When the curtain rises and Sun Hongwei steps onto the stage with Shen Yun Performing Arts, audiences see a confident principal dancer breathing life into 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture. What they don’t see is the extraordinary journey that brought him there, a story marked by danger, separation, and ultimately, renewal.
Born in the era of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) one-child policy, Sun was the second child in his family, which meant that he was not even supposed to exist under Chinese law.
His mother, Zhu Yuanzhu, recalled the terror of that time. “If discovered, the authorities would have forced an abortion. Families like ours faced demolished homes, crushing fines, even persecution of relatives.”
Sun and Zhu shared their journey on “The Stories of Life,” a podcast hosted by Yu Xin for the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD.
Persecuted for Their Faith
Refusing an abortion, the pregnant Zhu made a bold choice. With the help of her father-in-law in Taiwan, she traveled there from China saying she was visiting relatives. There, safely away from the CCP’s control, she gave birth to Sun.“That was the first time he escaped a life-and-death crisis,” she said. “After his birth, his household registration was placed under my father’s name, granting him Taiwanese nationality.”
Sun’s parents later returned to China with him. However, when he was just 6 years old, his mother was imprisoned for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice involving meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
After its release to the public in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong spread rapidly in China with state media even lauding the benefits it was having on society. However, in July 1999, the CCP turned on the practice, launching a brutal persecution campaign aimed at eliminating the practice and its adherents within six months. Millions were subjected to arbitrary arrest, torture, forced labor, attempted brainwashing, and even forced organ harvesting. The persecution is ongoing.
A Falun Gong practitioner is forcefully taken away by Chinese police towards a police van in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, on May 11, 2000. Stephen Shaver/AFP via Getty Images
Zhu was incarcerated for seven years. Outside, her young son bore the stigma of being “the boy without a mother.” He said neighbors whispered behind his back, classmates mocked him, and he became quiet and withdrawn.
“I just started to close myself off and didn’t dare to speak,” Sun recalls. “My personality became very introverted.”
Upon her release, Zhu faced a cruel dilemma. CCP officials told her that unless she renounced her faith, her son would not be allowed to attend school in China. She refused to sign their “guarantee” to stop practicing Falun Gong. Therefore, the family was left with only one option: to send Sun, then 13, to Taiwan alone.
The night before his departure, Sun was gripped by fear. “I kept asking my parents if I could still come back,” he recalls.
Zhu could only hold back tears and say yes. Her child was forced out of school and denied an education like many others who faced persecution for their faith.
Sun Hongwei and his mother Zhu Yuanzhu in China, before Sun was sent to Taiwan. Courtesy of Zhu Yuanzhu
Welcomed by Strangers
Sun’s grandfather in Taiwan passed away when he was young. With no relatives waiting for him there, his mother told him simply to find Falun Gong practitioners in a local park. Trusting in the kindness of practitioners, she believed they would help.Miraculously, that was exactly what happened. On the streets of Taiwan, Sun spotted a display board about Falun Gong. Mustering courage, he approached the practitioners and poured out his story. He was welcomed by strangers who offered him shelter, schooling, and the warmth of a family he had lost.
“I approached and asked them,” he said. “I told them my experience. They were surprised after listening. I gave them my mom’s phone number. They called my mom to confirm whether this was true.”
Those Falun Gong practitioners took in Sun and welcomed him into their homes. He lived with them for two years.
“They treated me like their own son,” he says. “They were very selfless.”
Sun Hongwei competes during the 2023 NTD International Classical Chinese Dance Competition in Purchase, N.Y., on Sept. 10, 2023. Larry Dye/The Epoch Times
Finding New Purpose
This new beginning would become a turning point. In 2010, Sun saw a Shen Yun performance for the first time. Moved by its mission to revive traditional Chinese culture and expose the persecution of Falun Gong, he felt a calling.“I also wanted to join,” he said. “I wanted to expose the persecution by the CCP, as I personally experienced that persecution. I felt doing this would be much more meaningful.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts, founded by Falun Gong practitioners in 2006, is a New York-based dance company aimed at reviving the traditional Chinese culture that was destroyed by the CCP.
Shen Yun Performing Arts principal dancer Sun Hongwei is welcomed back after a tour at JFK airport in New York City in May 2025. Courtesy of Benny Zhang
That same year, he enrolled at Shen Yun’s Fei Tian College in Taiwan, and soon after transferred to its main campus in the United States. There, immersed in a community of fellow practitioners, he found his confidence blossoming. Fei Tian College is a private, nonprofit college based in New York that offers specialized undergraduate and graduate programs in the Arts and Sciences. Its dance department programs are steeped in the traditions of both the East and West, and it trains dancers and performers for Shen Yun.
“[In China,] I was always wary of other people,” Sun said. “Here, under the influence of other students, my low self-esteem began to slowly melt away. I have become cheerful.”
Sun’s talent and dedication propelled him to become a principal dancer with Shen Yun. On stage, he now carries the weight of his past with grace and purpose, transforming pain into beauty.
“I feel I’ve found my purpose in life, which is to be part of Shen Yun, to restore traditional Chinese culture, and expose the persecution that is happening in China,” he said.
Looking Forward
Sun and his mother reunited in the United States. After years of persecution, separation, and uncertainty, they can finally live together in peace. Zhu marvels at the man her son has become.“He was once so introverted, but now he is cheerful, filial, and strong,” she said. “People are envious of the person he has become.”
For Sun, the hardships of his childhood are not just memories of suffering but stepping stones toward a deeper mission.
“I hope Shen Yun can perform in mainland China soon,” he says. “I also hope that the CCP can soon stop the persecution of Falun Gong in China, so that many Falun Gong practitioners over there will have the right to freedom of belief. My family has been persecuted, and there are tens of thousands of families like mine. I hope they can reunite as a family.”
As Sun dances on stage, the audience sees more than graceful movements. They see the triumph of spirit over oppression, a life once denied now flourishing on stage, a story of survival transformed into art.
Sun Hongwei and his mother Zhu Yuanzhu in Middletown, N.Y., in June 2024. NTD
