If you *ever* watch television, chances are real good you’ve seen commercials for those “Shen Yun” live dancing performances. From time to time the advertisements seem to be all over the place… according to Google they hit Salt Lake city in 2018 and 2019, and are due back in early 2020, before which there will be a wall-to-wall local advertising blitz. Beyond noting the excessive advertising, I’ve not really paid much attention to Shen Yun because… well, why would I? I can think of a few “entertainment options” more painful than “traditional Chinese dancing” (“A Night with Yoko Ono” springs to mind), but not a *lot* of them. I’ve no interest in *western* dancing shows or even western Opera, so I sure as hell don’t want to subject myself to weirder, lower-quality imports. So, I’ve never given Shen Yun any further thought.

Turns out it’s worth paying attention to. Not because it’s necessarily any good, but because it is a part of the propaganda arm of the Falun Gung cult. It’s not even “Chinese” as such, since the head office is (of course) in New York City, and the “traditional Chinese dancing” is about as authentically traditional as Disney’s Mulan. As such, Americans should avoid it. Sure, it’s great doing things that annoy the communist Chinese government, but a cult is a cult, whether it’s Falun Gong or Scientology or the Klan or the Hare Krishnas or the Transcendental Meditation weirdos or the Discovery Institute or PETA or  some flying saucer religion or the Democratic Socialists. Such things are just plain unhealthy.

For all I know, the cultish nature of these Leapin’ Chinese Shows is common knowledge that I’ve some how missed (looking up “Shen Yun” and “cult” on google, there’s certainly a whole lot out there). But if not… here ya go. If your significant other starts harping on you to go to one of these things, state that as a proud American you’ll have nothing to do with this nonsensical nonsense.

Here’s an interesting write-up about it:

Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun

At some point in the show, which sounds like the sort of flashy, noisy pap that art snobs would wet themselves over in order to earn themselves a few Diversity Points, the narrator or whatever comes out and says:

“We follow Dafa, the Great Way,” he began, singing about a Creator who saved mankind and made the world anew. “Atheism and evolution are deadly ideas. Modern trends destroy what makes us human,” he sang.

ᛖᚪᛏ ᛗᚤ ᚪᛋᛋ, Shen Yun.

Falun Gon vs. ChiComs, LaRouchies vs. Democratic Socialists, Nazis vs. Commies: Let Them Fight. Just stay out of the middle of it.