2026年1月25日 / 美国东部时间上午10:27 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
在纽约州的密林深处，一座戒备森严的大门后，矗立着一个古老中国重生的愿景——一个名为”龙泉”的私人避难所，占地400英亩，在这里信仰与艺术同台演出。这里是”神韵”的创作中心，这是一场融合了中国历史、传说和政治的史诗舞台表演。
“我们正在舞台上展现中共的暴政，”神韵副总裁兼指挥陈英说。
中国共产党（CCP）称神韵背后的组织为邪教。该组织被称为”法轮功”，是一个植根于佛教的精神运动。1992年，创始人李洪志开始传授法轮功的冥想练习，这些练习在中国迅速传播。
北京对此做出了回应。1999年，中国取缔了这个宗教团体，称其为”危害公共安全的头号敌人”，因为它挑战了共产党的统治。
陈英说，练习者被监禁和折磨，包括她自己的家人。”我妈妈和哥哥被送进了劳改营，”她说，”他遭受了18个月的痛苦，能活下来简直是个奇迹。他每天都在受折磨。”
创始人李洪志定居美国后，于2006年推出了”神韵”。这要求他的追随者付出巨大代价，包括在法轮功家庭长大的孙杰夫和郑 Ashley。”李洪志明确表示，神韵是练习者支持运动的最高形式，”郑 Ashley说。
他们的父母在2000年代末把他们送到了龙泉的一所寄宿学校，在那里年轻的表演者为神韵进行训练。我们采访了现在住在新西兰的这对已婚夫妇孙杰夫和郑 Ashley。
神韵舞蹈团排练现场。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
“我成长的整个社区都为我感到骄傲，”郑 Ashley说，”他们认为能和李洪志住在那个大院里是莫大的荣誉。”
孙杰夫说参加神韵就像是”考上了哈佛大学”。
他15岁，她13岁，离家近9000英里。据郑 Ashley说，”一切都很孤立，我们的主要工作就是跳舞。”
关于与龙泉外界的联系，郑 Ashley说，如果他们的父母问任何问题，”我们必须说我们很开心，师父（李洪志）很照顾我们。”
孙杰夫和郑 Ashley声称，他们实际上是一群生活在持续恐惧中的童工。
“我处于生存模式，”郑 Ashley说，”每天的体重不超过100磅。跟着前面的人的脚步走，这样就不会被斥责。”
神韵表演中的一个场景。神韵
孙杰夫说：”我们没有人可以交谈。那里的成年人既是教育者，也是迫害者。你想向他们表达自己的感受，但第二天就会被告知你和其他人想法不同，是你有问题。”
这种精神上的压力。他们说身体也会承受痛苦。”两个孩子把我的腿向两边掰成劈叉，那是我经历过的最剧烈的疼痛，”孙杰夫说，”我内出血了。我的整个腿部内部，两条腿都是紫色的。但每天我仍然要做同样的事情。”
郑 Ashley说：”有一次我的肩膀被不正常地拉伸了很长时间，然后我完全失去了知觉。所以，从洗澡到上厕所，我都有问题。”
她说，当她告诉教练自己受伤时，”他们只是翻白眼。在我整个期间，我没有见过也没有得到过任何药片。”
郑 Ashley和孙杰夫，神韵前成员。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
2015年，他们被神韵开除。去年春天，他们提起诉讼，成为针对该表演团体的两起联邦诉讼之一，指控其存在强迫劳动。
描述在神韵的时光，孙杰夫说：”每次想到我经历的事情，都让我心碎，你知道吗？没有人应该经历这些。我是说，我们都是孩子，你知道吗？我们想取悦父母，我们想做我们认为正确的事情。”
《周日早间新闻》就这些指控询问了神韵，他们邀请我们进入龙泉， spokeswoman陈英带我们参观。
我们观察到年轻男女完全安静地坐着。”有点像祈祷，”陈英说，”我们安定心灵，排除杂念，保持专注。”
龙泉的年轻法轮功成员。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
当被问及为什么男女坐在房间的两侧时，陈英说：”我们学校有非常保守的价值观。所以我们通常会把他们分开。”
当被问及为什么神韵现在邀请媒体进入龙泉——他们之前从未这样做过——陈英说：”我认为部分原因是他们谈论一个大院。看起来像大院吗？我认为我们确实很努力。这是一个提供顶级舞蹈训练的地方，也是一个信仰社区。”
当被要求回应原告称他们被剥夺了必要的医疗护理时，陈英回答说：”我无法评论他们经历了什么。但我觉得这与我们这里的做法和政策截然不同，非常令人震惊。”
关于中国政府发起诉讼的说法，陈英说：”这些诉讼出现在北京加强其全球反神韵运动的时候。很难认为这仅仅是巧合。”
就在这个月，中国大使馆称神韵是”邪教的宣传工具”，利用”文化作为掩护”进行”洗脑”。
神韵舞者蔡欣迪。神韵
神韵公司成员董 Regina、蔡欣迪和黄 Piotr也是十几岁时被送到龙泉的。
董 Regina说：”中国共产党从第一天起就试图破坏我们。我们收到过死亡威胁、炸弹威胁。他们现在使用的策略与迫害法轮功时非常相似。”
黄 Piotr说他的父母没有强迫他来龙泉：”一点也没有。现在，如果他们试图把我带走，我不会去。”
他说他可以得到医疗照顾。”几年前我的跟腱疼痛时，我的公司经理给了我我们医生的联系方式。我做了核磁共振检查。”黄 Piotr说，医生给了他后续治疗的指导。
然而，蔡欣迪说她从未生病，并且相信她的信仰保护了她：”我真的这么认为，因为有时我觉得很奇怪。我想，通常我应该会得流感之类的，但从来没有。我觉得这和能量有很大关系。”
对于孙杰夫和郑 Ashley来说，他们回到了新西兰，不再练习法轮功。
当被问及神韵称他们为”不满的表演者”时，郑 Ashley回答说：”是的，我们不满。发生在我们身上的事不是我们的错。我们还是孩子。我们一直活在羞耻中。我不想一辈子都带着这种羞耻感。”
纽约劳工部现在正在调查神韵的工作条件和童工做法，而该节目的第20个演出季正在进行巡演。
每年都是一场新的演出，但最后一幕总是一样的：一座濒临毁灭的中国城市，直到一位类似法轮功创始人李洪志的神秘人物从天而降拯救世界。
但就目前而言，神韵的故事似乎既不那么简单，也不那么神圣。
Behind the scenes of Shen Yun
January 25, 2026 / 10:27 AM EST / CBS News
Deep in the woods of New York State, behind guarded gates, lies a vision of ancient China reborn – a private sanctuary called Dragon Springs, 400 acres where faith and art share the same stage. It is the creative center of Shen Yun, the epic stage production of Chinese history, legends, and politics.
