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The fortress-like hall hosts a VIP reception welcoming the peaceful presence of Shen Yun Performing Arts. The screen in the center shows a video clip of Shen Yun's performances. (Myriam Moran)
TARRYTOWN, N.Y.—It is an oxymoron to call machine gun-toting, mine-laying soldiers peacekeeping forces. So, too, in battle amidst the clatter of tanks and missiles’ staccato, enemies pray to the same God for victory and glory, and each declare themselves instruments of peace.
This irony is not lost when Castle on the Hudson, its gray stone ramparts and towers reminiscent of a medieval fortress, its defenses of yeomen with crossbows now replaced with video surveillance cameras, loomed out of the Tarrytown, N.Y., landscape and into view. This site served to welcome a dance of peace—but this time a real call to peace.
The event held in this fortress celebrated Shen Yun’s arrival in New York—first with performances in August at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Purchase and then at Lincoln Center in 2011. Through the archways and into a great room, the high ceilings decorated with painted wood panels, Julie Chen painted a traditional scene from another land. Her calligraphy welcomed the dance company. Musicians played classical Chinese music on traditional instruments.
It was a scene of peace in a hall recreated of Norman Tudor from a time when feudal lords ruled their fiefdoms with absolute power and kept knights at the ready to defend against invaders.
“Shen Yun is classical dance with ethnic dance and opera songs,” said Karen Feng, one of the organizers of the welcoming event. “Shen means divine, Yun means beauty and spirit in Chinese. The arts and culture are both divine and beloved by the heavens. Traditional Chinese values of benevolence, loyalty, wisdom, and beauty are combined. It is what Chinese classical dance is all about.”
A video clip of Shen Yun dance was projected on a screen at the end of the castle’s great hall, revealing magical whirls with flowing costumes and graceful movements. For a few moments, it was as if the performers were actually in the hall as they will perform on the stages at SUNY and Lincoln Center.
When the short video was over, Ms. Feng took the microphone again to say, “This is what Chinese classical dance is all about. China was once called the Land of the Divine—painting, music, and dance. A revival of these lost traditions has begun.”
From about 1000 A.D. to 1300 A.D., at the time when Europe was still in the Dark Ages, Chinese dynasties were at the height of their creative prowess. Fine porcelains and art were beacons that radiated into every field of culture. Teaching traditional art and dance became a royal priority. By the time of the Renaissance in about 1300 A.D., China flourished, and during the age of discovery, Occidentals marveled at the wealth of beauty and culture they found, the learning and culture that had existed for centuries before these early voyagers arrived.
What then would cause modern demons to denigrate art and dance? Certainly images of Nazi book burning in public squares was anathema to prewar Germany’s prowess as a country far advanced in science and culture. Yet dictators ordered books burned and art works destroyed. Why? The world knows why. Art and culture that did not suit cruelty and war challenged the dictator’s warped mind and diabolical purpose. When ideas were scorned, religion and belief made obscene, then personal liberty could be debased without conscience.
Julie Chen's calligraphy welcomed the attendees of the Shen Yun event. (Myriam Moran)
At previous Shen Yun performances, theater owners have been assailed with anonymous threats and letters describing the performers as radicals. If classical dance and beauty in motion can be radical, then the word can only mean ‘above the norm, not threatening.’
Yet the mind of the dictator, now as in Nazi Germany, cannot abide personal triumph of the human spirit. Things like art and culture put ideas of freedom into the psyche of citizens who must be kept subjugated, drones to work machines that power the military might that keeps them in slavery.
In addressing this article, organizers of the welcome for Shen Yun were concerned that Chinese Communists attached to government agencies in the U.S. and their minions of sympathizers would continue efforts to discredit the dance company.
These attacks are fundamentally flawed. They are unsophisticated. Americans are used to being able to judge for themselves, to think for themselves. Cold War tactics and dis-information campaigns have never worked over any long spell. Despite the brutality of smear tactics during political campaigns, Americans are good at sorting fact from fiction.
Can you kill an idea? Only with force and only for so long.
It was said of the former Soviet Union that once they let the genie out of the bottle, once people tasted freedom, there was no stopping it. This will be true of China. It begins with revival of culture and learning. China, with its men of might and armies of steel, entered the Dark Ages. The Cultural Revolution with little red books meant only that some could torture others. Overall, it granted no freedom, only the exercise of power.
“Revival of those lost traditions has begun. Shen Yun [has] performed at Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center in D.C. It takes years of training to make those delicate movements. It brings to life the ongoing story of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China today. All the costumes are custom made,” Ms. Feng said. Scenery backdrops require six months to create.
A reception attendee was awed by the costumes, all handmade in New York. She was invited to take the microphone at which time she described the orchestra, which combines classical Chinese and Western influences.
“Shen Yun draws upon 20 Chinese dynasties. There have been changes over the years. It is that profound and rich history we want to present,” Ms. Feng said.
Can dance change the world? If not, it is surely a symbol of hope.
Shen Yun Performing Arts will perform in Purchase again on Sunday, Sept. 12 at 7:00 p.m.
John Christopher Fine is the author of 24 books. His prize-winning photographs appear as covers for magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe. He is a columnist for a major newspaper chain and writes feature stories for newspapers around the world.
