Dancing the commies away

[Dex Sawash]

Got a flyer in the mail for a performance of traditional chinese arts by a troupe called Shen Yun. It set off my falun gong alarm with strange phrasing. Sure enough, wikipedia says it is the FG.

How would they free china by having me watch them dance and sing? Is Falun Gong absolutely bad (or good)? Obviously I don't really care but maybe a few of you will call each other cunts/block each other or maybe someone will flounce.

[bgmnts]

All I can suggest is grassing them up to the CCP immediately.

[chveik]

pretty sure they're bad. but since the US foreign policy is based on 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', we have to pretend they're good

[chabrol]

I've received the same thing through the post three times now, except in this case it's an A4 booklet rather than just a flyer. It's very, very upfront in its anti-CCP ideology; there's a whole page or so explaining how this is about the China "the CCP doesn't want you to see", lines about the tyranny of communism and stories about dancers and concertmasters escaping to the 'refreshingly free' US from persecution in China and a page in the back with quotes from former US congressmen and European ministers and various celebrities (including Brian May) about how great the show is and how Shun Yen are making the world a better place. An odd thing to come through the letter box. It's also definitely keeping the whole thing about Falun Gong very, very quiet, despite the fact most reports suggest it's up-front in the show itself.

Tickets for the London show are between £62 and £138. Might be worth lowering those if they want to bring the message to a wider audience.

This article is interesting; apparently, it's not just anti-Communist, but also anti-atheist and anti-evolution, and includes a dance sequence based on the organ harvesting of Falun Gong members. The article states that the whole thing is self-sustained based on the high ticket-prices, and demand for the same, but you've got to wonder if there's other sources of financial support considering the apparent size of the marketing campaign and the expense of the show itself.

[Kankurette]

Is the organ harvesting thing true? These guys had a stand in Market Street last time I was in town and they had all the usual organ harvesting stuff.

[Paul Calf]

Weeping for the memory of a love gone...bay?

[Pink Gregory]

Finally a little flair, bored to tears of coups and death squads, me.

[H-O-W-L]

Is the organ harvesting thing true? These guys had a stand in Market Street last time I was in town and they had all the usual organ harvesting stuff.

As far as I can tell it is true, though I don't know if it is specifically targetted at Falun Gong.

[Theremin]

I like the idea of going to this in a Mao-suit and scowling throughout

[Theremin]

Arms crossed, brows furroughed, big bag of revels completely untouched

[Fambo Number Mive]

pretty sure they're bad. but since the US foreign policy is based on 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend', we have to pretend they're good

The only thing I know about them is that some Falun Gong members are involved with the Epoch Times, which runs coronavirus misinformation and far-right bollocks. However, I don't know how closely the paper and Falun Gong are linked.

Is this why they are bad, or are there other reasons?

[Pink Gregory]

That's the main reason, otherwise they'd be a fairly usual dissident group I suppose.

Also aren't they rumoured a bit at least a bit cult-like?

[Alberon]

Yeah, but then so is the CCP these days.

They're a bunch of wrong-uns opposing another bunch of wrong-uns. The real world is complicated and annoying.

[H-O-W-L]

Yeah, but then so is the CCP these days.

They're a bunch of wrong-uns opposing another bunch of wrong-uns. The real world is complicated and annoying.

Bring back Cobra Commander. That was a bastard we could all fucking hate.

[pigamus]

Yeah, really impressed by the smug, presumptuous, know-it-all attitude towards Falun Gong here. You say you support more women in darts and then this

[Buelligan]

I like the idea of going to this in a Mao-suit and scowling throughout

Arms crossed, brows furroughed, big bag of revels completely untouched

I like this.  But even more I like the idea of hate-dancing as a national thing.  Boris Johnson gallumphing internationally as a morris-fool hating at Macron.  Farage tripping his molly along the Fens for all the brown-skinned people of the world.  Trump and the Gang doing a great big malevolent line dance pointed at Mexico, hell, pointed anywhere they goddamn like. 

Even little Starmer in a cupboard, doing a tiny secret step or two in his handmade shoes on a picture of workers laughing, checking for cameras first, then slapping his own face.  Hard.

[idunnosomename]

Is the organ harvesting thing true? These guys had a stand in Market Street last time I was in town and they had all the usual organ harvesting stuff.

cor that's taking it a bit far. Buskers are bad enough

[Janie Jones]

You give me Falun Gong four in the morning.

[Buelligan]

You give me Falun Gong four in the morning.

You know what's creepy?  I just thought I'd listen to the song that inspired that song (below) and the ad that went with it was for the Chinese hate-dancing lot.  That is creepy.  Nothing is private any more, even our livers.

[steveh]

They are essentially a cult.

Wrote this in an earlier thread on them: https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=80551.msg4218808#msg4218808.

[Johnny Yesno]

Yeah, really impressed by the smug, presumptuous, know-it-all attitude towards Falun Gong here. You say you support more women in darts and then this

And we wonder why more Falun Gong members don't post here.

[mothman]

Yes, they'd be far too centrist to ever really fit in.

[Kankurette]

Pearly Dewdrops is going to have a shitfit when they see this thread.

[chveik]

sadly he doesn't post here anymore.


it's hard to tell if the forced organ harvesting thing is more than a rumour frankly, other than it used to happen for prisoners on death row.

[Pinball]

I received this booklet too, and felt very worried for the lads. Criticising the CCP doesn't end well for many people. A few million Uighurs in concentration camps in China would no doubt agree.

[Buelligan]

Yeah.  Gotta hand it to the folks on LBC and the like, they criticise China on the hour, every hour, without the least sign of fear.  Only hope someone really shitty gets Iain Dale's small intestine.

[Dusty Substance]

It's very, very upfront in its anti-CCP ideology; there's a whole page or so explaining how this is about the China "the CCP doesn't want you to see", lines about the tyranny of communism

Imagine being "anti-CCP". The Chinese Communist Party are a swell bunch of lads with no blood on their hands.

[Buelligan]

Remind me, which are the good countries, the big good countries, run by all-round decent eggs, again.

Here's a wee bit from Novara on the subject - China/Barbados, China/genocide/media/climate change - https://youtu.be/bEW2DCeB8j8?t=2625

[Mister Six]

The only thing I know about them is that some Falun Gong members are involved with the Epoch Times, which runs coronavirus misinformation and far-right bollocks. However, I don't know how closely the paper and Falun Gong are linked.

Is this why they are bad, or are there other reasons?

The Epoch Times is like the Chinese media version of those Miami Cubans whose families fled Castro and are now psychopathically right-wing American politicians. "A particular form of 'Communism' hurt me, so now I'm going to become the exact opposite of a Communist - a Fox-addled, hypercapitalist, Trump-supporting, anti-science nujob."

I need to read up more on the Falun Gong, but I'm pretty sure they got the boot from China purely because they were a large enough, popular enough movement that the CPC got worried about them opposing their authority. Which is all the CPC really cares about, TBH - maintaining power internally and building Chinese power externally.

I have seen some Falun Gongers knocking around NYC parks, doing a sort of slow tai-chi sort of thing and looking a bit intense. It's usually a 60:40 Asian/white split, too. Which I'm sure is very cynically stage-managed.

[chabrol]

Imagine being "anti-CCP". The Chinese Communist Party are a swell bunch of lads with no blood on their hands.

Just want to be clear that I'm not making any real judgement call about the material, just trying to report what's in it really. Not trying to defend the CCP at all. It's just a striking thing to receive through the post so many times. I received two separate copies of the booklet yesterday. Got five of them now! Nice little collection going.