TAINAN, Taiwan—Cai Mingzhu, a renowned mandolin and violin maker, said that he was ecstatic after seeing the performance by Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company at Tainan Municipal Cultural Center on Feb. 22. Mr. Cai saw Shen Yun for the first time last year and he said he has long looked forward to seeing it again.
The New York-based company revives 5,000 years of Chinese culture through story-based dance, and each year, it performs a whole new program. Mr. Cai said he hopes Shen Yun will always come so he has something to cherish each year, and something to surprise him.
“Every single program gave me an abundance of happiness. Today, where popular culture is the norm, we are lucky to have a group of young artists who are working hard to bring us real culture.”
Beaming with happiness, Mr. Cai joyfully said: “Having waited for a whole year, I finally got to see Shen Yun again tonight. All the programs today gave me exuberant warmth and vitality.”
The programs were “very vivacious,” he said. “Shen Yun artists have been working hard to bring us something new, something surprising. I very much look forward to the programs next year,” he said.
“The programs were very rich in content, which was made possible only by the hard work of many people. From screenplay, music, and dance, every part of it required a heavy workload. Though the entire performance only lasted two hours, I could sense how much preparation went into it. I could really appreciate the spirit in putting everything together,” Mr. Cai said. As an artist himself, Mr. Cai repeatedly said he was grateful for what Shen Yun had done.
Mr. Cai is an award-winning luthier who studied the making of both violins and mandolins in Italy. He is best known for doing oil painting on his mandolins, turning the musical instruments into exquisite pieces of art and earning international recognition. The Japanese royal family and Chi Mei Museum founder Shi Wenlong both have his painted mandolins in their collections.
Fresh Breeze in Shen Yun
“I will deeply appreciate, be thankful, and be grateful,” Guo Yuli, President of Orange Group, said of the Feb. 22 performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts in Tainan. Ms. Guo said “Shen Yun is a fresh breeze in our stale world. It should be promoted with great enthusiasm.”
Orange Group, founded over 40 years ago, is a department store that specializes in sporting goods, with customers all over the world. Ms. Guo praised in earnest that Shen Yun could strike a chord within the heart, purifying the soul and inspiring the mind. “Compassion, this is what has allowed Shen Yun to touch the deepest part of your soul. The pureness, which is a stark contrast to our current turbulent world, is something that everyone should go promoting. This is extremely important,” Ms. Guo explained.
“The music is truly inspiring. The songs by these soloists touched my heart,” Ms. Guo said, while elaborating on how she felt proud of the traditional Chinese culture.
Finally, Ms. Guo said the artistry of the performance put on by Shen Yun is simply second to none. Stunned by what she had seen, Ms. Guo said “I have been thinking. This is great, truly great.”
Reporting by Sun Guoying, Frank Fang and Fang Long
Read the Chinese articles at:[1] [2]
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
