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Shen Yun shows are spectacular performances of traditional Chinese dance and music that have wowed audiences across the globe. But they are not all they seem: The Shen Yun company is run by Falun Gong, a religious group with strange beliefs, and have been denounced for exploitative working conditions.
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00:04In big cities in recent years, these adverts are hard to miss.
00:11Shen Yun is a spectacular dance extravaganza with hundreds of shows worldwide on every tour.
00:19On stage, traditionally clad dancers accompanied by an orchestra.
00:25But this troupe is in fact a front of a movement.
00:29Falun Gong or Falun Dafa, which has strange beliefs like levitation.
00:40And potentially dangerous, as another claim is miracle healing.
00:47Practitioners, even doctors, claim to have been cured of possibly fatal diseases such as cancer.
00:55Former followers agreed to speak with us.
00:57Most everything I did was monitored. Anything I said could be reported.
01:04Members without whom Shen Yun shows would not exist.
01:09Many Falun Dafa members send their children there.
01:13It was rough in the beginning because obviously I didn't want to do it and my mom kind of forced
01:17me.
01:18But today, former Shen Yun dancers are seeking justice.
01:24Plaintiffs endured serious injuries without medical care, isolation from their families and threats of death.
01:31In under 20 years, through Shen Yun, Falun Gong has built a financial empire.
01:38Because when you buy a ticket to their show, you unknowingly support the spiritual movement's growth.
01:45In France, they rely on a small association, discreetly tied to Falun Gong, which has accessed Parisian public schools.
01:56We investigate Falun Gong's highly lucrative front.
02:07We investigate Falun Gong's highly lucrative front.
02:16In December 2025, Shen Yun's new world tour kicked off.
02:22A voyage through time to the heart of eternal China.
02:28And it is a worldwide hit.
02:31In the first six months of 2026, eight Shen Yun troops will travel the world, notably excluding China.
02:40700 dates in around 20 countries.
02:43Of these, 99 are in France and 26 are in Germany.
02:47The shows are promoted in a blaze of publicity.
02:52A show that really matters.
02:56A hype campaign online users joke about.
02:59I think we all agree the Shen Yun marketing team deserve a raise.
03:03These ads are everywhere, even though nobody knows a damn thing about it.
03:08And indeed, Shen Yun is much more than a simple dance show.
03:15A front for a spiritual movement that currently faces grave accusations.
03:22This is the Chinese man behind Shen Yun, Li Hongzhi.
03:27Originally, this man founded Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.
03:34The practice melding Qijong with meditation is outwardly based on three pillars, which are widely accepted.
03:43Truth.
03:45Generosity.
03:47And patience.
03:50Founded in China in 1992, it was an instant success, attracting up to 70 million followers nationwide, according to Falun
03:58Gong.
04:01This alarmed the ruling Chinese Communist Party to the point that they banned it in 1999.
04:19Mass arrests.
04:21Imprisonment.
04:24According to Falun Dafa, practitioners were abducted by China's regime to sell their organs.
04:32The founder, Li Hongzhi, fled to the US, near New York, where he created Shen Yun's shows.
04:43That's why Falun Gong bears an intense hatred for the Chinese Communist Party.
04:50Avant le communisme, l'histoire de la Chine était glorieuse, mais des décennies de destruction, d'impostures et de violence
04:58ont presque détruit les valeurs de toute une nation.
05:06But when we looked behind the mask, we discovered a conspiratorial movement.
05:13Starting with founder Li Hongzhi's speeches.
05:17On the movement's website, he expounds on his thoughts for hours.
05:23Practitioners are thus supposedly able to levitate.
05:26Il n'y a rien de plus simple. Dès que ton grand circuit céleste est ouvert, tu seras capable de
05:31t'élever dans les airs.
05:32C'est aussi simple que cela.
05:38Ces extraterrestres viennent à leur gré et s'en vont d'eux-mêmes.
05:41Peut-être qu'en une seconde, ils retournent à leur place et qu'une seconde plus tard, ils reviennent.
05:48Fancifull ideas and also a deeply conservative dogma, as seen on this other Fallon Daffer website.
05:56Sexual relations must only occur as part of a monogamous, heterosexual marriage.
06:04The movement claims to have performed miraculous healings, even for the gravest illnesses.
06:13Practitioners, including doctors, reported they had been cured of possibly fatal diseases, such as cancer.
