RedHanded - ShortHand: Shen Yun: The World’s Most Entertaining Cult

Episode Date: May 12, 2026

Critically lauded dance troupe, or sinister, human-trafficking, brainwashing, child-abusing cult? However you slice it, there is a lot more going on to Shen Yun than the glitzy public posters let on.This week we open the curtain on Shen Yun, and the cult behind it, Falun Gong – whose founder Li Hongzhi believes he can levitate, predict the future and read his followers’ minds. So: what does Falun Gong want to achieve? What do we make of their claims of torture, at the hands of the Chinese government? And HOW exactly how do they sell out shows of traditional Chinese dancing in every major city across the world?--Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesYouTube - Full-length Video EpisodesTikTok / Instagram

Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Shorthand, where we're going to talk about something that I just randomly say to people now, and then I want to watch their response to it, because if you live anywhere but under a rock... Wish I did. No pidos under my rock. You will no doubt, like me, have been bombarded by billboards and posters everywhere you go of leaping Chinese dancers dressed in colorful silks, set against epic ancient Chinese backdrops

advertising the theatrical show Shenyon. Complete of course with words of praise from the likes of Cape Blanchet, who took her kids and apparently they fucking loved it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Shenyan is a show that promises a, quote, sublime evening of classical Chinese dance that takes you on a journey of folklore and myths spanning a millennia Chinese history, all with an impressive live orchestra and the tagline, China before communism.

I discovered that that tagline wasn't always a tagline. It was the tagline that got put in place after COVID. So then they were like, okay, everybody's a little bit like, yo China, what the fuck you're doing? So they were like, now we can go with this tagline. So what's not to like? Sounds good, right? If that was the pitch I gave to you, that sounds fantastic. I'd love to go watch that. But as it turns out, it's quite a lot wrong with it. Chen Yun is a part of a pretty grim cult, as it turns out. And that cult have had accusations of everything, from money laundering to child, slavery and human trafficking,

leveled at them, all while they spread their agenda and make millions with their bizarre stage show very much hiding their sinister doings in plain sight. But what is the history of this cult? What are they trying to achieve? And how do they sell out shows across the world and operate with such shiny legitimacy? This is the shorthand.

So I have to start this off by saying that in January this year, January 2026, after months and months and months of curiosity, I did actually go and see a Shen Yun show here in London at the Eventium Apollo. If you are a patron, you listened to Under the Duve, you already know that I did this. And I have to say that it was a very, very strange experience, right? Don't get me wrong. When you go to watch it, if you go to watch it, the one thing you have to say is that the dancers are incredibly talented. Not just like, oh, they're good at dancing.

I mean, like, you feel like you are watching unbelievable feats performed by like gold level medal gymnasts, acrobats and dancers. There is no doubt about that. but would I recommend it as a show? Not really, I don't think. And not just because of all the weird cult shit and everything we're going to tell you in this episode about how they treat the dancers and all the things that they believe,

but also just because it's weird. It's a fucking weird show. Everyone who's performing has on this sort of like weird, frozen culty smile. And it's obviously hard to tell with the dancers because they're in the performance, they're in the act. But in particular, the two people that really stood up to me is they have like a couple of emcees, right? And the show that I went to go watch, it was a Chinese lady and an American man, like a white American man.

And they give the sort of majority of the like uncanny Valley vibes. They're the ones up there before each dance or each performance you would come on and explain to you what you're about to see, how it's relevant to the history of China and also give you little tip bits about what the organization stands for. And even that was okay. Like the first time they come on stage, you're a bit like, well, that's weird. You kind of get used to it. And that isn't like the worst thing. The worst part was when they got to a song called The Truth Reveals itself. And this is where I couldn't really take it seriously anymore.

Because look, if you go and watch it and you're like, they've got some weird and wacky beliefs, that's fine, that's their business. But it was when they jump to this song and there's literally a line in it where they say how evolution. and atheism are the work of Satan himself. But we'll get to it. I'm jumping ahead. Let's start nice and easy with Shen Yun. What does that actually mean? Shen means divine beings and Yun is the inner beauty of one when they are dancing. Very specific.

