BroadwayWorld.com – Touring dance group Shen Yun Performing Arts is under criminal investigation for possible visa fraud, labor issues, and more, The New York Times reports.
The group, run by the Falun Gong religious movement, was previously investigated last year for exploiting young performers by making them work long hours and paying them little to nothing.
A former performer has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of forced labor and human trafficking, and an inquiry has been made into whether the group has complied with state labor laws. Investigations are underway into the company’s financial and labor practices, including whether performers smuggled cash into the United States.
This is disappointing for a number of reasons so let’s start with the biggest one: Shen Yun runs some of the best local commercials on WGN and the human trafficking allegations kinda ruin that vibe.
Seriously. These are amazing commercials.
Another reason this sucks is that I’ve been meaning to take my niece and nephews for a couple years now but scheduling has been difficult, and my older brother isn’t huge on the idea anyways.
Even so, his kids have been asking for a day of Shen Yun interpretative dance the same way I wanted Medieval Times in the early-mid 90’s. And now with this news, I know that Shen Yun is officially off the table until the investigation concludes and I can confidently vouch for their child labor practices. By then the kids could be too old/cool for Shen Yun.
Even worse is that I planned an 8-person reservation at the Lombard Benihana on Butterfield knowing that the fried rice would hit so much harder after a day of Shen Yun. And I already love Benihana quite a bit so this was basically house money.
Now I have to cancel those reservations or go alone and risk that I get sucked into somebody else’s birthday party.
Do the egg trick again
AGAIN
I would ruin someone’s birthday party with unlimited egg trick requests all because I was in a bad mood that Shen Yun got cancelled in my family over human trafficking allegations.
So that’s why I cancelled the Benihana reservations.
Anyways Shen Yun is pretty mysterious if you look hard enough. Almost no footage of performances exist, but there’s dozens of documentaries from bug eyed YouTube investigators that want to see this shit shut down pronto. So take that for what it is (terrifying) and in the meantime, please enjoy the only Shen Yun I could find on YouTube.
PS – It actually kinda blows, right?