“We are putting on stage the tyranny of the CCP,” said Ying Chen, a vice president and conductor with Shen Yun.
The Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, calls the group behind Shen Yun an evil cult. Known as Falun Gong, it’s a spiritual movement rooted in Buddhism. In 1992, founder Li Hongzhi started teaching Falun Gong’s meditation exercises, which spread quickly throughout China.
And Beijing responded. In 1999, China banned the religious group, referring to it as “public enemy number one” for challenging communist rule.
Ying Chen says practitioners were imprisoned and tortured, including her own family. “My mom and my brother was sent to a labor camp,” she said, “and he endured 18 months of agony, and his survival was a fragile miracle. He was literally tortured every single day.”
Founder Li Hongzhi settled in the U.S., and in 2006 launched Shen Yun. It would ask much of his followers, including Jeff Sun and Ashley Cheng, who both grew up in Falun Gong families. “Li Hongzhi made it quite clear that Shen Yun was the highest form of how practitioners can support the movement,” said Cheng.
Their parents had sent them in the late 2000s to a boarding school at Dragon Springs where young performers train for Shen Yun. We spoke with Sun and Cheng, now married, from their home in New Zealand.
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A rehearsal of the dance troupe Shen Yun. CBS News
“The entire community I grew up in was very proud of me,” Cheng said. “They thought it was a great honor to live with Li Hongzhi in that compound.
Sun said attending Shen Yun was “as if, like, I made it to Harvard.”
He was 15, she was 13 … nearly 9,000 miles from home. According to Cheng, “Everything was very isolated, and our main job is to dance.”
Regarding contact with the world outside Dragon Springs, Cheng said that, if their parents asked any questions, “we had to tell that we were happy, that Master (which is Li Hongzhi) was taking great care of us.”
The reality, Sun and Cheng claim, was they were part of a group of child laborers living in constant fear.
“I was in survival mode,” said Cheng. “It’s about not exceeding 100 pounds every day. It’s about following the footsteps of the person in front of me so I don’t get yelled out of line.”
Dragon Springs, located on 400 acres in Orange County, New York, is home to Shen Yun. CBS News
Sun said, “There’s no one we can talk to. The adults there who are your educators, [are] also your persecutors. You want to speak how you feel to them but the next day you get told that you’re thinking different to everybody else, that you are the problem.”
