Triumphant 2025 Shen Yun Season Concludes
In its 18th world tour, company performed in new regions, sold out major cities, and overcame adversity to emerge stronger than ever.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2025
Shen Yun Performing Arts completed its 18th global tour earlier this month, a historic run of 799 shows in 199 cities in 26 countries in front of over a million people.
In the process, Shen Yun’s eight touring groups and hundreds of performers overcame tornadoes and fires as well as sabotage attempts from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its allies. And yet, not a single performance was missed.
“With the recent media attacks and bomb threats from the CCP, we didn’t know what to expect going into this year’s tour,” says Principal Dancer Piotr Huang. “However, seeing not only the sold-out shows in so many places, but the appreciation and support that the audience members had for Shen Yun—it truly gave us the motivation to push forward. No matter what obstacles are thrown at us, we will overcome them.”
One of the company’s annual highlights is performing at New York City’s Lincoln Center. This tour, Shen Yun sold out its 18 performances there and received effusive audience reviews, including from accomplished artists in the world of Broadway and ballet.
New Ground
The 2025 season saw extended runs in the United Kingdom (with a record 12 cities), and over a month of performances in Japan (10 cities), France (10), Germany and Italy (8 each). The Europe tour also included first-time performances in Latvia and returns to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Spain.
In the United States, in addition to New York, Shen Yun also had long runs in California (18 cities), Texas (12), and Florida (8), as well as shows in Puerto Rico and a total of 36 states plus a 12-show run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
In Latin America, Shen Yun returned to Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. In Asia-Pacific, the company toured Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and, though it was not easy, South Korea.
Triumphing Over Adversity
For years, the CCP has viewed South Korea as a major battleground in its international attempts to silence Shen Yun. The CCP has repeatedly exerted pressure on government-run theaters there to cancel Shen Yun shows. This year, though, a district court in South Korea ruled that there was no legal ground for canceling Shen Yun’s performances in Chuncheon, and that the shows should go on as scheduled. Shen Yun performed eight shows in three cities on the peninsula and is looking forward to more next year.
The CCP’s attempts to cancel performances is just one part of the story, though. Over 40 theaters where Shen Yun performed this season received emails threatening violence should Shen Yun be allowed to perform. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, setup for the performances was delayed for three hours as the entire complex was evacuated and searched. Similar incidents took place in Claremont, California, and Dijon, France. No threat was ever found in any of the theaters.
What was discovered in Taiwan, however, is that the threatening emails originated from the Huawei Xi’an Institute in China, confirming the obvious suspicion that these systematic threats were CCP-linked.
This year, the CCP’s transnational repression attempts further made their way into both social media, where YouTubers spoke of being offered money in exchange for publishing videos attacking Shen Yun, and mainstream media.
But even in New York City, where many of these articles were published, the shows were sold out with some audience members saying the hit pieces attacking Shen Yun made them curious to find out for themselves.
Mother Nature
When performers weren’t overcoming CCP sabotage attempts, there was also some very strange weather to deal with—like snow in Florida.
On the day Shen Yun was getting ready to perform in Birmingham, Alabama, tornadoes caused devastation throughout the region and many events had to be canceled. But as performers set up in the safety of the mostly underground BJCC Concert Hall, the roughest patch of weather cleared and that evening the show took place as scheduled.
In Gold Coast, Australia, a tornado ravaged most of the waterfront and caused loss of power in the city, including the theater. With a bit of rescheduling and a whirlwind setup, the company was still able to perform all its shows there.
In Los Angeles, January’s wildfires shut down large segments of the metropolitan area. Shen Yun, which had eight cities scheduled in the area and was already performing there at the time, was somehow able to complete all shows without a single cancellation.
“I am very grateful to all of our audience members and the unwavering support from them,” says Principal Dancer Angela Lin. “Thank you for coming despite all the obstacles.”
“Looking back on this year’s tour, I think I will remember all the support and encouragement I got from all the people around me,” says Lin. “Whenever I found myself in a difficult situation or felt a little down, there were always someone who noticed immediately and helped me. Honestly, I’ve become a more optimistic person after this year’s tour because of all the positivity I got from the people around me.”
Just as one of Shen Yun’s ensembles was in the middle of a tight transition from Florida to France, a London Heathrow Airport fire wreaked havoc on international flights and put opening night in Montpellier in jeopardy. Astonishingly, the company was able to perform on time even though its cargo only arrived half an hour before the show.
“I was deeply impressed by how the entire group banded together to get things done,” said the group’s concertmaster Nika Zhang. “The strong sense of teamwork I felt in those moments was really remarkable, and it allowed us to succeed against overwhelming odds.”
Shen Yun also returned to two cities that had experienced loss and devastation from extreme weather the previous year, bringing a spirit of hope to audiences in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Insider Highlights
The 2025 season marked the Shen Yun debut of tenor Vincent Ji and sopranos Ming Zhu and Yue Sheng. They performed throughout the U.S. and Europe to thunderous applause night after night.
Prior to tour, dancers Kathy Wu, Judy Lo, Laura Li, and Ellen Hsiao were promoted to principals and starred this year in roles such as the kung fu lady boss, the heavenly fairy, and the moon goddess Chang’e.
In audience reviews, some of the dances mentioned again and again were the love story The Village Boy and the Fairy, the doddery teacher in A School Story, Water Sleeves, and Enlightenment, among others. The erhu soloists and veteran singers also consistently received rave reviews.
Some audience members told us they see the show every year. Others spoke of seeing it multiple times this year, enjoying it in new ways every time.
New Season Around the Corner
The artists are now unpacking and unwinding from tour, spending some well-earned downtime relaxing with family and friends. After vacation, it will be time to start preparing for next tour’s all-new production, a process that begins in the summer and ramps up in the fall months leading to the next departure in December.
At this point, the new program is still a complete mystery to everyone. While choreographers and composers surely have much of it ready, the performers are, like our future audience members, waiting in suspense.
“I am really excited to see what new pieces there will be next season and what new characters I will be portraying,” says Principal Dancer Roy Chen. “Every year it’s a process of discovery and growth.”