Very specific. Apparently there's, you have to ask Sam this, there's a Welsh word for the feeling of the, type of love that you have for something uniquely because you know it will end. Oh. Wow. I love words. That's great.

Up next. I love words with Surity Barlow. And it's just you reading the dictionary. But like a Welsh dictionary or a Mandarin, Cantonese one. They seem to have good words. So, Shen Yun translates to. divine dancing beings, kind of. And the show does deliver on that.

But as it turns out, Shen Yun is not the name of the actual cult itself. Shen Yun performing arts was started in August 2006 by Falun Gong, or Falun Duffer, a group set up in 1992 in China by a man named Li Huangxi. And Shen Yun is like the cult's theatrical arm. Yeah, I think that's where like some people get a bit confused. I think a lot of people know that Shenyon has like culty vibes. And like when I went to go watch the show, there was a woman who was like standing in the queue for the toilets. I'm going to me, the toilet situation at Ventiom, Apollo was a fucking nightmare. But yeah,

she's standing in the toilet queue ahead of me and she's texting on her phone. And she's got the font set very large so I can read what she's saying. And she's like, I'm at the cult show. And she is at the cult show. But like you said, Shen Yun itself is not the cult. It's like the all dancing, all singing, though they don't actually sing. The all dancing branch of the cult. And it's very, very interesting how they use them. Straight off the bat when you look into Falun Gong, it does feel very Scientology-esque.

She claims to be magical, he says that he can levitate, tell the future, and see through walls. He even suggests that he might be an alien. Weird stuff and things that certainly should ring some culty alarm bells. But other than this, At first glance, the system of Falun Gong does seem pretty harmless. It prescribes a series of gentle exercise, stretches and meditation to help people feel better, both physically and psychologically. Though he does say, and this again feels very Scientology-ish, as you work through the system, he does suggest that strict adherence may also be able to achieve the levels of otherworldly talents that he has.

He got to work through the system. Do the splits again. Yeah. No seeing through walls for you. Now, I've seen some videos of people doing the gentle exercises, the stretches that Falun Gong prescribes. And it honestly does come across very like beginner yoga at your local leisure center run by some lady named Crystal. Like, it doesn't seem like that big a deal. And I was comparing it all the way to yoga.

I was always like, it just looks like yoga. But it does actually, to set the record straight, come from an ancient Chinese practice. called Shi Gong, which like yoga combines meditation, breathing and movement, but did develop in a completely different part of the world and is its own thing. And when she first appeared on the scene in the 90s in China, Falun Gong blew up almost immediately. And this, like many occults we have come across before Hannah, is because he timed it perfectly. He emerged in the midst of the Chinese Shigong fever in the 90s,

Because following the death of Mao Zedong, who had spent the previous decades absolutely stomping out all of China's historical, spiritual and religious practices, in the 90s, there was a massive resurgence in interest around things like Shigong. Much like in Japan, Omshin Riccio, they come to power after there is a challenge on whether their emperor really is this divine being. And the people are like, shit, well, if he's not divine, there's this sort of vacuum and period of full. flux where people are looking for spirituality and religion. And this is when cults can sneak their little sneaky fingers in. And that's exactly what she does here. She capitalised on this vacuum of meaning. And he combined Shigong with Buddhism and repackaged it and sold it back to the people.

But she took things a step further, outright rejecting modern medicine altogether. And said that adherence of Falun Gong could be cured of anything. as long as they had total unwavering faith. Soon Falun Gong chapters were popping up all over China, and she took his show on the road and started preaching the word to the vast Chinese diaspora in countries abroad, often to great success, because Falun Gong was deeply anti-CCP and deeply anti-communist. Yeah, so he gets a lot of success within China,

but I think he realizes to make more money. I take this outside of China. The Chinese who really hate China aren't here anymore. Exactly. And I'm going to go there and I'm going to offer them this reconnection to their roots, but to their ancient roots, to ancient China pre-communism, pre-CCP. And they're going to fucking love it. And guess what?