06:21A principle so deeply held that some members refuse medical treatment and sometimes pay the price.
06:29Such as Rob Gray, a Fallon Gong member from 2008 to 2024, who suffers Crohn's disease.
06:37He kindly spoke to us.
06:40I myself have suffered a lot.
06:43In the last two years, I've had to have a huge amount of hospital and medical assistance.
06:50I've actually had eight unplanned emergency hospital visits because of ill health.
06:56And a lot of this is actually when I was a practitioner, I just routinely refused to get medical treatment.
07:02A friend of his even died of untreated cancer.
07:08Not only was he resisting medication, but he was also constantly sharing with me how depressed he was and about
07:17how he felt that this was all happening because he hadn't fulfilled his mission as a practitioner.
07:24He hadn't cultivated Lee Hongzhe's Fallon Gong well enough.
07:29For its part, the movement assures Fallon Gong teachings do not prohibit nor discourage taking medicine.
07:39However, in the US, six former Shen Yun artists filed a complaint in 2024 claiming lack of access to healthcare.
07:49In or around 2016 or 2017, plaintiff Chang sustained a serious injury in the arch of her foot and couldn't
07:57walk.
07:58Defendants told plaintiff Chang she needed to pray to feel better, and they did not take her to see any
08:02doctors or offer medical care.
08:07Supernatural powers, distrust in modern medicine, added to a climate of surveillance and denunciation, claims Lila Zhao, former violinist who,
08:17after five years, left Shen Yun in 2019.
08:23She speaks here for the first time.
08:28I'm not eating together with them because what they're talking is always like, who did something wrong?
08:43Like that. I don't like to listen to them all the time.
08:47As a result, she found herself excluded.
08:52Most everything I did was monitored.
08:55So, like, anything I said could be reported.
09:00And then they would hold meetings to criticize me.
09:06Sometimes deviating from doctrine can even lead to expulsion.
09:11Ostracism is a form of social death.
09:15This happened to Simone Gao.
09:17In 2024, she was excluded after 20 years in the movement, allegedly for not cutting ties with a former member.
09:27A note about it was published by Falun Gong.
09:32We ask practitioners in all regions to be vigilant and avoid being misled or disturbed by these individuals, and to
09:39follow the Fa as one's teacher.
09:44A directive that would have direct impact on her life.
09:48I would say 99% of my social network are Falun Gong practitioners.
09:54I think it's difficult to, you know, lose all your friends.
09:59For your entire one-fourth of your life that you have been just living in this circle, and then you
10:08have zero friends.
10:11For their part, Shen Yun assured us that people are free to join or leave this faith, and maintaining relationships
10:18between people is entirely a personal choice.
10:25Testimonials from former members are rare.
10:28Most Falun Gong members, though the number is unknown, don't speak up and stay loyal.
10:36From these families, Falun Gong recruits many of its artists.
10:42One of these dancers was recruited against his will, as he openly says on YouTube.
10:50So my mom was really into Shen Yun and into, like, classical art.
10:53So she's like, I want you to join.
10:54I'm like, no, I don't want to join.
10:55So she was like, okay, I'm chicken.
10:57So what she did was she actually told me we were coming to New York for vacation.
11:00We went to the audition.
11:01I didn't know I was going to be auditioning.
11:03I was like, um, okay, mom, what's going on?
11:06And then she was like, you stay here, we'll ship your stuff over.
11:09A recruitment method worrying relatives who are not in Falun Gong.
11:14A French woman agreed to speak with us.
11:17Her parents suddenly send her little brother to the US in 2023 to train as a dancer.
11:25He was 13 years old.
11:28In May, in fact, he went to the United States.
11:30He didn't finish his year yet.
11:32He was still five years old.
11:33His journey type, which he describes me, is that he has seven hours of dance.
11:37But with some training in more.
11:40Sometimes, until midnight.
11:41There are some behaviors that can make sense to an insect, in fact.
11:44I think that for the side, let's say, in this Falun Gong,
11:48I've abandoned it.
11:50I can't do anything.
11:50Since little, he's practicing every day.
11:53He's looking at some images on that.
11:56They grow up in this environment with the two parents who they practice.
12:00And once in a troop, some suffer mistreatment.
12:05Or so claim a series of surveys from the New York Times in 2024.
12:10Behind the pageantry of Shen Yun, untreated injuries and emotional abuse.
12:17And the two suits filed against Shen Yun.
