Over the past year, The New York Times has investigated the inner workings of the dance group Shen Yun, known for its instantly recognizable posters and billboards.
Shen Yun performs hundreds of shows worldwide during its annual tour, generating tens of millions of dollars in ticket sales and packing prestigious venues from Washington to Paris.
Its current five-month tour kicked off in December. The group is set to perform at Lincoln Center in New York starting March 26.
Shen Yun is run by Falun Gong, a religious group that has been banned in China and persecuted by the Chinese government for nearly three decades. The two-hour performance includes dance pieces that are intended to spread the message of Falun Gong and its living founder, Li Hongzhi, to a mass audience.
But in a series of articles, The Times has found that Shen Yun has exploited its young performers, used religious fealty to command free labor, taken money in ways that may have crossed legal and ethical lines and benefited from previously undisclosed links to a prominent news outlet, The Epoch Times.
The Times reviewed thousands of pages of tax documents, court filings and other records and interviewed more than 150 people for the articles.
Representatives for Shen Yun have called The Times’s coverage a bigoted attack on the group’s faith. They have said the articles relied on disgruntled interviewees and would bolster the Chinese government’s efforts to repress the group.
Here’s a closer look at what The Times has found:
Shen Yun’s performers faced abusive conditions and emotional manipulation.
A Times investigation in August found that performers in Shen Yun — many of whom were minors — were often discouraged from seeking medical care for injuries. They also worked grueling hours for low pay.
Shen Yun promoted an atmosphere of fear, stoking distrust of the outside world and discouraging dissent. Performers were prohibited from reading articles from unapproved news outlets. Managers told them that any mistakes they made onstage could doom their audience to hell.
Many performers who wanted to quit faced threats and intimidation. They were told that they would be in danger if they left because they would lose Mr. Li’s divine protection.
Shen Yun’s representatives have denied that injured performers routinely went without medical care.
New York regulators are scrutinizing Shen Yun’s labor practices.
After questions from The Times, officials with the New York State Department of Labor, which enforces laws on child labor and minimum wage, opened an inquiry into Shen Yun.
Shen Yun appears to have violated a state law that regulates working hours, rest time and education for child performers. The group has used underage performers for years but did not apply for the required certification until after the Times article was published in August.
Shen Yun’s representatives have said that labor laws do not apply to their underage performers because they are students who tour with Shen Yun as a learning opportunity, not employees.
Shen Yun has stockpiled wealth at an extraordinary pace.
Shen Yun, which has reported $266 million in assets, has received tens of millions of dollars in ways that may have crossed legal or ethical lines.
Shen Yun’s satellite organizations received $48 million in government grants — far more than the intended $10 million limit — by skirting the rules of a pandemic relief program.
The group has also accumulated money at the expense of its loyal followers. One woman, Shen Yun’s former bookkeeper, worked for free and gave her savings to Falun Gong. While she was sick with cancer, her credit card was used to buy luxury goods worth tens of thousands of dollars — which her family believed to be for Mr. Li, his wife and Shen Yun.
Shen Yun’s spokeswoman disputed The Times’s account of these events, which she referred to as “a misunderstanding.” She said the details were subject to a confidentiality agreement.
The Epoch Times has been a key part of Shen Yun’s publicity machine.
The Epoch Times, a news organization founded and run by Falun Gong followers, has written more than 17,000 articles about Shen Yun — part of a deliberate strategy to promote the dance group while relentlessly attacking its critics as agents of the Chinese government.
A representative for the publication said that it is “editorially independent.”
Mr. Li has personally met with Epoch Times journalists to give editorial guidance, The Times found. Internal documents showed that staff members were instructed to remove anything from articles that could “diminish or damage Shen Yun.”
Shen Yun is facing growing legal scrutiny.
In addition to the Labor Department’s inquiry, a former Shen Yun dancer filed a federal lawsuit in November that accused the group of forced labor and human trafficking.
The former dancer was recruited at age 13 from Taiwan and stayed with Shen Yun for 11 years. After arriving at Shen Yun’s headquarters, performers are plunged into “a system of coercion and control that extends to nearly every aspect of the dancers’ lives,” the lawsuit said.
Shen Yun’s representatives have said the lawsuit is part of a “coordinated offensive against our company being orchestrated by the Chinese regime.”
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