You may recall that my last column here dealt with the Shen Yun performance, the one you’ve seen advertised incessantly with advertisements everywhere heralding “China before Communism.” Within hours of that editorial being published online, we received a very long rebuttal titled, “Grave concern about your recent article on Shen Yun,” which you shall see I’ve actually published in full in this edition. Larry Liu, Ph.D., the deputy director of Falun Dafa Information Center’s government and advocacy, which is the public relations (propaganda) arm of the Falun Gong religious cult that has been oppressed and persecuted in China.
My good friend reported that the performance was delightful and the propaganda was light or subtle. Most of the very best stuff actually doesn’t appear as propaganda on the surface.
However, more to the point of dealing with the complaint from the deputy director of government and advocacy at DAFA (a euphemism for the Ministry of Propaganda), I need to point out that according to his online biography he has served as a liaison to the U.S. Congressional offices and his comments have been published in the Washington Post, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. Dr. Liu also holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Washington University in St. Louis, and a BS in applied mathematics from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
There’s nothing there to indicate he has a working knowledge of either politics or media literacy. The following was my immediate response to his complaint:
I believe that you are missing the point of my editorial, which is that Shen Yun is part of the propaganda of the Falun Gong which seems to be your primary role at the Falun Dafa Information Center. I don’t doubt that your religious group has been brutally persecuted in China, however, the definition above shows primarily how religious groups such as yours are regarded, especially since you are engaged in lobbying Congress, supporting certain extremist candidates, and attempting to influence the American public opinion by a coordinated campaign of misinformation. As far as using the term “cult” and equating it with using racial slurs against Black or Jewish people is sheer spin on what is the clear intention of your group– to deflect criticism.
The Britannica Dictionary definition of CULT: a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous.
In one online review of the Shen Yun 2024 performance, the reviewer observed that:
Shen Yun, as best I can tell, represents a new-age cult of Buddhism. Shen Yun presents itself as a historical performance of Chinese dance that attracts people to buy tickets, who then hear their message and support their cause.
As to Liu’s main contention on whether Falun Gong is a cult, I’ve spent some time wandering the avenues of history and have come to this conclusion: Cults are often offshoots of larger religions. Most recently, the Branch Davidians and Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple come to mind. They were scrutinized (some say persecuted), and so it has been down through history. The Puritans who came to North America were chased out of England. Many colonists came to America from England to escape religious persecution during the reign of King James I (r. 1603–1625) and Charles I (r. 1625–1649). Yes, that’s the King James whose bible many people still read. He wasn’t very tolerant of apostate beliefs.
Later on, after Joseph Smith discovered the golden tablets he invented the Mormon religion, a cult might be a better term, they were then chased out of Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois until finally landing in Utah. And they very much too were persecuted in this very nation founded upon the belief of “freedom of religion.” Of course, there was something about polygamy and stealing horses that the other Christians didn’t condone.
So, what essentially is “a cult”? I have come to the conclusion that all cults start with a charismatic figure, one who preaches the “true word of God” or says that only he knows “the truth.” Apparently, to my surprise, there are some 650 names of God in the King James version and outside of this there’s the chosen name of the deity you were raised with (Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, Vishnu, etc. There’s actually a book titled, 100 Names of God, by Christopher D. Hudson, but I digress.
The Falon Gong believers are persecuted in China, and Li Hongzhi is their undisputed founding leader who fled China in 1999 under threat of arrest. I do not dispute this. It is similar to how the Romans treated Christians for the first three centuries – they were a threat to the power of Caesar. It wasn’t until 313 CE, that Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which accepted Christianity. Ten years later, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Up until that time it was considered a cult and of course, the charismatic figure was Christ – the guy they named the religion for and of course he was persecuted by being nailed to the cross like a common criminal. Where does that leave us then?
I defend my use of the term cult with the Falun Gong not out of any malevolent intent but out of accuracy, nor do I hold any certain prejudice against them except for their incessant propagandizing and political influence peddling. It’s just like how I call out the White Christian Nationalists who believe that DJ Trump is the “savior of America.” They are a cult, and they are a threat to our republic and our democracy. Unlike the early Christians in Rome or the Falun Gong in China, DJT is not being persecuted. He is being PROSECUTED under the full extent of the law that holds all citizens to the same laws. That he twists and turns the spin claiming to be the victim is an odd sort of political theatrical martyrdom. It’s like he’s nailing himself to the cross that he built and then climbs up on it to say, “See what they’re doing to me”?
His political rallies and performances aren’t even as entertaining as the Shen Yun performance, but they are propaganda just the same. My critic, Mr. Liu, in his complaint, doesn’t really address my use of the term propaganda relating to Shen Yun because it’s undeniable.