Ep 15: Shen Yun and Karl Mechs

0:00:34

Welcome to left on red where a Gen x mom and gay millennial do socialism. We've got left wing views on news you can use. I'm Susan. And I'm Scott, and I'm Noah. We got so many we got views and news for you today that we're really excited to talk about. So on Friday, I can't believe it was just Friday. I know. A lifetime ago. I got to see five thousand years civilization reborn. I got to go see Shen Yun at the Lincoln Center. Tell us how you're able to go -- Okay. -- a little bit pricey to go. Right? Yeah.

0:01:09

First of all, if you don't know what Shen Yun is and I'm shocked that some people don't, and there's no way people don't know what Shen Yun is. I mean, I'm in a gaming discord with people all over the country and several of the guys I've talked to had no clue what it was. Because they've never read the never read the words on the poster, but they're familiar with the image probably. I I sent the image. They said they've never seen it. Impossible to me to imagine. Shen Yun is production with the largest marketing budget on planet Earth. And you've probably seen a poster or a meme online of this woman mid leap with these, like, flowing loose loops You droves. Probably made of silk. Also, you might have seen the t shirt. I lost my virginity at sedum. You've not seen a dessert. Maybe you've seen a YouTube ad, an Instagram ad, a TV commercial, and it's always kind of like a little bland, a nondescript where The world's greatest show. Yes. And it's just like a man saying China before communism. Five thousand years of civilization reborn, Jiang Yun, And I just feel like it's been such like a meme. It's been such like a funny, silly thing to see this like extreme advertising that doesn't say anything. I really wanted to see it once in my lifetime before I die. Truly, I believe it's one of those experiences. It defines our milieu. Yes. It's a little bit of like a cultural touch tone. So I'd always been joking about this, talking about this for like years.

0:02:35

And suddenly, one of our friends, Danny, who is on the podcast, just a couple episodes ago, mentioned jokingly in a group chat. That he's at his son's, like, talent show for school, and the school was selling a raffle tickets for Shen Yun tickets to fundraise. I immediately Venmoed him fifteen dollars as I buy me a ticket. I need to be in this raffle. Right. We love that you support public education. Yes. So I did not give any money to Shen Yun, by the way, I only gave money to some public -- Yes. -- something. Yes. But the but the PTA is giving money to shed No. No. They were donated I have to assume they were donated to I should hope. So Yeah. Yeah. PTO still have that kind of budget. Right.

0:03:22

And I've never won a raffle contest sweepstakes lottery ever in my life. And I won this raffle. Amazing. Yeah. I had to assume that I was the only person who entered it, but he actually showed me the live zoom raffle thing and like, at least twenty something other people bought raffle tickets. They paid for themselves. I love the idea of a live zoom for a raffle at a forty eight. They wanna make sure they'll be Yeah.

0:03:47

That that just reminds me of the hours that I watched of the Arizona recount livestream. Mostly because I wanted to hear the music. Tell us more about tell us for the show. So I got I won the tickets, we won two tickets. And by the way, I had joked saying, oh, I'd love to see this one day. If you check out tickets for this show, which I assume absolutely no one is watching, they are sold out and the cheapest tickets are ninety dollars each. So people in your city are paying an incredible amount to watch Shen Yun. So clearly, they're raising money. We won. We got to go.

0:04:24

This is the first time ever. I've seen live orchestral music. The first time I've ever to be honest, doesn't like music. Yeah. No. First time I've ever seen live dance and it's the first time I've ever been to Lincoln Center, which was absolutely stunning just like wealth and, like, great like, it's the, like, probably the most luxurious place I've ever been, which is fun. Sat down and show was about two and a half hours, give or take. And I'm gonna tell you guys, I was a little underwhelmed.

0:04:55

So for those of you that don't know more about Shenzhen, it is basically a production run by this organization called Follongong or Follong Dafa. It is a religious organization originating in China that got really, really quickly popular in the nineties, is fairly right wing. And has faced a lot of state repression from the communist party. Absolutely. State They run the epoch times. Yes. A very straight way. Pretty straight way. Right. So big big proponents of, like, Ibermectin as a Huge Trump supporter. Right. Right. Ibermectin as COVID treatment.

0:05:30

I didn't know that I read something. I thought they just like No. They're they're out there. They're out there. So and one of the things that read online about Shenzhen because I had Googled it many years ago, and I was like, what is this show? I'm so curious, is that it's like thinly veiled propaganda. That most of the show is anti communist, anti left, anti China propaganda with stories of they show a huge Karl Marx head and it kills people. And there's a mow the dong head and it eats people. Oh, man. That sounds Did you see that? So I didn't see it. Oh, man.

