A performance group that celebrates pre-communist China wants the Federal Court to review the National Arts Centre’s [NAC’s] decision to end its 17-year run.
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A performance group that celebrates pre-communist China wants the Federal Court to review the National Arts Centre’s decision to end its 17-year run.
In a document filed with the Federal Court, the Shen Yun dance group has raised concerns about possible foreign interference in the NAC’s decision, highlighting a meeting between the institution’s leadership and Chinese officials before the decision not to rent space to the group for its 2026 performance.
The annual performance is connected to Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based in New York facing persecution from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). It bills itself as a “revival of the beauty and goodness of China before communism.”
Its staging has long drawn the ire of the PRC. Through its consulates, Beijing has called the Shen Yun shows “anti-China propaganda.”
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The Ottawa dispute is not the first time Shen Yun’s performances have come under pressure in Canada. Citing unnamed sources, Global News reported in May that representatives from China’s consulate in Vancouver told city staff that they wanted them stopped.
The event went ahead in April at the city-owned Queen Elizabeth Theatre, despite bomb threats.
Shen Yun performed in Toronto on March 28, but subsequent shows were cancelled after more threats of violence.
The threat, sent by email, indicated explosives had been planted inside the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts, as well as on Parliament Hill — just steps from the NAC. The same email account followed up the next day, warning that gunmen planned to enter the theatre disguised as audience members and open fire.
Toronto police told Global News the threats “were determined to be unfounded,” but the venue’s owner cancelled the remaining performances “out of an abundance of caution.”
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The court filing also details several interactions between NAC officials and representatives from China’s consulate in Ottawa in the years leading up to the decision, including an October 2024 private dinner at the ambassador’s residence.
The filing suggested the NAC’s board found nothing “unusual” about interactions between NAC leadership and foreign embassy representatives, and that such engagement falls within the NAC’s mandate.
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Shen Yun is an anti-science and anti-evolution cult. It deserves no platform.
OP we all agree that China shouldn’t be deciding what gets platformed or not in Canada but Shen Yun is the wrong hill to die on regarding this. We should be helping Shen Yun be shut down because we want fewer fringe cults overall
OP we all agree that China shouldn’t be deciding what gets platformed or not in Canada
I don’t think that all agree with this here. If I read the comments, there are apparently many Chinese propagandists here that just echo whatever the Chinese party-state demands.
… Shen Yun is the wrong hill to die on regarding this. We should be helping Shen Yun be shut down because we want fewer fringe cults overall
No one dies. I personally have nothing to do with this Shen Yun. If this is a cult, it’s fine to oppose this, but this is another issue here. It is about Chinese interference, and I guess will agree if this ‘cult’ would be propaganda narratives by the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing didn’t interfere.
So this is not about a cult or something like that but about an illegal political interference by a dictatorial state trying to enhance its own autocratic laws to Canadian territory.
The comments here show largely a similar pattern: Yes, China did something wrong, it is said - only then to immediately turn around and criticize this group. The perpetrator in this case is the Chinese government and the Chinese government only.
Falun Gong is headquartered in the US. They are the cult behind Shen Yun. They’re also behind the Epoch Times. They have an explicitly anti-China political agenda aimed at the overthrow of China’s government that they work to promote through both. It’s also pretty notable that Friends of Falun Gong, which has given financial support to them over the years, is an organization conspicuously founded by one of the co-founders of the US’s National Endowment for Democracy, and they get diplomatic support from the US because of their political agendas. Not that they have gone without issue in the US either though, as in 2024 the CFO of Epoch Times, the news influence arm that complements Shen Yun’s cultural influence arm, was indicted by the DOJ for coordinating a large international money laundering scheme and pled guilty to it just recently.
So, they actually basically are a shady foreign influence group with a political agenda from outside Canada.
It’s some dance show. People in Canada liking it isn’t going to overthrow the CCP.