They did. Even today, if you live in a major city, you might have seen Falun Gong members gathering in public parks to do their exercise classes. They make themselves. very visible, obviously to draw more people in and to present themselves as being above board, as a group who've got nothing to hide. Back in the 90s, they claimed that 100 million people had joined Falun Gong. It was definitely an exaggeration.

But in April 1999, things came to a bit of a head. When 10,000 followers attended a rally in Beijing, the largest gathering in China since Tiananmen Square a decade before. And that is how they caught the attention of the Chinese Communist Party. And the persecutions began. That same year, Falun Gong was banned. An arrest warrant was issued for Xi, and anybody caught stretching, preaching, or proselytizing, was arrested, imprisoned and tortured.

And all of that is completely true. Yeah, it's very important to say that the things that Falun Gong say happened to them. A lot of it is absolutely true. During the show that I went to see, there was a dance scene in which a young man was out preaching on the streets about Falun Gong. He's arrested by the CCP. He's thrown in prison. And then his eyes are gouged out. That's a dance scene.

And I've watched a lot of people talk about the shows that they've been to see. Very important to say with Shenyon, they're very good at the marketing. So they change the show every year. Right. So if you've been once, it's not enough. You've got to go again. You've got to go again. And they're not the same fucking poster since 2012 though

And they also do the show simultaneously all over the world in all different cities So everybody could be seeing a different show and it's constantly rotating So lots of people see different variations of the abuse and like persecution imposed upon Falun Gong by the CCP It is true What's maybe less true is what happens next in The Little Dance The guy who's had his eyes gouged out is dumped back on the streets Only to have his eyes rematerial eyes after he does some stretches and prays hard enough.

And while his eyes returning to their original state doesn't quite ring true, like I said, the rest of the story not that far-fetched. Falun Gong have accused the CCP of widespread torture, forcing devotees into re-education camps, labor camps, prisons, and even killing them and harvesting their organs. So when some people, like us, hear about this anti-communist group, up to the CCP and being persecuted in China, naturally we think good, we think God, that's terrible, and it is.

But this is one of those cases where the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. Because Falun Gong can be a persecuted group being stomped on by an authoritarian regime, and they can also be a bonkers cult that terribly exploits people, including children, for profit. I remember in my old job, Shen Yun was being advertised anywhere. as before Kate Blanchett had added her name to it the post so the post had no reviews on them no stars nothing because every review was fucking terrible so they never ever advertise

because you know you see the normal billboards posters on the tube and stuff like that and it'll be like five stars they'll put anything because that's what people look for and Shenyon never had any and it was at the Dominion every Christmas and I asked my boss I was like

how are they getting the Dominion every year which is over 2006 is a fucking barn It's where We Were Rocky was for years And then they really struggled to fill it after that Anyway, Shen Yun had it every year And I asked my boss how they could possibly be pulling that off Because nobody is going to see it How can they be?

And why are the posters the same? And my boss just went, how do the Chinese will pay anything? So the Dominion were just taking their money. Yeah, no, I have some really interesting points about how the shows are actually run. So hold that thought. Okay. But very interesting.

Well, yeah, that was also, you know, 11 years ago. There was another flashpoint in January 2001 when five people, including a 12-year-old girl, set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. The CCP claimed that these people were Falun Gong members and used this horrific event as a way to paint the group as irrational maniacs who were a threat to society. And they warned the public that joining Falun Gong caused mental illness, which like, probably. It's a weird one because you expect that there's going to be,

and I'm sure there was in some corners a sympathy for this group of people who had gone there and set themselves on fire because they say we're a persecuted group. But actually a lot of people are like, you seem nuts that you're doing that. But Falun Gong shot back saying that the people who'd set themselves on fire was nothing to do with them. And they claimed that the whole thing was a false flag operation created by the CCP themselves. And this is the thing I don't know which it is. I cannot find which it is where everybody says something different. You can't trust the CCP. You also can't trust Falun Gong.

I wouldn't put it past Falun Gong to have encouraged these people to do it, or they've just done it off their own accord, like some sort of like fucking sleeper cell. They go there, they set themselves on fire. And had there been an outpouring of sympathy, I'm sure Falun Gong would have been like, yes, it was us. But because there's not, because people are like, that seems mad. And the CTPA are like, look, you'll be crazy to join these people. Then Falun Gong could be like, oh, it's nothing to do with us. This is a false flag.

