PureInsight | September 27, 2024
[PureInsight.org] In response to the recent article published by The New York Times about Shen Yun Performing Arts, the three senior dancers of Shen Yun, known as the Three Musketeers of Dance, shared their personal experiences with Shen Yun on their video blog on August 17.
For the Three Musketeers—Shen Yun dancers William Li (Li Baoyuan), Kim Ji Sung, and Sam Pu (Pu Yu)—who have been part of the Shen Yun tour for over 10 years, The New York Times’ report made them very sad. William Li, a principal dancer who joined Shen Yun in 2007, said, “Because it is completely the opposite of our experience at Shen Yun”, they decided to make a video to share their personal lives at Shen Yun.
Injuries from Dancing Are Common: Principal Dancers Share Their Recovery Experiences
The New York Times reported, “Shen Yun Performing Arts does not provide routine access to physical therapists or doctors ...encouraging people to dance in pain or discouraging them from treatment.” “This is absurd”, said William Li, “It's a complete lie”. Sam Pu shared his own rehabilitation experience then.
A few years ago, Sam Pu ruptured his Achilles tendon during a tumbling move, requiring a surgery as soon as possible. Shen Yun arranged a flight for him in the shortest time and he had the surgery done within a day or two, including an MRI and X-rays before the surgery. “Their timely response made me feel very safe”, Sam said. The company’s director helped him find a surgeon, one of the best in the country, who had previously performed surgeries for the Detroit Pistons' professional basketball players. “I felt very well taken care of”, Sam said. Even during his return to Los Angeles for recovering, the director would regularly check in on him. Sam said, “They gave me enough space and freedom to recover properly without rushing back.”
Sam’s doctor told him that cases of complete recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon were rare and even advised him to give up dancing. But Sam felt that dancing and Shen Yun have given him everything. During his recovery, he considered whether to dance again, “What brought me back was the warmth and support from Shen Yun during the process; and what Shen Yun is doing to revive traditional Chinese culture is also very important to me,” After months of rehabilitation, he could walk normally and began practicing again. Eventually he returned to Shen Yun to continue his dancing career. “Without my faith (Falun Dafa) and the support from Shen Yun Performing Arts, I couldn’t make it this far.”
Since Sam’s case was public, The New York Times also had to cite it. But at the same time, they claimed that actors in Shen Yun who could receive medical treatment like Sam were “extremely rare”.
“Thinking logically, you know The New York Times report is not true. Shen Yun has eight equally large performing companies. If they couldn’t receive the prompt treatment, there would be fewer and fewer dancers in the company”, said William Li. “It’s very common in the dancing world that a dancer might get injured throughout their professional dance career. You can't force dancers to perform while injured; dancers need to be carefully looked after.”
Dr. Jingduan Yang, CEO of Northern Medical Center in New York, confirmed to The Epoch Times that due to their convenient location, they have an agreement with Shen Yun to provide or assist with medical services for Shen Yun on short notice.
Self-Discipline, Work Ethic, and Dedication
The New York Times also criticized that “Shen Yun demands its performers adhere to grueling rehearsal and tour schedules”. The article claimed that Shen Yun performers spent 15 hours per day rehearsing, performing, and setting up the stage. In response to the recent media reports, Shen Yun Performing Arts issued a statement on August 17, stating that “Shen Yun has set a global standard for classical Chinese dance. To achieve this standard, the artists need to possess extraordinary self-discipline, work ethic, and dedication”.
Piotr Huang, a principal dancer who has been dancing with Shen Yun for 14 years, mentioned in a media interview, “In art, you have to invest a lot of time to improve. Take the artists of the Renaissance, for example. They have spent years creating a single piece of art, but their work continues to inspire generations”.
Confused Salary with Stipends
The New York Times article also mentioned that performers “only received a small salary”. Dr. Tianliang Zhang, an associate professor of humanities and sciences at Fei Tian College, stated on his channel that the New York Times report failed to distinguish between Shen Yun professional performers and apprentice performers—students from Fei Tian College. Students must apply to participate in Shen Yun tours as part of their internships to earn academic credits. Moreover, once students are enrolled, all their tuition fees, living expenses, costume and accommodation are covered by the school, which also provides them with a monthly allowance. The salary mentioned in the New York Times article refers only to the stipend provided by the school to student apprentices during the tour.
