part 363 paper snowflakes

[aphanon_meme]

It's... December! I can't believe it's almost the end of another year. Time is weird. Anyway! There's been a lot of neato Hetalia news in the meantime! That game (that I can't get working but will look at videos and screencaps of so I can play vicariously)! The image of the first doll! The musical promo images!! What are you most excited for?

Enjoy part 363!

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Comments

what I'm sure will be tl;dr but good lord anon GOOD LORD

[(Anonymous)]

So. I've seen advertisements for Shen Yun for years. Finally decided to go because I had a bit of extra money.

The advertisements, including the trailers for the last few years, are all similar to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC35DjhLml8

Basically, what is advertised is: Extravagant, gorgeous historical Chinese culture! With DANCING! And gorgeous pretty aesthetics! Think "Beijing Opening Ceremony"! Think "Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe"! Etc.

What the performance actually was: a series of dances (some with stories) told on a stage almost completely bare except for a large platform and a giant projector screen. See how it's solid and colorful in that video? Not so in real life. They also don't show in the video the terrible digital people who would fly in/out of the stage... so when the person 'flew' on the screen to the bottom of it, someone would pop up behind the platform in a trap door as if they showed up. They did this. A lot. So much. So, so much.

After every dance, 2 hosts would come out, then they would tell terribly rehearsed jokes and explain what the dance was about In English, then Chinese. Every time. I think about 20 minutes of the show was just these two. The house wasn't even 1/3 full and most people were in the cheap seats because oh, did I mention that Shen Yun is expensive as hell? If I was one of the people who paid $180 a PIECE for tickets I would have been foaming at the mouth. As it is mine were $99 each and I'm livid.

As for the dances themselves. There were 20 dances in all--actually 20 performances, 2 were songs. There were two genuinely beautiful and moving and stood out as very well done and engaging/entertaining pieces (namely a drum song, and one where they had this awesome fabric that made them look like ocean fairies, loved it).

A liiiiiittle bit above the middle were some of the story dances that actually told historical stories. Like one where this general makes himself an imperial Dragon Robe because Fuck You That's Why, but he gets found out and eventually the emperor dance-kicks his ass and he submits. Fun times. Or one that was court women wearing crazy shoes, although it's closer to the middle in quality.

In the middle, there were what my brother called "generic twirly pretty dances," in which the female dancers were dressed in pretty costumes and would kind of just do this same twirly pretty dance, just now in a different costume and a different backdrop. Sometimes with something to spiff it up--like LED flowers or fans. While they were pretty, and some had nice visuals, they weren't very different from each other and were disappointing especially since the idea was "5,000 years of civilization" yet only a handful of the dances took any inspiration from, well, history. (No, vaguely historical costumes don't count, Shen Yun!)

And at the bottom... ohh, the bottom. I had heard some rumblings about Shen Yun being run by a religious Falun Gong organization, and that some of the dances were based on their religious stories. Mmkay, not a big deal. What the dances actually were, though, were not religious stories. They were Cold War-style propaganda pieces (which weren't necessarily untrue, but obviously done in a heavy handed propagandist way) intended to make people sympathize with Falun Gong while promoting the religion.

For example: The last dance of the show, called 'Hope for the Future,' showed happy smiley Falun Gong people minding their own happy smiley business when a MEAN, COMMUNIST POLICE MAN DRESSED IN BLACK WITH A RED SYMBOL ON HIS BACK came stomping in, throwing their book in the water. But!! The happy smiley Falun Gong people did not cower as they had in an earlier propaganda dance set in the past. no! They fought back! And then the kid whose book was destroyed had a trippy vision wherein flying god women gave him a new book, because he meditated and believed. But then, the police man came back with more EVIL COMMUNIST POLICE DRESSED IN BLACK... ahaha! But then the Falun Gong gods sent a terrible storm and a huge hurricane which destroyed the DECADENT COMMUNIST CITY AND POLICE, and then some digital people flew in from the sky and everyone danced because yay Falun Gong is the future. Also smiley happy Falun Gong people holding up a banner that says FALUN GONG IS GOOD. Very subtle.

There were 3 other political dances similar to this. One which told the story of an old couple who reappeared in the finale dance, one about Red Guards (who were portrayed like apes, more or less) harassing monks who just happened to have magic Falun Gong powers, which ended with the Red Guards quaking, throwing off their hats and banners, and bowing pitifully in front of the shrine's statues.

The worst, however, were the songs. Now even if these songs weren't offensive, they would have been the worst. Shrill miked operatic sopranos? No, no please. I literally covered my ears. The song's lyrics were projected on the screen behind them. Lyrics with such gems as: "Atheism is Satan's secret craft," "Do not believe the Red Beast," "Science lead us all on a dangerous path," "Evolution is a pocket of lies," "Heathens will be punished by the gods," "The Falun Gong believers be praised," etc. You could hear everyone around me saying things like: "what in the world is going on." "what the fuck." etc.

This political and religious aspect absolutely killed the show. It was awkward, it was forced, and at times it was offensive.

The show advertises itself as this sort of general Chinese cultural show, but it's not. There is not much cultural history in the show. Most of the dances were so similar it's hard to remember them. The political and religious message came out of left field and was especially disappointing since it ended the show.

Re: what I'm sure will be tl;dr but good lord anon GOOD LORD

[(Anonymous)]

it's everything I was warned about lol
thank you for the review anon!