times that routinely runs pro-Trump ads and articles devoid of facts, should make audiences very suspect.
It has become somewhat popular to rail against the PRC because of their rising economic and technological influence, spying and now attempts to control Hollywood film making. And yet ever since President Richard Nixon “opened up” trade with China, our products, film, music and fashions have been invading that country not unlike what Coke, KFC, McDonalds and every other US corporation has been doing for decades world wide.
What we have now is a cold-culture war one that brings into focus the sharp differences between two world powers over ideologies and economics. Clearly the Falun Gong are taking the anti-commie side out of self-survival while using our free speech to propagandize a political position more attuned to Donald Trump who still manufactures many of his products there, while President Joe Biden has actually taken steps to bring manufacturing back to the USA.
Curiously, all of the former President’s tirades against China hinge on anti-Asian rhetoric like the “China virus”, but solve none of the trade imbalance nor create American jobs or even open up that country to more western democratic values. His populist attacks are more about riling up his cult of followers as opposed to actually ever “building a wall” or shutting down the border. In fact, all of Trump’s communications mimic the same kind of authoritarian propaganda of some of the most well known fascist leaders.
It has taken 40 years of exporting US manufacturing to China, starting with President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to get us to this point of having to compete over both economics and culture. I ask my best friend and others where your latest smartphone, computers or other electronic gadgets were built using US technologies. Our dependence on online shopping and inexpensive imports has created billionaires both at home and abroad but very little for the struggling workers in America.
So, while it might be nice to enjoy a fanciful performance about the Tang Dynasty and some of the high points of Chinese culture, it is probably more accurate to remember this performance is intended to counter the People Republic of China’s narrative that its dynastic emperors ruled with little tolerance for dissent, free speech or religion and their power was derived mostly by corruption, war or patriarchy. The current communist system isn’t much better on political and civil liberties. But China’s standard of living has increased immensely since opening up trade with the West.
In the end the Shen Yun performance takes advantage of our collective ignorance of a very complex history of China and is using loaded language to produce an emotional rather than a rational response.