It’s not going to overthrow a government, but it’s also not just dance. They explicitly include a bunch of political messages. They’ve had whole songs and sections of shows dedicated to the idea if overthrowing China’s government and promoting a particular political worldview, not to mention the anti-atheism and anti-evolution stuff. It’s a bit like if Scientologists had more of a political movement to them and went around doing Broadway songs with anti-psychiatry, pro-Xenu, overthrow x government lyrics. Of course, they’re free to believe whatever they want, and I’m not calling for them to be cancelled, but they have also received state support for a long time because of alignment with US interests and the point is to influence public beliefs, so they basically are a propaganda dance troupe that’s part of a larger influence effort also working on other fronts.
Dude, it was the only “traditional dace” stage show that I have seen which included organ harvesting.
I used to support Shen Yen, then I went out of my way to learn more… Even their basic premise is a joke. China celebrates pre communist China every God dam day, they seem to be pretty stoked on their history.
I agree we shouldn’t be cancelling this because China wants it done, but we sure as shit should be cancelling it for plenty of other reasons.
Fuck Shen Yun and fuck Falun Dafa
I never heard of this Shen Yun before China’s intervention after the group performed here for 17 years. It is not the Chinese Communist Party’s business to decide who performs in Canada or in any foreign country. Period.
You REALLY seem to be working hard to defend a group you hadn’t heard of.
And you are consistently ignoring the fact that this group exists only to fundraise for a cruel, dangerous, anti-science cult.
I defend no one. But the issue here is something else. China doesn’t oppose this group for being a cult. What you’re doing is a distraction from the issue.
Shen Yun has been a controversial well known arm of cult Falun Dafa for many years and people have been protesting them for just as long. Xi Jinping thought isn’t my philosophy but neither is this trash. Personally I think we should show a Taiwan Pride Drag Revue instead and piss them all off.
Xi Jinping thought isn’t my philosophy but neither is this trash.
This "Xi Jinping thought’ is mandatory in Chinese education system, while many other books and philosophies are prohibited in China. This has nothing to do with some sort of ‘philosophy’ but with propaganda.
And China is and would also interfering in case of any Taiwan-related performance as it does in all other countries.
It is exactly such interference - not the art groups - that we should ‘piss off’ …
No one in Canada wants to see Shen Yun either except their Falun Dafa promoters and The Epoch Times. They all suck.
It is such interference - not the art groups - that we should ‘piss off. Do you agree with this?
Our national Canadian spaces should be reserved for Canadian talent.
Canada must also be opened to foreign talent.
But interference as by China - not the art groups - is that should be ‘piss off. Do you agree with this?
I generally agree with this, and the PRC is always sticking their nose where it doesn’t belong and violating people’s human rights and threatening other countries’ sovereignty and I don’t have a single good thing to say about them. But if there’s one group that creeps me out more than the CCP, it’s the Falun Dafa. Shen Yun, while objectively impressive and entertaining, is just the fundraising arm for this incredibly scary cult.
Why are they scary? What I gathered from a quick online search seems rather harmless.
Well, it’s a cult. They brainwash people and push a wild system of anti-science, anti-lgbt, and generally anti liberal conspiracy nonsense that centers around a leader who makes explicit supernatural claims about himself. For instance they publish the Epoch Times. Plus it’s just such a creepy vibe whenever I see them in person. Hundreds of people standing in formation with their arms raised in a circle and staying perfectly still with blank stares for hours. That ain’t no ordinary tai chi practice I ever saw. I’m not surprised a cursory glance at the available information on the internet makes them seem innocuous. They have a huge and well-funded PR operation to make themselves seem like just another group of people who like wellness or whatever. But, yeah, it’s a cult.
Don’t forget the anti-race mixing. They believe kids of mixed-race have no place in heaven, because there’s a different heaven for each race and mixed-blood people have no connection to the devine, so everyone better maintain racial purity.
They’re pretty similar to Scientology, right down to the child labour. https://www.npr.org/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5374934/shen-yun-lawsuit-dancers-child-labor
Read more than a wiki.
I agree the NAC should not be holding such trash.
Why are the comments saying it is about Taiwan? The byline of the performance is “China before communism”. They are a Chinese group.
The byline of the performance is “China before communism”.
Even if that’'s the case, that’s not against the law in Canada nor against any law in any democratic country. It doesn’t violate human rights nor the international rule of law.
