Shen Yun Artists Respond to #New York Times Articles—— American Thought Leaders (For full video 👉👉https://www.ganjingworld.

In August of 2024, the New York Times published a series of stories alleging abuse within Shenyan performing arts. With its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture, all but lost in communist China, Shenyan has become a global sensation. Now, both former and current Shenyan artists are saying they've been misrepresented by the Times. So what's the real story? For the first time tonight, you're going to hear from the people that have been most affected. Here are their stories. There's this New York Times article that's come out that has painted an extremely different picture. How do you react to that? From my experience, it's quite the opposite. I think it's unjust. You have this wonderful group of people with personalities and their interests, their hobbies. Seeing that being here, like I got help for myself. Jumping is easy, right? They watch you. I've interviewed thought leaders from all walks of life, including artists and performers. Sometimes when they are misrepresented in other media, I like to look at the facts, hear their stories, and give my audience the full picture. The Epoch Times has been a media sponsor of Shenyan for years. I was shocked to see how Shenyan artists were portrayed in these recent New York Times pieces. Now, the artists themselves are telling their side of the story. I did read the articles and my initial reaction is the same as a lot of the other dancers to Shenyan. We're really surprised and sad by what we saw on the article. I performed with Shenyan for seven years. From my experience in Shenyan, I really do feel like it was very, very valuable for me. She asked me, like, are you okay? Are you happy there? And I was like, I've never been happier in my life by being there. My name is Shidi Cai. I'm a dancer with Shenyan Performing Arts. Even though we went through the same experiences, I'm getting a completely different picture of what it's really like. While I've interviewed Shenyan's spokespeople and artists before, I wanted to dig deeper and find out what the public is really missing. Thank you all for joining me here today. This time, I spoke with performers who don't usually go on camera for unscripted discussions about their lives. There's this New York Times article that's come out. What emerged was a picture quite different from that painted in the New York Times. So what was your reaction to the article? Just jump in. I feel saddened by it. I feel disappointed in the media. I feel like this article really, it dehumanized us in a way that it put us all, like, you have this wonderful group of people with personalities and their interests, their hobbies and their activities, what they like to do, right? And then you're just classifying them all as this oppressive atmosphere. And I feel like that's very, first of all, it's very unfair. And second of all, I think it's unjust. My very first reaction was, what? Like, I was very confused. How could this be happening? Like, an environment that has given us so much and helped us grow so much, like, why is it getting tarnished like this? And we really wanted to speak up and we wanted to, you know, like, share our stories. Like, this isn't what's happening. I remember that night, everybody, like, we sat down and started writing the experiences that they've been through over the years, well into, like, midnight, like, people were still typing because they had so much to say. Like, we really, really want to, like, speak up for what's right. And I think, yeah, I think everyone kind of feels that way. Honestly, when I read this article, I felt like I was reading some kind of, like, horror novel, a work of fiction, basically. I'm not invalidating anyone's experiences, but I do feel like they do miss a really big part of things. And it's like the good part, the positive parts about the experiences you gain here. Because the Shen Yun that they describe is not the Shen Yun that I go to every day. Shen Yun was born in 2006, founded in New York by a group of artists who practice Falun Gong. They wanted to showcase traditional Chinese culture, a culture that the communist takeover of China attempted to erase. Today, Shen Yun's eight touring groups—dancers, singers, and full orchestras—perform in front of nearly a million people worldwide each year. At a scenic remote campus in upstate New York, Shen Yun also nurtures artistic talent through Feitian Academy of the Arts and Feitian College, two religiously-affiliated private boarding schools. One of the key claims in the New York Times articles is that Shen Yun neglected medical treatment and fostered a climate where dancers were afraid to seek care for their injuries. But dancers we talked to, along with many others who posted their experiences online, challenged this assertion. You want to take care of a world-class performer if he has to actually give that level of artistry on stage. It doesn't make sense to just go fix yourself. That just doesn't work. It's like throwing Simone Biles out and saying, just go take care of yourself while she's limping around. She can't complete what she's meant to do.