Like, I genuinely don't know. Either way, in the West, this visceral image, of persecution became a galvanizing force for Shen Yun's growth. So, after Falun Gong was banned in China, she and his family escaped to the US, where they were granted asylum. Again, in the West, people viewed this group as a persecuted religious minority and desperately wanted to help them. Once in the US, Xi set up a highly secretive 400-acre compound in Deer Park, New York, called Dragon Springs. Apparently, there is an in a A enormous statue, a golden statue, no less, of Buddha at Dragon Springs.

And apparently the face doesn't actually look like Buddha. It seems to resemble she. Which just like a giant gold statue of Buddha that kind of looks like you, feels like it goes against everything that Buddhism preaches, but sure. So yes, I think the key thing to take away from that is that she absolutely makes no secret of positioning himself as a living God to his followers, which is absolutely key if you're running a cult. That is one of the conditions that needs to be met. And he's doing it. And it is also here at Dragon Springs that adherents of Falun Gong, specifically those involved in Shen Yun shows, come to live. And let's be clear.

Like I said, there are dozens and dozens of dancers in every performance. And they run shows all over the world simultaneously. So there are a lot of people in the Shen Yun divine dancing system. On this compound, there is an entire section carved out for the dancers, where they are put through rigorous training, often doing 15 to 18 hours a day, for little to no pay. In fact, these dancers are actually racking up debts for the training they receive from Shen Yun, often starting from a very young age, having been sent there by their parents who believe that it's an amazing opportunity for their children.

And you can understand why. The pair as a followers of Falun Gong so where better for your child to go and live than under the roof of the living God himself? Not to mention it's access to an essentially free boarding school in the US. So it's a dream come true for many of these children and their families.

Especially if they want to get out of China. Definitely. But once the kids are at Dragon Springs, they are stuck. They can't access external media. They are restricted when it comes to contacting their own family and the compound is allegedly controlled by armed guards and bad consequences for anyone caught breaking the rules.

They are also, and this is very important, encouraged to report on each other. Which obviously creates a culture of fear and control. And also, if anyone even thinks about leaving, they're like, you know what, I'm not really enjoying this, I would like to go back to my mum and dad, thank you very much. Well, they are quickly reminded that they actually owe the cult hundreds of thousands of dollars for all of the training and free education they've been receiving, which they have to pay first if they want out. It's very much a lose-lose situation.

If they stay, they may not be subject to life-crushing debts, but they are essentially treated like slaves. It also didn't help that once Shenyan was up and running in 2006, she became a lot more apocalyptic in his preachings, started pushing the narrative that this wasn't just them versus the CCP, but a bigger fight of good versus evil, and one that would bring about the end times.

The classic. Huge mistakes. The Swiss is where it all falls apart. The pressure, brainwashing and mind-bending coercion put on the dancers meant that many of them developed eating disorders and pushed themselves to the point of breaking, being forced to dance through major injuries.

Because they're told that if they don't dance, even if they're suffering from broken bones or serious sprains, they're told that they will burn in hell for all eternity. Apart from the hell bit, that is just literally every ballet school. Yeah. And not only that, the hungry broken dancers are also reminded that if they fail to perform flawlessly in every show they do, which can be up to 800 in a five-month stretch,

they will fail to open the eyes of those in the audience. And so all those people will also be doomed to burn in hell and it's all on your conscience, dancer. They are literally told not only if they don't dance, if they make a single mistake during a performance, they are damning that entire audience, potentially of 2,000 people, straight down. The New York Times did an expose on Shen Yun in 2024,

where they interviewed several dancers and musicians who had fled the cult. And there have since been a few lawsuits filed in the US by former dancers accusing Shen Yun of forced child labour, human trafficking and severe abuse. One dancer says that before a show, she dislocated her knee, but was too scared to tell the higher-ups. Because anyone who complained about injuries would have to face public struggle sessions where they would be humiliated in front of everyone. So, she got her fellow dancer to pop her knee back in, and then she danced the entire two-hour show. The point of Shenyon is essentially to spread.

the movement of Falun Gong. Across the world, legitimise it, and tell everyone about the evils of communism, sure, but also like the evils of feminism, homosexuality and modern medicine. I do hate all of those, though. Perfect. Sign me up.

