Shen Yun

Minister of Toilet Management Mark Geary joins me for a romp into the world of non-profit arts organizations! He is the founder of The Lincoln Lodge, which is where I record my podcast and is also my place of full time employment. Do two standup comedy philistines have any right to judge Shen Yun? NOPE, but we saw the show anyways on a strange, beautiful Thursday afternoon. Parking took 17 minutes by the way. Mark has a long and storied history in the Chicago comedy scene and it is actually a huge score that he agreed to be on my podcast, so please forgive how nervous I was during the recording. 

Anywhoozles, Shen Yun is a non-profit arts organization AKA it is in the same line of business as The Lincoln Lodge - so that's the expertise we're bringing to the table. Other podcasts have dutifully covered the....strange and religious background origins of Shen Yun and its parent organization the Falun Dafa. I'm honestly not sure if I did a great job explaining the Falun Gong stuff because 1) you sound crazy when you try to summarize it 2) it's out of scope for the podcast 3) i was a little drunk and 4) i made a concerted effort to not be too hard on religious people because it's a smug lefty podcast trend that I find gauche. Sorry TrueAnon people, I am just a better person than you <3

I wish I'd remembered to say this on mic, but Mark did lean over during the piece of the performance that was meant to be set in the modern day. The actors all wore khakis and blue shirts and he, brow furrowed with the gravitas of a 60 minutes interview, leaned over and went "why are they all dressed like they work at Best Buy?" and to me that made Shen Yun worth the price of admission 100%. 

SOURCES: 

1) The article I need to attribute the most credit to (though the content comes super late in the episode) is "How Shen Yun Tapped Religious Fervor to Make $266 Million" by New York Times reporters Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld linked here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250106190435/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/nyregion/shen-yun-money-falun-gong.html

2) Shen Yun's 2023 Form 990: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208812402/202421039349300917/full

3) IRS Whistleblower website link: https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/whistleblower-office-at-a-glance#:~:text=The%20IRS%20Whistleblower%20Office%2C%20which,else%20they%20may%20be%20encountered.

4) "California Man Sentenced for Acting as an Illegal Agent of the People’s Republic of China Government and Bribery," DOJ press release linked here: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/california-man-sentenced-acting-illegal-agent-peoples-republic-china-government-and-bribery

5) "US: Chinese agents paid bribes in plot to disrupt anti-communist Falun Gong movement," CBS News May 6 2023 linked here: https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/us-chinese-agents-paid-bribes-in-plot-to-disrupt-anti-communist-falun-gong-movement/

6) "Federal lawsuit accuses Dragon Springs compound of sewage contamination of stream," Times Herald-Record, Chris McKenna, January 2022 linked here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220630005603/https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/local/2022/01/20/falun-gong-dragon-springs-accused-sewage-spill-basher-kill-neversink-river/6577825001/

7) "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times," Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins reporting for NBC News, August 20, 2019, linked here: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/trump-qanon-impending-judgment-day-behind-facebook-fueled-rise-epoch-n1044121 (the "slave labor" quote came in this article)

8) "Shen Yun Needed Publicity. The Epoch Times Wrote 17,000 Articles," Nicole Hong and Michael Rothfeld, New York Times, December 30 2024, linked here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250101060455/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/30/nyregion/shen-yun-epoch-times-falun-gong.html

9) Ohio Falun Dafa Association 2023 Form 990 linked here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/264648549/202431219349300308/full

10) Dragon Springs Buddhist Inc Forms 990 linked here: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/113581083

11) The SVOG Grants Database: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10LoFUyiMI7m3_odNh6yzCf47gk2BSmz-/edit?gid=1481215523#gid=1481215523

12) Friends of Falun Gong form 990: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/134145670/202332559349301713/full

13) I mention the 28-year-old Moonie kid who got kidnapped, the article I'm half-remembering is this: https://web.archive.org/web/20170827171857/https://www.washingtonpost.com/web/20170827171857/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1981/08/14/court-rules-rights-laws-protect-against-religious-discrimination/caba88e2-4477-464a-9147-b7276acbc774/?utm_term=.47998e51cabb

14) Shen Yun's screen patent for the flying thing: https://ppubs.uspto.gov/api/pdf/downloadPdf/10981078?requestToken=eyJzdWIiOiIzYzM5NWY1Yi01YzU4LTQ1NTAtOTFlNC1jNzE5OTBmMGQ5ZmUiLCJ2ZXIiOiI2NjAwMzkwNi1mOWEzLTRkMDYtOGE1Ny0zOGFkYjEzMTEwNTEiLCJleHAiOjB9

**

A few articles mentioned but not directly quoted: 

1) "The power of Falun Gong," Eric Campbell and Hagar Cohen for (i think) ABC Australia, July 20, 2020, linked here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-21/inside-falun-gong-master-li-hongzhi-the-mountain-dragon-springs/12442518

2) Shen Yun's court complaint against the town of Deerpark New York for discrimination, which of course mentions the goddamn organ harvesting: https://trellis.law/doc/153931432/complaint

3) Behind the blitz: Falun Gong practitioners spend millions on Shen Yun ads. How do they do it?, Matthias Gaffini, San Fransisco Chronicle, January 2020 linked here: https://web.archive.org/web/20200111170427/https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Behind-the-blitz-Falun-Gong-practitioners-spend-14966684.php

4) "Me and Li — Why I left Falun Gong after being a devoted believer for a decade" Ben Hurley -
This is just a Medium Article and many people enjoy lying on the internet, so take it with a grain of salt but this did influence my thinking: https://ben-d-hurley.medium.com/-10677166298b