You've seen the ads. But what's the deal with Shen Yun?

Shen Yun ads are practically everywhere you look in fall and winter in San Francisco. Shen Yun ads are practically everywhere you look in fall and winter in San Francisco. Photo: Cole Chapman Photo: Cole Chapman Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close You've seen the ads. But what's the deal with Shen Yun? 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

Unless you live under a rock, you've probably seen a billboard or heard dozens of ads for Shen Yun Performing Arts.

In the Bay Area, people are so used to seeing the ads on TV and on the sides of buses come December, people even joke winter should be renamed "Shen Yun season." Since I started writing this article about two minutes ago, I've already seen a Shen Yun spot run on KTVU.

San Francisco seasons, 2017-2018:

Spring

Summer?

Smoke

Shen Yun Ads

Rain If We're Lucky — Jonathan Kauffman (@jonkauffman) December 7, 2018

But what is it? The answer is a little complicated.

Shen Yun bills itself as "the world's premier classical Chinese dance and music company." They have performances in 93 cities around the country, from Billings, Mont., to Little Rock, Ark., to three Bay Area locations. The dress code suggests you might want to wear a tuxedo or evening gown since you're "in for a special treat." If you buy a ticket to a show (which run from $80 to $400 in San Francisco), you can expect two hours of traditional Chinese dance accompanied by a live orchestra.

And if you're to believe Shen Yun's own advertisements, you'll get so much more. The hyperbolic 2020 tour ad promises the performance is "so inspiring it changes your life."

The former minister of culture of the Czech Republic is quoted in one advertisement calling it "truly a touch of heaven."

But (surprise, surprise), the ads may be overselling it a bit.

ALSO: The most San Francisco ways to celebrate the holidays

Some people who go to the show complain they didn't know what they were in for. Because nowhere in the effusive advertisements is it mentioned that Shen Yun has a political bent. Shen Yun translates to "divine rhythm," and according to the show's website, the artists who put on Shen Yun practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a belief system that encompasses meditation, tai chi-type exercises, and "strict morality" (smoking, alcohol, and extramarital or same-sex sexual relations go against the teachings).

A 2017 Guardian article by Nicholas Hune-Brown describes one part of the show:

The curtain rose on a group of young students sitting in peace, meditating and reading oversized yellow Falun Gong books. The dancers performed elaborately pantomimed good deeds – helping an old woman with a cane, chasing down a woman who had dropped her purse. But when one unveiled a Falun Gong banner, suddenly a trio of men wearing black tunics emblazoned with a red hammer-and-sickle entered. The communist thugs began beating people up, clubbing and kicking innocent Falun Gong followers.

Scenes like that didn't sit well with all viewers.

The Fresno Bee's arts writer Donald Munro saw Shen Yun in 2016, and called the show "a beautiful and odd production that veers wildly between two extremes: delicate artistic excellence on one hand and a brusque, heavy-handed effort to inculcate political and spiritual viewpoints on the other."

Many people posting reviews on Yelp weren't as eloquent.

"Be warned: Religious sermon!" reads a Yelp review from someone who saw the show in Fresno. "I WALKED OUT as soon as anti-evolution statements were made on the screen. False advertising!"

"I rate this a Zero star. This show is purely CULT PROPAGANDA. Do not waste your money and time for this," said Ron F. from Pittsburg, Calif.

The Chinese government is not a fan either. The practice of Falun Gong is forbidden in China and its members are routinely persecuted. In condemning the "so-called 'Shen Yun'" performance, the embassy's website calls Falun Gong a "...cult that seriously harms the society and violates human rights, and is a cancer in the body of the modern and civilized society."

The Guardian reports "there's no evidence of the kind of coercive control that the label suggests." Besides, it's not like the Chinese government has a stellar human rights record. According to Shen Yun's website, many of the dance company's members were persecuted and tortured for practicing Falun Gong in China.

Falun Gong started as a form of exercise in 1992. Followers would gather in public spaces to do qigong, which combines slow movements and meditation. Falun Gong combined those physical practices with spirituality and Taoist moral principles. In the late 90s, as Falun Gong gained steam and millions of followers, the Chinese Communist Party may have felt threatened by its size and popularity, so it cracked down. Thousands of practitioners were imprisoned or in some cases tortured. The founder, Li Hongzhi, now lives in New York.

Multiple attempts to speak with a Shen Yun spokesperson, by phone and by email, for this story were unsuccessful.

For many disgruntled Shen Yun attendees, it's not necessarily that the show itself is bad — though to be fair, some complain it is. Most of the negative reviews were people upset they were blindsided by the political content.

According to Shen Yun's website, it's an "experience like no other." And on that note, it appears pretty much everyone agrees.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.