Basically, Shenyon is a recruitment tool for Falun Gong. And it's also a way for them to make mad stucks. When I went to the show in London, my tickets were not cheap. We're talking £100 pounds of pop. In Hammersmith. In Hammersmith. It's not even the West End.

No. Fucking Eventium Owallow Man. Weird place. So it's a major source of wealth and influence for Falun Gong, and specifically for she and his family. It's also registered as a non-profit in the US. Ugh, dislocate my knee and shoot me in the head. I just can't fucking stand it.

So, yeah, the good thing about this is the fact that it is registered as non-profit is that you can see how much money they're making. And it is a good thing. an eye-watering amount. Apparently, Falun Gong via Shenyon is sitting on nearly $300 million of assets, with the majority of that coming in from ticket sales. But here's another thing we've discovered. Chenyon have followers all over the world, who are devoted to Xi and his fight against the CCP, and they are committed to taking down the regime. The only one who seems to be actually benefited, fitting from the whole thing is she himself.

Because, beyond the free labour that he uses to hold all of his shows across the world, doesn't even use the money these show make to pay for the venues or for the marketing. This is the bit that's so interesting. It's mad. Instead, he has local followers in every region that Shen Yun tour and they pay for everything. If there's a profit, they get paid back, but the rest of the money goes back to Shen Yun. And if they make a loss, then that's the followers' loss. Yeah.

Yeah. So basically, it's like a group of Falun Gong followers in London or in wherever. Paying for billboards. Who have to pay for billboards, which is probably why they don't change the posters all the time. Pay for billboards, pay for posters. They have to secure the Dominion Theatre or where, now it's obviously Inventian Popolo, and they have to be responsible for selling tickets. And then if there's any profit, they get their money back, but the rest of the money goes to she.

That's it. And if they make a loss, they've lost all the money. they've spent on everything. There's even cases that I've read about where the followers are putting on shows in like smaller towns or like smaller cities. They're not selling out. They're buying the tickets themselves

because she also makes it clear that if you're not selling tickets is because your faith isn't strong enough. It is a racket. And as if that isn't enough, they've also forced vulnerable followers, particularly elderly vulnerable followers, to pay for the she family's expenses,

clothes and mobile phone bill. There was a family of an elderly woman in the US, a Chinese American lady, who she became very ill and her family were trying to get all her affairs in order. And that's the first time her adult children are scrutinizing her financial outgoings. And they're like, how do you have no money left? And they discover that it's because she has been paying the mobile bills and buying designer clothes for she's wife. It's so despicable. And, you know, the way they do it is they tell these followers, the more you give, the more you believe, and the faster this fight will be over.

What fight exactly that is, is anybody's guess. Now, for a long time, she has looked pretty untouchable, as a cult leader who has spent years enriching himself using an army of young slave dancers. But the lawsuits, which were only filed in 2024 and 2025, have now prompted federal investigations into potential labor law violations and visa fraud. And with the CFO, now, even being under investigation for embezzling $60 million. Who knows what's going to happen?

We'll have to wait and see. I don't know. I think it's a very strange thing. And I think the problem is in the US, there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to child labor laws, when it comes to entertainment. And so I think they can only really get them on the financial grounds if they can prove embezzlement and things like that.

But I don't know. What's going to happen? We'll have to wait and see. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but maybe like don't give them your money. Yeah. Don't. Don't go see the show. It's genuinely not worth it. Yeah, don't do it. Don't kill me. Look, look, you went so we don't have to. Yes, yes. You sacrifice yourself for our sins.

Yeah. And I'm not even trying to deprive it of you like, as in like it's a fun day out. It was just fucking weird. So anyway, that's it, guys. Now the next time you hear somebody goes, Chen, isn't that that? cult thing, you can be like, well, actually, it's Falun Gong. And it's way worse than you think. Enjoy. And goodbye. Bye.