NR | 1h 22m | Documentary, History, Performing Arts | 2026
Most dance companies and orchestras have enough to deal with simply juggling their rehearsals, press events, and tours. New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts must further contend with bomb threats, lawfare, and media coverage that appears to be weaponized against it by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
But the show must go on, as director Fiona Young documents in “Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun.”
Shen Yun productions encompass China’s traditional dance, music, culture, and history, accompanied by a full orchestra that incorporates both Western and Chinese classical instrumentation. These are productions the CCP is determined to shut down.
Over the past two years of performances, Shen Yun has been targeted by bomb scares and death threats, at least one of which Taiwanese authorities traced back to mainland China. Concurrently, the company faced a flurry of lawsuits and a barrage of strange allegations by The New York Times that apparently relied heavily on sources that had demonstrable links to a CCP-backed dance company.
A Personal Vibe
Altogether, it was quite a perfect storm. Understandably, it alarmed Levi Browde, whose two sons, Jesse and Lucas, are part of the dance company.
In fact, Young introduces Shen Yun to viewers through the Browde brothers’ eyes, capturing their training, which bears no resemblance to the horror stories disseminated by the NY Times. Clearly, Young had up-close access to the Browde family and other Shen Yun artists, which gives the film a surprisingly personal vibe.
The bomb scares (including at the venerable Trump Kennedy Center in Washington) took the extraterritorial intimidation that has targeted the company to a much graver level. People can get hurt by the resulting panic produced by such promises of violence. Most neutral observers should agree it is in the public interest to investigate such threats.
There’s the separate issue of the suspiciously timed smear campaign, but NTD’s Steve Lance has tracked the likely accusers back to China. He identifies likely suspects, including a U.S.-based Chinese national who openly brags on social media about his role in the pieces attacking the company.
Young and company undeniably document a lot of suspicious activity and uncover links to known agents of the CCP, all of which constitutes some pretty alarming stuff. Unfortunately, the film can only connect the dots so far, because Young and the producers were unable to secure the participation of many who could shed considerable light on these events. Consequently, the film lacks a big cathartic moment, but that is reality, as it currently stands.
“Unbroken” certainly addresses many topical issues, such as transnational human rights abuses, lawfare, and journalistic ethics. Yet it still remains a performing arts documentary. Throughout the film, the audience gets a nice flavor of the artistry and pageantry of Shen Yun’s productions. Viewers will appreciate the superhuman flexibility of Shen Yun dancers, including the Browde brothers.
Indeed, Young’s depiction of the talent of the dancers and musicians, as well as their poise under considerable stress, could very well earn them new admirers. Regardless, the brazen attempts to censor and silence Shen Yun should trouble all viewers of good conscience.
The kind of extraterritorial harassment (and even violence) chronicled in “Unbroken” represents a growing danger to U.S. national security.
It is not hard to understand why Shen Yun is such a prime target for CCP hostility. In addition to reviving formerly suppressed Chinese art and culture, many of the company’s members are Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. In 1999, the CCP began a brutal campaign to eradicate it. Sadly, many Shen Yun performers have family members who have been imprisoned or ominously disappeared in China for refusing to give up their faith.
Young briefly recaps the CCP’s coordinated suppression of practitioners, but viewers can get a fuller history and context from worthy documentaries such as Raymond Zhang’s “State Organs,” which investigates the regime’s state-sanctioned organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners and others, and Leon Lee’s “Letter from Masanjia,” which profiles a Falun Gong practitioner who survived a forced labor camp. For a rigorously in-depth investigation of the CCP’s Falun Gong organ trafficking, read Epoch Times senior editor Jan Jekielek’s recently published “Killed to Order.”
There is a lot of passion on display in “Unbroken” and a lot of guts. Performing with a dance company should not require this degree of courage. Frankly, the degree and volume of the harassment Shen Yun endures within our own country should deeply worry all Americans. As a result, Young’s documentary sounds an urgent wake-up call.
Recommended for the dance artistry and as an exposé of extraterritorial persecution, “Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun” is available to view for free at UnbrokenShenYunMovie.com.
NTD is a sister outlet of The Epoch Times.
‘Unbroken: The Untold Story of Shen Yun’
Documentary
Director: Fiona Young
Running Time: 1 hour, 22 minutes
Not Rated
Release Date: March 24, 2026
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
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