25 votes

Stepping into the uncanny, unsettling world of Shen Yun

6 comments

  1. [2]
    Dovey
    Link
    Damn, those posters and radio ads are all over Toronto at the moment. I don't think I know anyone who would go to the show, but I'm glad to know a bit of the background about it.

    Damn, those posters and radio ads are all over Toronto at the moment. I don't think I know anyone who would go to the show, but I'm glad to know a bit of the background about it.

    6 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Hey fellow Torontonian! Yeah, Shen Yun even got mentioned on CFRB 1010 this morning and it's really weird that nobody here seems to be talking about how they are associated with Falun Gong or that...

      Hey fellow Torontonian! Yeah, Shen Yun even got mentioned on CFRB 1010 this morning and it's really weird that nobody here seems to be talking about how they are associated with Falun Gong or that the show is seemingly filled with such blatant and disgusting propaganda... and even stranger still that the Toronto Centre for Performing Arts would host them. WTF :/

      6 votes
  2. evans
    Link
    An ex of mine and I saw it in...I want to say 2009? 2010? We didn't know much about it; it was just in the area and we went. We were not expecting the amount of propaganda weaved into the...

    An ex of mine and I saw it in...I want to say 2009? 2010? We didn't know much about it; it was just in the area and we went. We were not expecting the amount of propaganda weaved into the performance. It was hardly a subliminal/hidden set of messages. We had assumed going in it was just going to be a kind of higher budget collection of traditional dances and neat chunks of history worth preserving.

    Thanks for posting the article. I got a chance to remember a surreal experience I had pretty much forgot and understand a bit more about wtf I actually saw.

    5 votes
  3. frickindeal
    Link
    They advertise every year in my area, and I always thought, just based on the ads, that they were an actual Chinese dance troupe, as in Chinese nationals on a tour of the States. I had no idea...

    They advertise every year in my area, and I always thought, just based on the ads, that they were an actual Chinese dance troupe, as in Chinese nationals on a tour of the States. I had no idea they were a non-profit based in upper-state NY, nor that there was such a strange story surrounding their history. I know many people who have attended, and I've never heard one of them mention any propaganda or references to communism. It's always been more of a "do we do Trans-Siberian Orchestra this year, or Shen Yun?" For the record, I've never seen either one.

    4 votes
  4. Chopincakes
    Link
    I've seen adverts for it in Philly for probably the past 5 years. I always thought it was just some weird traditional dance thing... didn't expect a cult. That said, I feel like there's a lot of...

    I've seen adverts for it in Philly for probably the past 5 years. I always thought it was just some weird traditional dance thing... didn't expect a cult.

    That said, I feel like there's a lot of sunk-cost fallacy going on at the end of the story with all the applause. People probably liked the theater of the performance and didn't get/disregarded the propoganda parts and were left clapping. There's probably some conformity going on there too, like someone thinking, 'wtf did I just watch, is this normal?' then seeing everyone else clap just makes them believe that it was normal so they clap too. I wouldn't be surprised it there were people intentionally planted in the audience for that reason.

    4 votes
  5. Akir
    Link
    If that doesn't compel you to keep reading, I don't know what else would. I feel like this shouldn't surprise me as much as it does. Theatre was essentially invented to spread religious...

    “Karl Marx?” he said. “Yeah, I think that was a tsunami with the face of Karl Marx.”

    If that doesn't compel you to keep reading, I don't know what else would.

    I feel like this shouldn't surprise me as much as it does. Theatre was essentially invented to spread religious propaganda. There is a lesson to be learned in all forms of drama.

    3 votes