Two completely different groups of people call Shen Yun a cult — and they mean entirely different things by it. Understanding who is saying it, why, and what evidence they offer is the only way to think clearly about one of the most contested performing arts companies in the world. This article examines both sources … Read more
In the summer of 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched what would become the longest sustained campaign of religious persecution in modern Chinese history — targeting a meditation group that, by the government’s own earlier assessment, had done nothing but improve the health and morality of tens of millions of citizens. Twenty-seven years later, arrests, … Read more
If you search for Falun Gong online, you will quickly encounter two sharply different characterizations: a persecuted spiritual movement whose practitioners have been tortured, imprisoned, and killed for their beliefs — or a dangerous “evil cult” that China was right to suppress. The gap between these descriptions is not a matter of interpretation. It is … Read more