In fact, in the hundreds of testimonials from active and retired artists, graduates, and their families, there has been a strong sense of gratitude toward Shen Yun and Fei Tian College. One graduate, Johnny Cao, who spent ten years at Fei Tian College, believes that Fei Tian College provided them with the best platform and environment, allowing them to practice while learning. He said, “The opportunity to intern and perform in world-class theaters year after year is something only Fei Tian College offers. At Fei Tian College, I felt like I was getting the best deal, and that's all there is to it”.
Emotional Abuse or Self-Discipline
According to The New York Times, a former student claimed she experienced “emotional abuse”. Her dance instructor required her to lose weight, which caused her psychological harm, leading her to eat only one meal a day when she was 20 years old. In response, Kim Ji Sung commented, “If you are a professional dancer, your appearance on stage is very important”. In previous videos, the Three Musketeers have shared how they balanced eating to fuel their dancing, maintaining their physique, and enjoying good food. William Li noted that “dancing isn’t suitable for everyone because it requires a lot of self-discipline to maintain a good figure and health”. Some performers might control their food intake before a performance to ensure that their stomachs didn't feel uncomfortable during acrobatic movements due to digestion, but they made sure to replenish their energy afterward.
“The food during the tour is excellent,” said William Li, “and even on the bus, there's food available”. According to the videos documenting the Shen Yun performers' lives on tour, they took time after performances to visit landmarks and explore local cuisine in the cities where they performed. The Three Musketeers have frequently shared the variety of foods they enjoyed while on tour in their past videos. Even in the interviews with former Shen Yun performers and students conducted by The New York Times, they expressed appreciation for the opportunities Shen Yun provided to travel and improve their Chinese language skills, as well as the work ethic instilled by Shen Yun.
Focusing on 25 Discontented Voices, Ignoring Thousands of Positive Ones
Additionally, The New York Times reported that students were forced to attend Fei Tian College by family members who practiced Falun Gong. However, in Shen Yun's community blogs, 9 out of 21 students explicitly stated that attending Fei Tian was their own dream. 28 years old Jason Pan said that after watching a Shen Yun performance at the age of 13, he “resolved to become a member of Shen Yun”.
Kim Ji Sung, one of the Three Musketeers, crossed the sea 12 years ago as a 15-year-old Korean boy in pursuit of his dream to study dance at Fei Tian College, eventually became a Shen Yun dancer and choreographer he is today. In the video, he said that The New York Times' report was actually a “distortion of facts”, and that “this place (Shen Yun) is the best place I have ever been.”
The Three Musketeers expressed their sadness as they have been preparing for the 2025 global tour. “We are working hard in rehearsals for the 2025 program, yet this article portrays Shen Yun in such an unreasonable way; it’s very upsetting.” William Li said, “Shen Yun has been around for nearly 20 years. In the article, it mentioned that they found 25 people who had worked with Shen Yun and were dissatisfied.” He pointed out that having only 25 disgruntled employees over nearly 20 years was “actually a very good number” compared to the ratio of unhappy employees at those big companies. “Which company doesn't have dissatisfied employees?”
At the end of the video, William Li added, “Why do so many people want to join Shen Yun? It is because this group is full of care and support.” He cited an example of the 8 performers who played the Monkey King in Shen Yun’s 8 touring companies. They often gathered together to share and exchange experiences. “This environment is about supporting each other, not competing cruelly, and everyone is ready to offer help at any time.” He concluded by saying, “Why is Shen Yun so successful? Because everyone cares about each other and focuses on our mission—to revive traditional Chinese culture and share it with the world.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, USA. Currently, it has 8 touring companies that perform in over 200 cities worldwide each year. Shen Yun Performing Arts stated that their goal “has been (and will always be) to bring hope and inspiration to people around the world by showcasing the beauty, depth, and spiritual essence of the traditional Chinese culture.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always tried to prevent Shen Yun from performing worldwide. According to a report from the Falun Dafa Information Center of January 2024, 38 countries have recorded over 130 incidents of CCP interference with Shen Yun, including slashing the tires of Shen Yun performers' buses, sending malicious emails to theater managers, bomb threats, and more.
Moreover, the CCP has used foreign media to promote itself and attack individuals or groups it considers enemies. In 2020, a document from the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that an English version newspaper from China Propaganda department, China Daily, paid nearly $19 million in advertising and printing fees to several U.S. media outlets, including The New York Times, over a span of three and a half years, and spent $260,000 on ads on Twitter (now X).
Chinese version: https://www.zhengjian.org/node/292201
