PHOENIX, Ariz.—Chief Financial Officer Brian Hesch was wowed by his experience of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Phoenix Orpheum on Feb. 16.
Exiting the theater at the end of the evening, Mr. Hesch said the show “was really, really good.”
“I really liked it. It was a lot of different variety of [programs.] I wasn’t expecting so much variety in the stories and incredible choreography,” he added. “The music was just top-notch. Hard to beat. It was beautiful.”
Since its advent in 2006, the performing arts company has grown to become a global sensation, with eight equally sized companies set to perform in over 200 cities worldwide.
Prior to the communist takeover in 1949 and the regime’s spread of atheism, Chinese people had a deep belief in the divine. In fact, the whole foundation of China’s civilization was built on values and virtues from the spiritual teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
In the decades since the Chinese Communist Party came into power, these beliefs were completely destroyed.
“It’s very sad. When I was in China—that was a little scary. You feel a little bit of ‘Don’t step out of line or you might regret it,’” he expressed. “You definitely don’t see this. [Shen Yun] was definitely very inspirational. It was very good.”
For this reason, Shen Yun is currently forbidden by the ruling communist regime from performing in China.
When I was “in China, I asked about religion and culture there. The response was, ‘Our culture is money.’ They didn’t say that there was a religion. So, to learn that [spirituality] is actually a part of traditional culture dating back was kind of surprising actually,” Mr. Hesch stated.
Finally, he would like to tell all of Shen Yun’s performers that they are doing “amazing, amazing work.”
“It was incredible. I encourage you to continue doing what you’re doing because you’re definitely spreading joy throughout the country here in America.”
