The Falun Gong Show.
Mar. 8th, 2014 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogYou know something is a cultural extravaganza when you see ads for it everywhere. Even the repair shop where I got my oil changed this morning had a bunch of flyers for it. Last time it played, they had minions going door to door delivering flyers throughout our neighborhood for it.
What, you ask, might "it" be?
Shen Yun, Sherlock:
It's about as glorious a spectacle as you're likely to see around here- music, dance,... propaganda?
Yes, turns out the whole thing is an offshoot of the Falun Gong movement in China, and the government of the Peoples Republic would rather you not go see it. Really.
It is a cult that seriously harms the society and violates human rights, and is a cancer in the body of the modern and civilized society. Li Hongzhi, the chief ring leader of "Falun Gong", claims that the mankind has been destroyed 81 times, and that he has delayed the explosion of the earth by 30 years. He claims that the mankind is corrupted, and the earth is the biggest dumping ground of the universe, and that by practicing "Falun Gong", the "true law" above all religions, one would never become sick or get in danger. He even claims that the Holocaust of Jewish people by Hitler was a result of the changes in celestial phenomena. According to incomplete statistics, over 1,000 cult practitioners in China died because they followed Li's teachings and refused to seek medical treatment for their illnesses. Several hundred practitioners committed self-mutilation or suicide. Over 30 innocent people were killed by mentally deranged practitioners of "Falun Gong".
Apparently this whole show pisses them off about as much as a traveling company of "Dalai Lama on Ice!" would, and the sponsoring organization is having none of it, putting out their own press releases (and printing them in the Epoch Times newspaper that covers every show and tries to optimize the Google search results for it) with similar vitriol aimed back home:
They are attempting to influence overseas Chinese to turn away from this global gathering of Chinese people, an event that is founded upon the ideals of peace, freedom, and tolerance. The Chinese Consulates' unreasonable, irrational interference with an organisation legally incorporated in the United States and other countries is highly unbefitting of their diplomatic status. In addition, this attempt to go outside China to extend their censorship of media oversteps bounds and looks backward, rather than forward.
Oh come on, guys. Get a room.
Ironically, it's only the political intrigue that gives me the slightest interest in finding out how this show goes next month when it decamps here for two nights at Shea's. Not enough interest to get me inside, though.
What, you ask, might "it" be?
Shen Yun, Sherlock:
It's about as glorious a spectacle as you're likely to see around here- music, dance,... propaganda?
Yes, turns out the whole thing is an offshoot of the Falun Gong movement in China, and the government of the Peoples Republic would rather you not go see it. Really.
It is a cult that seriously harms the society and violates human rights, and is a cancer in the body of the modern and civilized society. Li Hongzhi, the chief ring leader of "Falun Gong", claims that the mankind has been destroyed 81 times, and that he has delayed the explosion of the earth by 30 years. He claims that the mankind is corrupted, and the earth is the biggest dumping ground of the universe, and that by practicing "Falun Gong", the "true law" above all religions, one would never become sick or get in danger. He even claims that the Holocaust of Jewish people by Hitler was a result of the changes in celestial phenomena. According to incomplete statistics, over 1,000 cult practitioners in China died because they followed Li's teachings and refused to seek medical treatment for their illnesses. Several hundred practitioners committed self-mutilation or suicide. Over 30 innocent people were killed by mentally deranged practitioners of "Falun Gong".
Apparently this whole show pisses them off about as much as a traveling company of "Dalai Lama on Ice!" would, and the sponsoring organization is having none of it, putting out their own press releases (and printing them in the Epoch Times newspaper that covers every show and tries to optimize the Google search results for it) with similar vitriol aimed back home:
They are attempting to influence overseas Chinese to turn away from this global gathering of Chinese people, an event that is founded upon the ideals of peace, freedom, and tolerance. The Chinese Consulates' unreasonable, irrational interference with an organisation legally incorporated in the United States and other countries is highly unbefitting of their diplomatic status. In addition, this attempt to go outside China to extend their censorship of media oversteps bounds and looks backward, rather than forward.
Oh come on, guys. Get a room.
Ironically, it's only the political intrigue that gives me the slightest interest in finding out how this show goes next month when it decamps here for two nights at Shea's. Not enough interest to get me inside, though.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-03-08 06:33 pm (UTC)The political thing piques my interest slightly, though.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-08 10:53 pm (UTC)It's good, not mind-boggling, but good.
The fact that it pisses off a police state (as you so wonderfully put it, better than "The Dalai Lama on ice") adds to the enjoyment. Falun Gong may be a little over-the-top, like any sorta neo-religious group, but they are right about China's trying to shut them down and keep ppl from hearing from and about them.