We'll pause this week in our reading to give the visitor a chance not to be (metaphorically) beaten about the head by the Chinese Communist Party.

(Find out instead about Falun Gong. They're usually outside the Star Ferry terminal, TST.)

Note! I see the Shen Yun Performing Arts Group is in London, April 2012.

Shen Yun is supported by Falun Gong. Falun Gong is banned in China, but is active outside China, and has links to the US and Taiwan, which we know as old Kuomintang territory.

The role of Shen Yun is as the 'cultural wing' for Falun Gong; they act as cultural ambassadors for a pre-Communist China. They present the ideas of the imperial regime through art. (Is it possible to see the Communist Party as a 'blip' in Chinese history?)

Can you begin to see why political control of the arts becomes so important?!

Watch this video about Shen Yun from their website on Classical Chinese dance. It is 18 mins long. You will come away with an understanding how politics and the arts are linked.

Nothing is simple in history, is it? There are always more stories to be told, depending on which angle you stand to look.