Shen Yun Performing Arts

The New York–based classical Chinese dance company and promotional behemoth Shen Yun, founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong, is perhaps better known for its saturation advertising—assisted by Falun Gong's far-right media arm The Epoch Times—than for its traditionalist pageants of precommunist Chinese culture. Drawing on ancient folklore, the company surveys five millennia of Chinese culture and spirituality in a production that combines ornate costumes, elaborate staging and a large orchestra that features both Eastern and Western instruments.