0:06:01

How I was ready for propaganda and I saw oh, so the way the show works is they have, like, snippets of dance, like ten minutes of dance segment, and then, like, music along with it. And each dance does like a little story or is like a little background. And there were only two propaganda segments. And that was it. There were So in a higher propaganda dance ratio. Yeah. Like, please. Ten percent of the show was propaganda. Ninety percent of it was just like dancing music. We really wanna see killer Karl Marx with the lasers coming out of his eyes. No Carl Marks had, which is very disappointing to me. That's the idea of Carl Marks as a, like, a max suit is just I that's so Right. We know what our Halloween costumes are gonna be this year. I'll be sharing you and you'll be the call tomorrow. Yeah. Carl Carl Maxx. That's good. Carl Maxx.

0:06:58

I don't know if they just read all the reviews that were calling out how much propaganda the show had. And they're like, damn, we need to change this up, but it changed it up. I did not see a lot of propaganda. What did I see?

0:07:09

So first of all, they had two announcer a Chinese woman and a white man, like, who had, like, a Mormon affect, like, an extremely clean country. Mormons speak really good mandarin and cat disease. He had a great because he's all in the CIA. They start learning, like, when they're babies or something. Well, he spoke perfect Chinese. Like, the tones every I is not as a as a Chinese speaker that I would know. Oh, I've seen them in what's it called in flushing. Yeah. And he was doing great. So him and a Chinese woman, they're both speaking English and Chinese. He was very clean-cut, blonde, perfectly tailored suit. Extreme Utah rides. Yes. And he was like, welcome to Shen Yun. We have such an amazing performance for you to see and then set it in perfect Chinese tonal words later.

0:07:56

And they would announce every single segment in advance and do, like, little jokes and you're in there and they were it was kinda a pleasant. What were the other audience members like? Oh my god. Like random regular people that you just find off the street in New York. Wow. It was very a diverse crowd. Yes. Very diverse. Like Not very white, which is also interesting, and not like Asian either. Like, like, Latino people, black people. I was like, wow.

0:08:23

Where is everyone getting the interest to see this show? Also the money. I'm like, if I had that kind of money, I would It's so expensive to be like book of Mormon or something, you know? I I wonder what the what the, like, So they're filling seats. Right. You have to assume that the ubiquity of the ads is getting some people to come see the show. To certainly some people, but I wonder how many PTAs are getting flooded, but I like to shine it on. That's a great point. Yeah. And some of the tickets might be comped and I'm sure a lot of them are. Yeah. To to have that kind of seat filling at ninety bucks a pop for for bed. Ninety is the cheapest. Yeah. Yes. Right. Most of the seats are a hundred, a hundred, twenty, three hundred. Only part of a subculture, we're getting really good ticket Sashinyu and he's like a flex.

0:09:12

So the show by the way has people in costume doing dance, but they have in the background just like a projector projecting a a digital screen. It has two thousands video game graphics. Like, I don't know how to describe this. It sounds like back of a the background of a k pop video game. Yes. Yes. But, like, a two thousand's video game. Like, if you're ever playing on the game cube, sold caliber. That's what I was seeing in the background. So, like, the Red Hut chili peppers Californication Music Video. I I don't know that reference. We're all giving each other references we don't know. Some computer generated graphics from, like, two thousand Like, very pixelated. Yes. Yes.

0:09:50

There was a scene where there was, like, a warlord on a horse charging through an army, so this is from the three kingdoms period in China, and it just looked like Rome total war from two thousand six. Did you learn about five thousand years of civilization though? Do you feel like you walked away with knowledge? A little bit. Maybe there were some interesting segments where they were like the best dances and songs were, like, the folklore ones -- Mhmm. -- where it was, like, this is group of people that live very close to the mountains and high altitude, and this is their dance. And that was really good. It was like very rhythmic, lots of drumming. I was like, oh, this is interesting. The most boring ones were like, celestial women twirling in heaven and they were just like they had the sleeves which are kinda cool and they just like twirl with the sleeves and they move around and like a little flowy nature. But that that's the woman the picture. Right. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And they use those sleeves several times, and they have different colored sleeves. Okay. So All representing different errors. Yes.

0:10:48

Criticism's I had of the show. The orchestra and they brag about this. They're like, This is a unique orchestra because it blends eastern and western instruments together. And you know, I would have preferred just the eastern instruments. I feel like the western instruments were kind of samey and tall. There were two, like, horny, like, horns, you know. Yeah. Not enough. Like, you know, the that you start instruments a lot of, like, stringy stuff? Yes. The show was not corny enough. But in terms of instruments, Which is it brassy? Yeah. Not even horns. Just like violin and Jellows and oh, you know, the flute or like, There were some traditional Chinese instruments in there and every time they were, like, emphasized, it sounded really good and interesting and unique. And when it was just western instruments, it sounded like some random shit I've heard a million times, you know, living in the west, growing up in the United States. So really dull lackluster arrangement. Yeah. Was To be honest, doesn't really like music, by the way.

