Overcoming Adversity, from Humble Beginnings to Today

When you see Shen Yun billboards everywhere, or enter the theater to the buzzing excitement of a full house, it can be hard to imagine our company’s humble beginnings.

In 2006, it was a small group of artists who came together with a dream and a mission. They wanted to revive the lost heritage of Chinese civilization and share it with the world. In New York’s Hudson Valley, they created Shen Yun.

Fast-forward 18 years, and we have grown from nothing to now having eight full companies that simultaneously tour the world, performing in over 200 cities in front of millions.

This is our story… 

We couldn’t have done it without you! We know some of you have been following us and coming to our shows year after year from the very beginning. Others are discovering the experience for the first time. And we’ve been enjoying the touching reviews many of you have given on camera—thank you!

We’ve done all this in spite of the 2008 financial recession, in spite of covid, and in spite of the CCP constantly breathing down our necks.

The Chinese Communist Party, through its embassies and consulates around the world, has never stopped trying to sabotage us. Why does the Chinese regime want to stop a performance of Chinese culture?

First, our mission is to revive the very culture and traditions that the CCP has spent a century trying to destroy. As you know, Shen Yun not only breathes life into stories from China’s classic literature and ancient dynasties, it also brings back the virtues of traditional culture, ideals like integrity, faith, and compassion. These are values shared across humanity, but the CCP has long seen them as antithetical to its rule.

Second, in telling the story of five millennia of civilization, we also depict modern-day China and how Falun Gong practitioners face persecution with courage and faith. Shen Yun lets the world see China’s magnificence before communism and allows us to imagine a future without oppression there. For the audience, including many Chinese, this is inspiring.

For Beijing, though, this is terrifying. And so not only does the CCP block Shen Yun from performing in China, it is also persecuting family members of performers still there. Around the world, the CCP has for nearly two decades used a wide range of tactics to try to sabotage us: pressuring theaters and elected officials to try cancel our performances, threatening media partners to stop running our ads, sending spies to try to steal our technology secrets, and tampering with our tour buses.

Our performers continue undeterred and here we also want to thank you, our audience members, for supporting and trusting us.

If you saw Shen Yun 2024 and want a bit of a deeper dive behind some of last year's mini-dance dramas, we have that for you here with the stories Golden Monkey Battles Red Child, The Story of Lady Xi Shi, and the touching piece Devotion.

And soon, it will be time to wrap up this tour and start getting ready to see you all next season. Until then, thank you for your support, we’re so glad to have you with us on this journey!