How Shen Yun Tapped Religious Fervor to Make $266 Million
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Over the past decade, the dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts has made money at a staggering rate.
The group had $60 million in 2015.
It had $144 million by 2019.
And by the end of last year, tax records show, it had more than a quarter-billion dollars, stockpiling wealth at a pace that would be extraordinary for any company, let alone a nonprofit dance group from Orange County, New York.
Operated by Falun Gong, the persecuted Chinese religious movement, Shen Yun’s success flows in part from its ability to pack venues worldwide — while exploiting young, low-paid performers with little regard for their health or well-being.
But it also is a token of the power that Falun Gong’s founder, Li Hongzhi, has wielded over his followers. In the name of fighting communism, and obeying Li’s mystical teachings, they have created a global network to glorify him and enrich his movement.
Under Li’s direct leadership, Shen Yun has become a repository of vast wealth for Falun Gong, often accumulating money at the expense of its loyal adherents, a New York Times investigation has found.
It has raked in funds through ticket sales — nearly $39 million in 2023 alone — but also by using religious fealty to command the free labor of its followers. It has received tens of millions of dollars more in ways that may have crossed legal or ethical lines, the Times found.
In one case, Shen Yun and a school that trains its dancers received $16 million from The Epoch Times, a newspaper run by Falun Gong followers, during a period when federal prosecutors said the publication’s accounts were inflated in a money-laundering conspiracy.
Shen Yun and a network of satellite organizations added more wealth by skirting rules to tap tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic-era relief money.
And three former Shen Yun performers told the Times that they were used to ferry large amounts of cash into the United States, a possible attempt to circumvent laws about reporting U.S. currency transactions.
Shen Yun has kept its own costs down by wringing countless volunteer hours, and sometimes personal savings, from followers of Li, who has suggested he created the universe and instructed believers that Shen Yun performances can save people from a coming apocalypse by exposing them to his teachings.
Eager to heed Li, the followers have borne most of the financial burden for staging hundreds of Shen Yun shows around the world, including paying out of their own pockets to book venues, print flyers, buy advertising and sell tickets — even going into debt to cover upfront costs.
“They all think — including me before — we all think it is an important part of the path to godhood,” said Simone Gao, a former practitioner and Falun Gong media personality. “If you devote time, energy and money to this cause, the reward is incomparable to what you get in this world.”
It was not clear why Shen Yun has amassed so much money, or why nearly all of its assets — $249 million in 2023 — were kept in cash and other liquid instruments. Experts said it was unusual for a nonprofit not to invest such sums unless they were needed for significant short-term expenses, which Shen Yun has not seemed to have incurred.
Shen Yun’s representatives declined to answer questions about its finances. In the past, Li has said large sums of money were needed to battle the Chinese Communist Party, which has banned the movement and repressed its followers since the 1990s.
“For over 25 years, Falun Gong practitioners have struggled to peacefully resist persecution from the largest totalitarian regime on earth, and Shen Yun is a key part of that effort,” a Shen Yun spokesperson, Ying Chen, said in a statement to the Times. “Your attempts to brand Shen Yun as a grand moneymaking scheme are shocking and deeply offensive.”
Chen accused the Times of making “gross distortions or blatant factual errors,” but she declined to elaborate.
As Shen Yun has amassed wealth, its supporters have purchased real estate for Li’s movement, including Falun Gong’s 400-acre headquarters, known as Dragon Springs, which is about 60 miles northwest of New York City.
They have also subsidized the lifestyle of Li, now in his early 70s, and his wife, Li Rui, a top manager in Shen Yun.
One follower gave the movement her life savings before dying of cancer, virtually penniless.
In recent years, Li and his aides have found yet another way to make money through Shen Yun. They have created companies that market products directly to Falun Gong followers, such as a Tang Elegance necklace with a spessartite garnet for $3,850, Heavenly Phoenix earrings for $925, a $35 ornament of the Shen Yun tour bus and Shen Yun-branded athleisure clothing.
Practitioners have been told they should purchase the most up-to-date Falun Gong clothing for public events, including a reversible blue-and-yellow jacket for $120.
Business records show that Li personally started an online video platform that charges $199.99 a year for a subscription to watch Shen Yun performances. His associates also created another video platform, Gan Jing World, which was accused by YouTube in a lawsuit this month of stealing content. The platform has not filed a response to the suit.
Practitioners were urged to subscribe to help “Master” — as Li is known — save more souls, emails show. Many did just that, former followers said.
“People gave up their life’s savings, and this happened so often,” said Rob Gray, a former practitioner in London who spent 15 years working on Falun Gong projects. “There’s a constant theme now to fleece practitioners, to take money. Where is this profit going to?”
Content retrieved from: https://gvwire.com/2025/01/01/how-shen-yun-tapped-religious-fervor-to-make-266-million/.