0:11:47

I don't know if you I I love the idea that that it that the music's actually great, but still, Johannes, is like, what what is this? Music. I'm not I I'm the in terms of talent and skill, I'm sure they all did great. I'm generally not a music fan. Or a dance fan. The dance was cool. But, yeah, I'm not like a dance appreciator. But that history, you know, that's the good thing. Right. Right. But what he was really there for was a propaganda and he had a light on that And there was only two propaganda segments.

0:12:16

Where's the mark's head? Yeah. And the propaganda segments were the first one was pretty, like, emotional personal. It was about a school girl who goes in public park, having a good time with her family, and she holds up a sign that, like, shows the principles of Following Gong, like truth, compassion, and something else. And then they all get arrested by Chinese communist government officials And then the girl is, like, killed. They harvest her organs for the black market, and the fat was shattered. Okay. But in the end, they find her again in heaven, which is nice. Let's they they filed for organs. No. No. No. They find her in heaven. And then the second propaganda segment was in the same park in, like, the modern time and it was about, like, the hope that divine divinity will usher in the anti communist revolution.

0:13:05

And in that segment, it was interesting. It was like they had, like, a COVID thing where they showed, like, the zero COVID sign, and they had, like, overlapping newscasters, like, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. You know, like, from all over the world, like Australia, Britain, Portugal, whatever. And so kind of blaming the Chinese communist party for COVID. And there were a couple of songs where they translated the lyrics on the digital projector. And the lyrics were like atheism and evolution will lead us astray. So they are not friendly to atheists and they do not support evolution theory.

0:13:38

So I have a quick question for you to sort of wrap this up. What's their ask? Like, what do you think they're trying to do in this? Like, propaganda entertainment. Having read so when I read the articles online, I thought this show was a sham to get you in there, and then after you do something. But I'm now beginning to think that they're just using this to raise money. Okay. Because I think it's a laundering thing. It's it I mean, if if there were that many people there, the ticket price is what it is. I think that this might be their way of, like, taking a financial hit in order to because if you so, like, they do have an enormous marketing budget. Right. They're everywhere. Well -- Oh, okay. -- this thing making money if Actually, hold on. Because what I didn't talk about was the context, like, the other stuff happening.

0:14:27

So when you go by the way, they have a merch store, and I have it here. It's not a video podcast that I can't show you. But the merch was kind of fun and cool. They have, like, their like signature handbags. Yes. Can you buy the sleeves? You could buy scarves. I don't know if you can buy the costumes in the sleeves. Sleeves would be good merch for themselves.

0:14:44

They have a merch store, necklaces, everything. And part of they have, like, a big program pamphlet and everything that you just give you following Gong and Ching Yun and everything and it's a little bit of propaganda. But they show in that one all of their sponsors and supporters. And they get a ton of money from a lot of foundations and a lot of government institutions. Right. Chuck Schumer gives Shen Yun money. What? Kirsten Gillibrand gives Shen Yun money. Several New York City council members and New York State Assembly members and senators give Shen Yun money. Andrea's to her cousins gives Shen Yun money. It all comes back to the state senate here. Yeah. So it could be a little bit money laundering. Or it could be they're making a lot of money because they're officially a nonprofit -- Right. -- doing arts -- Right. -- and they could be making a lot of money off your government.

0:15:30

And so like you said, it was like kind of a propaganda light show, but that propaganda is cutting edge. They've got I mean, that that's story about the the young girl whose organs were harvested, that is like peak queuing on, like save the children, kind of stuff. Like and that's that's, you know, since twenty eighteen is when that stuff is, like, really grown up and out of the the, like, right wing It's funny you say that because the Oregon harvesting actually was at its peak in the two thousands. No. I thought that like, the those crazy emails that are being forwarded about, like, don't accept a drink when you're in a hotel. Yes. Well, days are two different things. So Oregon harvesting, when I say it is peak in terms of falling gone.

0:16:12

Because they've been talking about this since the nineties in their original repression, and they had an official UN Commission, investigate China for Repression against the fallen gong and doing Oregon harvesting, and the UN Commission made claims that in fact the Chinese government was guilty of this. So they had a lot of international influence. I'm glad you brought that up because I was disparaging the propaganda as not being strong enough. But I suppose now that I think about it, maybe just putting intercepting the idea into people's heads and making people think about it for a moment and all the work they've been doing lobbying and all the support they probably from a lot of right wing billionaires, has in fact been very influential and effective. Howard Bauchner: So underneath all this, in my mind, there's a consensus of synophobia, like, to be critical of China, and China's like, rise to be an economic powerhouse, one that the US ushered in, like, as a result of its foreign policy choices.

