“China before Communism” is the subtitle of the Shen Yun show spectacle, which will be performed in Berlin on March 29-31. The many posters feature a dancer in a Hanfu dress jumping into the picture, her wide sleeves stretched out like two wings. Shen Yun combines acrobatics and music with traditional Chinese elements. But the 80-member ensemble is far from being a Chinese state circus. Behind Shen Yun is Falun Gong, a spiritual movement also known as Falun Dafa, which is banned in China. Its members have banded together in exile to form a powerful voice against Beijing. The title of the event should also be understood in this context: For the creators of Shen Yun, China’s 5,000-year civilization ended when the Communists took power.

Yet Falun Gong and the Chinese Communist Party were not always enemies. When their techniques for strengthening body and mind became known in the mid-1990s, they were initially welcomed by the Party as a practice for improving public health. High cadres and entire police units sought personal treatment from Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi. The movement could not be attributed to “foreign forces”. Symbols, terminology and techniques draw on Buddhism, Taoism and traditional qigong.

With its religious and moral leanings, Falun Gong provided a foothold for many Chinese who were overwhelmed by the changes of reform and opening-up policies. At its peak, the movement was believed to have attracted between 70 and 100 million Chinese – more than the Communist Party in China had members. For Beijing, the movement had reached critical mass, especially since the efficiently structured organization did not shy away from protests. On April 25, 1999, 10,000 supporters protested in front of the seat of government in Beijing over critical reporting in some state media. Then, on July 22, 1999, China’s government banned Falun Gong on the grounds that it was an “evil cult” and a “criminal sect”. Hundreds of thousands of followers escaped arrest and torture by following Li Hongzhi into exile.

Powerful mass movement abroad

Especially in the United States, the organization lived on as a mass movement. It also developed into an anti-communist mouthpiece. Falun Gong practitioners launched multilingual news media including the newspaper Epoch Times, which is published in 36 countries, and the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD) cable channel, which reportedly employs correspondents in 70 cities around the world. The unofficial headquarters of Falun Gong is located in the state of New York. It is also where the Shen Yun Performing Arts group was founded in 2006. Shen Yun has what Beijing wishes it had: cultural soft power. The show, performed worldwide by some 400 dancers, regularly delivers sold-out performances in prestigious concert halls around the world. This year, the show will tour 81 cities on four continents.

Shen Yun’s success is also due to its massive advertising budget. The event’s banners are so omnipresent on the Internet and in urban areas that they have even become Internet memes. A well-known one is “new image from mars rover“: Vast plains of reddish-brown sand, and in the center, as the only fixed point on the horizon, a poster of Shen Yun. The budget partly comes from ticket prices, which vary depending on the city and venue, but usually hit the 100-euro mark. At the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, prices range from 72 to 152 euros for events at the end of March.

In addition, many volunteers from local Falun Dafa groups help Shen Yun to keep expenses low. In 2016, the latest available numbers, Shen Yun generated revenues of $22.5 million, while expenses were only around $7.3 million. The fact that Shen Yun belongs to Falun Gong is only subtly hinted at. At first glance, the dance company’s performance is supposed to represent Chinese culture. However, individual scenes quite obviously depict repression against Falun Gong followers: Persons clad in black robes with a hammer and sickle on their backs beat down meditating women to the sound of drums. A huge tsunami wave with the likeness of Karl Marx is also said to have been part of the show.

Chinese embassies call for boycott

Chinese foreign missions attempt to boycott the supposed Chinese cultural export. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution already reported in 2008 that the Chinese Consulate General in Munich allegedly tried to prevent a German tour of Shen Yun by threatening the German organizer with consequences. The historically rather freely interpreted musical is clearly not a cultural performance, “is not a cultural performance at all but a political tool of ‘Falun Gong’ to preach cult messages, spread anti-China propaganda, increase its own influence and raise funds,” the Chinese Embassy to the United States explains on its website.

An easy target for criticism is Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi, who has been living in the USA since 1998 and has attracted attention with questionable statements. In an interview with Time magazine, Li spoke of extraterrestrials who want to become masters of humanity with the help of scientific experiments. Elsewhere, he declared that souls in the afterlife would be separated by skin color and that homosexuality and atheism were scourges of modernity. Although many disciples may share his crude views, Li apparently no longer plays a role as a visible leader of Falun Gong. The 70-year-old lives in seclusion and communicates almost exclusively through posts on Falun Gong websites.

In Chinese history, rulers were constantly threatened by spiritual secret societies, such as the Taiping Rebellion under the Christian Hong Xiuquan, which captured Nanjing in the 19th century and declared the city the Heavenly Capital. But these and other popular movements, like Falun Gong, never managed to establish themselves permanently beyond the country’s borders. China’s then head of state Jiang Zemin originally wanted to eliminate Falun Gong within 100 days in the 1990s. This plan went completely wrong. By banning it at home, China’s government has created a global adversary that it won’t be able to get rid of anytime soon