Falun Gong – Shen Yun: Dance The enlightenment

Something is different. It is different than usual, this March evening in the inhospitable Bismarckstrasse in the otherwise shiny Berlin district of Charlottenburg. There is neither “Don Giovanni” nor “Rigoletto”, no “Carmen” and also no “sorcerer” today on the schedule of the German opera based here. No, this week the Exilchinese dance company Shen Yun has rented here for five days in order to give its best program this year.

Berlin is only one station on a long guest tour. You were still in Austria and Spain, soon it will continue to France and Norway. Eight Shen-Yun troops are in parallel on world tour. According to his own statement, Shen Yun achieves one million spectators per season. Here, you get the impression, someone understands his business.

However, you are not dealing with the usual opera audience today. Visibly strange in this place, the spectators move through the Foyers. Numerous stands were built up where you can find out about Shen Yun and the “philosophy” behind it or acquire gold jewelry, silk accessories and handbags. If you look at the rush, the dealers seem to be not undesirable in the museum.

At the almost aggressive advertising campaign, Shen Yun generates attention for your own shows. At other cultural events, you will meet zealous leaflet distributors. The streets line posters. The coherent slogan on the printed products is: “China before communism”. Because Shen Yuns Pseudofolklore also follows a clear political agenda. On the Internet, however, you are showered with advertising videos, in which spectators, above all, celebrate the beautiful colors, the elegant movements, the uplifting feeling in the spectacles somewhat irradiated.

A moderator duo leads instructively in German and Chinese through the evening in the German Opera. Shen Yun presents a revue from about 20 short numbers. For each of them, some introductory words are mentioned.

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“A new age begins” is the first performance. Divine beings find together. Then the creator appears and calls it up to follow him from heaven onto the earth. When they arrive in China, they build a high culture. The spectacle goes without word under music accompaniment. Great oversubscribed projections and 3-D effects determine the scene, but look like it falls out of time. The dancing insoles of the consistently young ensemble look extremely precisely. The Chinese dance is close to acrobatics.

Fog on stage, colorful uniform costumes, silk towels for the dance performances – the recipe for the whole evening is already clear with the first few minutes. Applaud is violent after every number. The audience, which pays 83 euros per admission ticket in the sold -out German Opera – in the cheapest price category – can be readily enchanted.

According to Shen Yun, this spectacle is “inspired” from the 5000 years of Chinese culture. How much tradition really is in such deposits remains open. The orchestra that accompanies the tour is strongly European. And the stories of magical monkey king and corpulent pork monsters also do not look like an ancient testimony of Chinese high culture, but rather as easily consumable entertainment.

But Shen Yun is not just art kitsch, not just esoteric hocus -pocus and not just an exotic image of the realm of the middle, as it was never really – not even “before communism”. In fact, it is the artistic arm of the – also politically extremely busy – religious sect Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa.

In 1992 founded by the spiritually assessed railway Li Hongzhi in China, this faith is based on various other Far Eastern religions. Meanwhile, misanthropic dogmas – such as the strict rejection of homosexuality, racist beliefs and the rejection of conventional medicine – are part of the cranky world view.

Falun Gong’s toleration in China has come to an end since the late 1990s. A comparatively hard action should now be taken against the supporters of the faith community. Now there is no reason to reserve criticism in the People’s Republic with criticism of authoritarian structures. However, the supposed victim is a sect that is certainly no less authoritarian. And the crocodile tears, which are spoiled in public, cannot hide the fact that Falun Gong, whose center can now be found in exile in the US, also strives for political influence with his reactionary agenda.

The “New York Times”, according to Falun Gong a mere victim of the communist propaganda from China, has got to the bottom of the machinations of the sect and its dubious business model. Shen Yun – this is not only the propaganda apparatus, but also the money machine from Falun Gong. Dancers of the company, sometimes still minor, would be underpaid and – in accordance with beliefs – could not take advantage of adequate medical care.

For her purposes, the “New York Times” also makes it clear, she knows an influential medium at her side: the “Epoch Times”. It is an international newspaper that appears and appears online. In the United States, it is very popular, but in Germany she also finds a readership among followers of the new right. In addition to the ongoing agitation against China and the checks of Falun Gong, Shen Yun and others, the articles read like a wild mix of crude ideas of different origin. Trumpist positions, conspiracy theories around Corona pandemic and a stupid blood-and-soil ideology find their echo. Neo -fascists worldwide should look forward to this unexpectedly -looking help.

Another number of Shen Yun in the Deutsche Oper is entitled “An unprecedented crime”. The moderation does not come from without the meaningful indication that the following is based on “true events”. Today’s China shows a backdrop. Falun gong supporters meditate in the park. Harmony captures the scene. But then with aggressive steps in black -clad men step on the stage. On your back you wear the promising insignia in red color: hammer and sickle. One of the thirsty for enlightenment is delayed and beaten up by them. A doctor steps on the stage. With a gigantic syringe, like the children’s theater, he bends over the prisoner. In the next scene, the man is disoriented and deprived of his eyesight deprived of freedom. So propaganda of the plumper species that alternates with the rather sweet insoles.

In a vocal piece with wing accompaniment, the beauty of creation is sung in spiritual phraseology, the misery of humanity. The theory of evolution, we take the melodious vocals, is baseless. What is celebrating on stage as a far -superior culture is apparently pseudo -art for the purpose of brainwashing.

When I walk through the foyer during the break, I hear a woman in the tone of the missionary: “Shen Yun spreads love and positive energy.” I use an advertising sheet that is a subscription to the video platform of Shen Yun. A woman with disturbing permanent smiles comes up to me: »really great – also for the whole family. Because Shen Yun is free from every violence. “

In the last number, “The Creator has come”, I can then convince myself of the NHHE Yuns violence. We are again in China. We see Communists, one of whom finds the right faith. When the catastrophe breaks over it and a tsunami destroys everything, the enlightened person is spared. Golden light soon shines from the stage.

Apocalyptic thinking and the will to extermination against everyone who does not attach the same hocus -pocus as you do, make up the worldview that is displayed here. Anyone who ticks this way will of course be looking for the end of the shoulder with the extreme right.

Why does a renowned institution like the Deutsche Oper for something like that? This is the question of Berlin’s cultural senator Joe Chialo, who is responsible for the million doors, which is affected by the Opera Foundation in Berlin. It may be unworthy, but in view of the shrinking cultural budget, it is hardly surprising that opera houses now rent their premises to the highest bidder ideologues.