“A violinist who used to perform with Shen Yun Performing Arts and has been featured as a critical voice against the company in several New York Times articles, has come forward to set the record straight,” says the lede to a story in the Epoch Times, the other propaganda arm of the Chinese dissident Falun Gong cult, printed on Tuesday more than a month after the New York Times quoted former Shen Yun violinist Eugene Liu, as saying he was never paid more than $300 a month while performing about 200 shows between 2015 and 2017, starting when he was 15 years old.

“It seems like it’s perfectly reasonable,” Liu told the New York Times in the November story. “But if you then consider the fact that these are all people with no ability to negotiate any kind of labor, wage situation, then I don’t know how this stands up.” It’s the only direct quote from Liu in the article, which does not mention his citizenship situation and where he’s currently living now, as in whether he’s an American citizen of Chinese ethnicity or hails from Taiwan or another nearby east Asian country with a significant Chinese minority such as Malaysia or the Philippines. Former dancer Chang Chun-Ko who was born in Taiwan and now lives in the New York City area after spending 11 years touring with Shen Yun, filed a federal lawsuit against the culty circus act last month and seeks to add other plaintiffs to a class action against them for operating as a “forced labor enterprise.”

Less uncertain is the origin of another musician quoted in the Times piece, percussionist Evan Glickman, now 32, who told the Times he quit Shen Yun in 2016 due to utterly lousy pay – $35,000 a year – and exhaustion from the touring schedule – like a 17 hour bus ride from Michigan to Texas during a nine-day stretch of shows. “The students did everything,” said Glickman. “That place would not run if they had to pay real musicians, like every other organization in the country does.”

If Glickman “set the record straight” with the Epoch Times, they didn’t print the quote. Liu on the other hand… Well it’s fucking weird and more than a little disconcerting, specifically where Epoch claims he tweeted stuff like “I am no longer performing with Fei Tian and Shen Yun,” Liu added in subsequent posts, “but can say my time there was nothing but positive. Because of the wholesome environment that is fostered, I have been able to avoid habits that have plagued many people my age, including internet and gaming addiction, as well as rampant substance abuse… I never felt deprived of anything material, and crucially, the mission of Shen Yun fed me spiritually.”

A verbatim Google search for strings in those quotes turns up exactly one account:

I know of an audience member who suffered from severe depression, who felt that the show gave him renewed vigor for life. This is among the countless positive experiences that have been recorded.

— Bart (@Bart1689686) November 28, 2024

You will not be shocked to learn that “Bart1689686” joined Twitter in November 2024 and that this thread are the only tweets on the account, all of them dated November 28th, 11 days after the New York Times story dropped. You will also not be shocked to learn that it follows only three other accounts: Shen Yun, the Epoch Times, and NTD, which is another far right propaganda outlet run by Falun Gong. One of Bart1689686’s nine followers is a Cynthia Zhang, whose bio says “As a data whisperer, I take pleasure in sifting through data to uncover compelling stories that empower you to confidently make informed decisions.” The account, who may or may not be a real person, posted the Epoch story and constantly retweets a shit ton of Elon Musk and Robert F Kennedy Jr garbage.

https://t.co/QispvFsA6k via @GanJingWorld Are you thinking about buying a gift? A ticket to a cultural show could offer a refreshing, inspiring experience and bring hope.

— Cynthia Zhang (@Cynthia_Z_MD) November 30, 2024

So yeah. Liu also supposedly spoke with Epoch “reporter” Petr Svab and told him “We had spiritual motivations,” for taking shitty pay and working his ass off with Shen Yun. “It wasn’t just like we were there to, for some people, to make money, for some people to see the world, for some people to get performing experience. None of that was the most important thing. The most important thing was our contribution to the spiritual goal… We’re doing something that we feel makes us better through our own spiritualities in cultivation. So it wasn’t a normal, standard company with standard goals.”

Falun Gong should set a better public relations goal than basically admitting they pay their people dogshit for grueling work hours but it’s okay because it’s all for a greater “spiritual” cause.