Shen Yun 2025

Fri., Jan. 31 - Sun., Feb. 2
CRITIC’S PICK: Shen Yun, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre - Heads up: Shen Yun is a seemingly innocuous celebration of ancient Chinese music and dance that tours the world to great acclaim. The troupe describes its performances as a “revival of the beauty and goodness of China before communism” and “an extraordinary journey through China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.” 

However, the New York-based expatriate ensemble is affiliated with the controversial Falun Gong movement and is banned in China itself. According to The Telegraph in 2008, “This show is advertised as a Chinese spectacular - a kind of Eastern version of Cirque du Soleil. It is nothing of the kind. Acrobatics, singing and dancing skills are used in the service of a propaganda exercise on the part of Falun Gong.” A former dancer with the company filed a class action suit in 2024 alleging the nonprofit is engaged in “an enterprise that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars via forced child labor of vulnerable minors” and demonstrates a system of coercion and excessive control at the group’s 400-acre compound, according to a report by KTNV in Las Vegas, where Shen Yun events take place regularly. In November 2024, the New York State Department of Labor opened an investigation into Shen Yun following a lengthy article in the New York Times.

The Shen Yun website states that 85 percent of its performers are adults, and that students receive $50,000 scholarships per year to attend schools connected to the group. Falun Gong says all the attacks against them are efforts by the Chinese government to eradicate both entities. The KTNV report concluded: “Audiences will be left to decide for themselves whether to view the troupe’s work as an extraordinary artistic endeavor or as part of a broader, contested story.” - Kevin C. Madigan