Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
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Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#2Shen Yun was a Baader-Meinhof object: once I saw it, I started to see it everywhere.
More than that -- until I read this, I had half-convinced myself that I'd been seeing these posters since the early 90s, not 2007!
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#3Shen Yun was a Baader-Meinhof object: once I saw it, I started to see it everywhere. More than that -- until I read this, I had half-convinced myself that I'd been seeing these posters since the early 90s, not 2007!
I love the next sentence:
> Shen Yun greeted me silently at the bus stop and loomed over highway exits, following me around on the physical plane of existence the way anything you shop for on the Internet starts to follow you around online.
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#4I often see it advertised at Chinese restaurants around town. Whenever I ask the proprietors if it part of Falun Gong, they all claim not to understand, or they just say no. I can't tell if they actually know what it is and don't want to admit it, or if they legitimately don't know.
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#5Shen Yun was a Baader-Meinhof object: once I saw it, I started to see it everywhere. More than that -- until I read this, I had half-convinced myself that I'd been seeing these posters since the early 90s, not 2007!
Likewise, I'd see endless commercials of Shen Yun in papers and TV shows. I checked out a different, neat, performance in China but didn't see SY.
This makes me think of the strategy the great showman P.T. Barnum would use, typically by bombarding people with larger-than-life posters, to raise awareness of his acts. He earned a lot of business doing this.
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#6"The fact that both Falun Gong and the Communist Party communicate via propaganda makes it almost impossible to understand what’s really happening."
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#7I often see it advertised at Chinese restaurants around town. Whenever I ask the proprietors if it part of Falun Gong, they all claim not to understand, or they just say no. I can't tell if they actually know what it is and don't want to admit it, or if they legitimately don't know.
They know. It is a strategic and extremely carefully phrased denial.
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#8Shen Yun was a Baader-Meinhof object: once I saw it, I started to see it everywhere. More than that -- until I read this, I had half-convinced myself that I'd been seeing these posters since the early 90s, not 2007!
Speaking of Baader-Meinhof effect, I can't remember the last time I saw anything about it - probably last year sometime - but I just got a brochure in the mail yesterday, and now this!
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#9My family and I went a couple of years ago. It seemed fairly benign, if a bit corny/garish. The whole "evolution is evil" thing kind of comes out of nowhere. Afterwards I looked up the group behind it and read about Falun Dafa. It won't convince anyone to join their group, but it probably raises a fair amount of funds for it. As entertainment it is moderately interesting, but I wouldn't go again.
Re: Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun
#10My family and I went a couple of years ago. It seemed fairly benign, if a bit corny/garish. The whole "evolution is evil" thing kind of comes out of nowhere. Afterwards I looked up the group behind it and read about Falun Dafa. It won't convince anyone to join their group, but it probably raises a fair amount of funds for it. As entertainment it is moderately interesting, but I wouldn't go again.
I've been once too. The acrobatics and dance and production values are quite professional and nice.
But the side-trips into propaganda made me feel like I had been deceived by the advertising, which really turned me off.