0:17:10

And so kind of, like, blame China for COVID blame China for, you know, whatever, overconsumption, debt, consumerism. And this is one of those things where sort of a really dominant, like, bipartisan idea in the US. Happens to overlap with a bunch of crazies who have like a really good marketing budget. So that's to me, that's what's very interesting because, you know, sino phobia is like a third rail now in American politics. And by that, I mean both fear of Chinese people as well as fear of the Chinese government. And we're experiencing a resurgence of that right now in government Jamal Bowman recently defended TikTok in congress.

0:17:53

And actually, I think it was really valuable. It's not just about, like, the social media app and Silly, but he made some very excellent points which is one, a lot of the anti TikTok hate is just xenophobia as you described it of A lot of legislators on both Democrat and Republican wings of the part of the government are making these claims that TikTok is evil because it's tied to the Chinese government. Never mind that every single American social media company is absolutely stealing and using your data in the most nefarious ways to turn a profit. And the US government could regulate that, but they do not. In fact, the bill that is currently being proposed to ban TikTok also includes numerous measures to give American social media companies more access. Right. So Facebook good. Instagram good. Oh, TikTok so bad.

0:18:42

One of the things I learned in this was that Facebook or meta or whatever. Spent a ridiculous amount of money over just the last three years, specifically lobbying legislators to attack and destroy TikTok. And one of the things that now Facebook, this American company, is guilty of absolutely stoking xenophobia to get rid of one of their competitors. Right. And both Biden and Donald Trump use Sonophobia in their presidential campaigns, and Twenty twenty four is gonna be full of who can be more hating of China.

0:19:15

And, you know, I don't talk about this a lot, but I end up getting a lot of requests to talk about it, but all of this ends up stoking, like sort of grassroots hatred and fear of, like, Asian looking, Chinese looking people. Right? At sort of a ground level. And that's a collateral that our government and the capitalists are more than happy to sell out. They don't give a shit about you. They don't give a shit about causing racist terror and hate and fear and panic and violence. Because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters to them and under capitalism is their bottom line, their profit. But meta is still losing tons of money. The metaverse was a complete failure. You know, and but nonetheless, our organs of government are just going bad for them.

0:20:01

And I bet you that Jamal Bowman did not sponsor Shen Yun. That's how I wanna end this. He did not his name was not in the peninsula. We we applaud our -- Yeah. -- fit. Congressional king. Yeah. We don't have time to talk about it, but Jamal Bowman benches at least three I think four plates. And that is reason enough to support the man. He's got my vote. Right. So we'll we'll talk more about being not a sinoaphobe being fit and being a socialist, you know, in future episodes. Those are extremely sexy qualities, not xenophobic, bit socialist. Wow. That's a ten. That's a ten. This is a kind of spring I'm imagining for all of us. And speaking of sexy qualities, we're still waiting for some collins or emails regarding your romantic and or sex life. So if you are experiencing or looking to experience a non xenophobic fit and socialist spring and then summer, reach out to us.

0:21:03

And just to let you know my our qualifications are, I'm coming from a failed marriage. So I I can give a heterosexual view. About, you know, how capitalism and the alienation in our contemporary society as well as massagony. You really do make love very hard. And I'm also a parent, and I've got sort of my own perspectives about unequal distribution of household and caring labor to discuss. And I'm not coming from a failed marriage. Right. So win win. Yeah.

0:21:37

I'm coming from the apps I'm coming from the dating experiences of a person under the age of thirty. Actually, I guess, everyone at any age at this point is on the apps. But I'm coming from the apps and modern dating life and, you know, the gay perspective, which is always a little bit more fun. And I've never been on the apps, but I support those who do, and I love to look at people's profiles. It's so much fun. Send us screenshots of your profiles, we will critique them and offer you an In a in a collective care way. Yeah.

0:22:09

If you are feeling concerned about what's going on in our world. Maybe you've heard about how the dollar is losing you you don't really like seeing sino phobia being, you know, trumpeted by both political parties and you're like, what's next? What can I a simple person who's feeling alienation or capitalism meant to do, we've got an answer for you? That is to join the Democratic SOCIALS OF AMERICA, DSA, The link is in our podcast description. And of course, you can just Google, join DSA, and you can talk to all your comrades about Shenzhen. And dating and benching four plates, losing your virginity and hatching it. Having a hot socialist spring. Don't open with losing your virginity at Shenzhen, but lead into it after three or four conversations. This is Susan. This is Scott and Noah. Solidarity forever. Left on Red is recorded live at left on red studios international in beautiful People's Republic of Astoria Queens, the most-filmed neighborhood in all of New York City. It's hosted by Susan Kang and Scott Karolidis. It's produced with original music by Noah Teachey and Julianna Mirra manages our comms. Thanks for listening and solidarity forever.