That was the weight of the mind. The body, they say, would bear its own. “Two kids kind of pushed my legs open in the side split, and it was the most amount of pain I’d ever experienced, ever,” Sun said. “I had internal bleeding. My entire inside of my leg, both legs, was purple. But every day I still had to do the same thing.”
Cheng said, “My shoulder was stretched for [an] abnormal amount of time once, and I lost all feeling in it. So, I had issues, from showering to going to the bathroom.”
She said, when telling her instructors about her injuries, “I was faced with an eye roll. I have not had or seen a single pill of medicine during my entire duration.”
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A scene from a production of Shen Yun. Shen Yun
Sun and Cheng are part of a growing group of former dancers contending that medical care was discouraged, a belief they say is rooted in Falun Gong teachings. “Any injury that you have, if you mention that you want to go the hospital, or if you wanted help, it will be denied,” Cheng said. “And it will be quickly, very quickly associated to, ‘You got injured because you disobeyed Li Hongzhi … It is your fault.’”
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Ashley Cheng and Jeff Sun, former members of Shen Yun. CBS News
In 2015 they were kicked out of Shen Yun. Last spring they sued, one of two federal lawsuits against the performance group alleging forced labor.
Describing his time with Shen Yun, Sun said, “Every time I think about what happened to me, it kinda breaks me apart, you know? And nobody deserves this. I mean, we’re all kids, you know? We wanted to impress our parents. We wanted to do what we thought was right.”
“Sunday Morning” asked Shen Yun about these allegations – and they invited us into Dragon Springs, where spokeswoman Ying Chen showed us around.
We observed young men and women in total quiet. “It’s a little bit like praying,” said Chen. “We settle down our minds and try to purge distracting thoughts, and just stay really focused.”
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Young Falun Gong members at Dragon Springs. CBS News
As to why men and women were sitting on opposite sides of the room, Chen said, “We have very conservative values in the school. So, we usually keep them separate.”
Asked why Shen Yun invited the media into Dragon Springs – which they have not done until now – Chen said, “I think part of it is because they talk about a compound. Does it look like a compound? I think it’s true that we work hard. This is a place that provides top-level dance training, and also it’s a faith-based community.”
Asked to respond to plaintiffs’ accusation that they were denied medical attention they may have needed, Chen replied, “I cannot speak to what they went through. But I just find it very shocking and very different from the practice here and our policies here.”
Regarding the suggestion that the Chinese government is behind the lawsuits, Chen said, “These lawsuits emerge at a time when Beijing escalated its global campaign against Shen Yun. It’s really hard to see it as a mere coincidence.”
And just this month, the Chinese Embassy called Shen Yun “a cult’s propaganda,” using “culture as cover” to “deliver indoctrination.”
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Shen Yun dancer Shindy Cai. Shen Yun
Shen Yun company members Regina Dong, Shindy Cai, and Piotr Huang were also sent as teenagers to Dragon Springs.
Dong said, “The CCP has been trying to sabotage us since Day One. We’ve got death threats, bomb threats. And this tactic that they’re using now is very similar to what they were using to persecute Falun Gong.”
Huang said his parents did not pressure him to come to Dragon Springs: “Not at all. Now, if they came and tried to drag me away, I wouldn’t go.”
He says he has access to medical attention. “When I was having pain in my Achilles a few years back, my company manager, she gave me the contact to our doctor. I had an MRI done.” Huang said he got instructions from the doctor on what to do going forward.
Cai, however, said she never gets sick, and believes her faith has protected her: “I actually do think so, because I almost find it strange sometimes. I’m like, you know, usually I’m supposed to come down with, like, a flu, but never. And I think a lot of it has to do with the energy.”
For Jeff Sun and Ashley Cheng, they returned to New Zealand, and no longer practice Falun Gong.
Asked to respond to Shen Yun describing them as “disgruntled performers,” Cheng replied, “Yes, we are disgruntled. What happened to us was not our fault. We were children. And we’ve been living with the shame. And I don’t want to live with it for the rest of my life.”
New York’s Department of Labor is now looking into Shen Yun’s working conditions and child labor practices, just as the show’s 20th season goes on tour.
Each year is a new show, but the final scene is always the same: a Chinese city on the edge of destruction until the deus ex machina – a mystical being resembling Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi – descends from the heavens to save the world.
But for now, the story of Shen Yun seems neither so simple, nor perhaps so sacred.