12:21Former troop members especially criticized.
12:24Training schedule that runs 15 hours per day, at least six days a week.
12:30Plaintiffs endured serious injuries without medical care.
12:35Isolation from their families.
12:37And threats of death, humiliation, and physical and psychological harm.
12:46The former dancers say Shen Yun is a huge commercial enterprise that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars via
12:54forced child labor of vulnerable miners.
12:58Because of their young age, performers cannot have joined or participated in Shen Yun or Falun Gong voluntarily.
13:09Asked about the suit, Shen Yun replied to us.
13:12The pleadings referenced in your question contain numerous false and scandalous allegations to extort large sums of money and bankrupt
13:20Shen Yun.
13:23While the methods are now under fire, financial results speak volumes, as evidenced by their American tax returns between 2011
13:31and 2024.
13:36From $8 million in revenue 14 years ago, today the show earns up to $51 million per year.
13:45This has allowed Shen Yun to accumulate $290 million in assets.
13:52Starting with the troop and Falun Gong's headquarters, covering 170 hectares near New York.
13:59A financial achievement largely thanks to the members' involvement in organizing the tours.
14:07On their ticket website, the shows are handled by local producers.
14:15Their common feature, they are local associations of Falun Dafa.
14:27They take care of marketing, advertising and sale of tickets.
14:33In France, the producer doesn't disclose its connection.
14:37It is the Sacred Lotus Association.
14:45On its website, it presents itself as a non-profit organization aimed at promote the richness and beauty of traditional
14:52Chinese culture.
14:56But there is no mention of Falun Dafa or Falun Gong.
15:01The Sacred Lotus even intentionally obscures things.
15:04Until our inquiry, the legally required disclaimer was missing.
15:08And no creator was given credit.
15:13The only clue is this phone number.
15:18We found it on the French Falun Dafa information center site.
15:30What is the French Shen Yun Tour's revenue?
15:36The Sacred Lotus' accounts are not public, so we will use an estimation.
15:43According to Shen Yun's American tax returns, the 2024 tour earned more than 33 million dollars, or 31.3 million
15:51euros, for the organization.
15:56That's an average of 38,642 euros per show that year.
16:02Based on the number of French shows in 2025, the Sacred Lotus would have paid approximately 3.4 million euros
16:10that year alone to the Shen Yun and Falun Gong headquarters.
16:17A taxable amount in France, according to the Civil Service.
16:22But based on our findings, a tax audit demanded they pay a tax adjustment of several million euros.
16:31Sacred Lotus lodged an appeal with the Paris Administrative Court, which confirmed that the case is under review.
16:40When asked about it, the Sacred Lotus didn't reply.
16:46Our investigation revealed another activity run by this group in schools, run by the city of Paris.
16:58We traced three public contracts awarded to the association in 2015, 2017 and 2021.
17:09For 10 years, the Sacred Lotus has been organizing after-school activities.
17:17Through social media, we found former workers recruited by the association.
17:24They led origami workshops, the art of paper folding and beginner Chinese courses.
17:35But Paris City Hall didn't seem to have realized that behind the Sacred Lotus was the religious Falun Gong movement.
17:45Until an incident at a school in 2022.
17:50We asked the City Hall about them, and they mentioned an incident during a workshop.
17:55A speaker gave goodies to the kids linked to the Falun Dafa Falun Gong movement.
18:04Paris City Hall claims to have set the association straight and reminded its leadership to respect neutrality and secularism.
18:14It reportedly contacted the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Action Against Sectarian Aberrations to discuss the detection of sectarian movements.
18:26Asked about this event, the Sacred Lotus assured us.
18:32The document wasn't created, printed or distributed by us.
18:36It was an isolated incident and didn't comply with the guidelines we provide to our workers.
18:44Yet a staff member, hired by the Sacred Lotus, tells us she was given Falun Dafa promotional materials.
19:06She sent us a photo of the object. Here is the keychain.
19:13Falun Dafa is good.
19:16The city said it hasn't worked since 2025 with the association.
19:21Paris City Hall claims that the partnership earned the association 230,000 euros over the past 10 years.
19:32Meanwhile, the Shen Yun Tour continues.
19:35Tickets for 2027 show dates are already on sale.
19:39I see aarest support.
19:42Asино's side as tara.
20:08The Anthony walks out to the 모onie of blah, are not fleets such as the founder of Brisbane.
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