Good morning. It's Monday. We'll look at findings from The Times's investigation of the Shen Yun dance troupe. We'll also see what's in the waters off New York through the eyes of divers who look for shipwrecks and treasure.
The dance group Shen Yun sends troupes of Chinese dancers swirling in colorful costumes to cities like New York, Paris, Toronto and Taipei. Shen Yun's mission is more than entertainment: The shows amplify the anti-Communist message of Falun Gong, a religious movement that the Chinese Communist Party has tried to stamp out. Shen Yun has been led in exile by Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi, from a 400-acre compound in upstate New York, where many of the performers live and train. What Shen Yun audiences may not have realized was that offstage the performers paid a price in untreated injuries and emotional abuse. A New York Times investigation found that Shen Yun routinely discouraged them from seeking medical care and demanded obedience to rigid schedules. I asked Nicole Hong, who with Michael Rothfeld interviewed 25 former Shen Yun performers and instructors and reviewed hundreds of pages of records, about their findings. What is the atmosphere like at the Shen Yun compound in upstate New York? Are the performers under a lot of pressure? Our reporting showed that it was a controlling atmosphere and that the young student performers were subject to a long list of rules. They were limited in the books they could read, the music they could listen to and the news outlets they could access. They needed special permission to leave the compound and often saw their families only once a year. They faced a tremendous amount of pressure to serve their spiritual leader, who has a residence inside the compound and helps oversee their training. They were told that performing with Shen Yun was part of a holy mission to save humanity — and that any mistakes onstage could doom their audiences to hell. What about body shaming? Isn't that part of the culture? Yes, for female dancers in particular. The ones we interviewed told us that they were subjected to regular weigh-ins and that their instructors would yell at them in front of their classmates for being too fat. Some of them had their eating monitored by classmates. One former dancer said that in her troupe everyone's weights were recorded on a sheet posted in a classroom, with the names of dancers deemed to be too fat written in red. You talked to sports medicine experts who said that performing in any competitive dance company carries a risk of injury. Shen Yun's choreography is unquestionably demanding. Did Shen Yun send its dancers to doctors or physical therapists when they were injured? This is one of the biggest differences between Shen Yun and other dance companies we examined. The former Shen Yun performers we interviewed told us that they did not have routine access to doctors or physical therapists. They said this was because their spiritual leader says in his teachings that true believers can expel illness from their bodies without medical treatment. When Shen Yun performers were injured, they were told to heal themselves by "sending forth righteous thoughts," or they were told that the injury signaled something was wrong with their spiritual state. Shen Yun's representatives have denied discouraging medical treatment. What about the performers' schedules? Their schedules were grueling. They often worked 15-hour days, sometimes performing two shows a day. While on tour, they had bus rides between venues that could drag on for 16 hours at a time. On top of rehearsing and performing, some of the performers also had to set up and break down heavy orchestra equipment before and after each tour stop for no extra pay. Even though many of them were high school and college students, they spent months out of the year on tour. Just to give you a sense of their workload, the eight Shen Yun troupes staged more than 800 shows in a five-month period for their most recent world tour. If a performer wanted to quit and leave the compound, what happened? Many of the former performers we spoke to were terrified to quit because they were told that they would go to hell — or would be in physical danger without the protection of their spiritual leader. One former dancer told us that after she left she genuinely thought she might die at any moment in an accident. Several former performers told us that when they tried to quit, they were told that they would have to repay the cost of the full scholarships they had received for their schooling, an amount that could have reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. No one ever followed through on seeking repayment. How difficult was it to convince former dancers and instructors to be interviewed about their experiences? It was an incredibly challenging process. Almost all of them were terrified to be quoted using their real names because they were fearful of retaliation and harassment from other Falun Gong practitioners. It took several rounds of interviews across many months to get nine people to share their stories on the record. We know they risked a lot to speak to us, and we're so grateful for their courage. WEATHER Prepare for a chance of showers and thunderstorms persisting through the evening. Temperatures will drop from the mid-80s during the day to the mid-60s at night. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Sept. 2 (Labor Day). The latest Metro news
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. The divers who explore New York's murky green waters
There's a hidden world beyond the shore. It's hard to see in the murky, muddy water — and it's easy to find trash — but divers in New York City have their sights set on what's down there: shipwrecks and treasure as well as wildlife, like sharks, whales and oysters. Sometimes divers can't see their hands in front of their faces. But Jozef Koppelman, 66, who has been diving since he was a teenager, said that divers develop "selective amnesia": One gleaming "postcard day" in New York's waters wipes out the memory of nine when nothing could be seen at all. In what divers call "Wreck Valley," a triangle of water between Long Island and the Jersey Shore, are the remains of ships like the U.S.S. San Diego. Struck as it sailed toward New York in 1918, San Diego sank off Fire Island in what was considered "a hunting ground for German submarines," according to the Naval History and Heritage Command — the only major U.S. warship lost during World War I. METROPOLITAN DIARY Good spot
Dear Diary: Early on a Friday evening in July, my husband drove us to the Upper East Side from Queens so I could get a slice of vegan pizza at Two Boots. My contribution to the pilgrimage was spotting an open parking spot just a few blocks from our destination as we drove up Third Avenue. My husband parallel parked and fed the meter. Then we fed ourselves, returned to the car and prepared to head home. Just then an older woman who was wearing heavy makeup and driving a huge black S.U.V. pulled up next to us and gestured to inquire whether we were leaving. Rolling down my window, I told her we were and that the spot was all hers. "Is it a good spot?" she asked. I said that she would have to pay the meter, but that it was legal to park there. My husband clarified that the meter was no longer in effect, and I called out that she wouldn't even have to pay. The woman looked thrilled. "But is it a good spot?" she asked again. My husband and I were stumped. "We've liked it!" I said. — Miriam Jayaratna Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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N.Y. Today: Abuse at Shen Yun
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