FORT MYERS, Fla.—“It’s fantastic, absolutely fantastic. The costumes and everything, their timing—excellent. It is so good,” Roger Lancaster, a retired CEO from England, said of the April 24 Shen Yun performance in Fort Myers.
Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster had caught the last of two performances by Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. The company is one of three touring companies of New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.
Mrs. Lancaster, also retired and from England, owned a beauty-therapy business there. “Absolutely amazing, absolutely,” she said of the performance.
Commenting on the dancing, she said, “Oh it’s fantastic. It’s just very amazing. We have a granddaughter who dances, and she would love to see this, absolutely love it.”
“It’s out of this world,” Mr. Lancaster said. “I think we were expecting quite a lot, and [Shen Yun] lived up to our expectations. It’s very good.”
Traditional Chinese Values
Mr. Lancaster found the Chinese history, which Shen Yun conveys through story-based dances, very interesting—“all the traditions and the history behind those traditions, excellent,” he said.
In addition to legends and stories from 5,000 years of history, the dances embody traditional Chinese values: loyalty, filial piety, and belief in the divine.
“Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life. … Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture,” the Shen Yun website states.
The traditional culture was all but destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party through campaigns like the Cultural Revolution, which destroyed “not only cultural sites, temples, and relics, but also the Chinese people’s belief in virtue and faith in the divine,” according to the website.
Mr. Lancaster appreciated the traditional values conveyed by the performance. “The problem is, as we go on in life, we are losing our traditional values,” he said. And the point is, [the Shen Yun artists] bring back the traditional values of family and all that sort of thing. My concern is, we are losing those in the modern-day life … and that’s a great shame.”
Mrs. Lancaster said she felt the same way. She added that their friends should certainly come see Shen Yun if they can.
“I think when we go back and tell them, they'll be sorry they didn’t come,” Mr. Lancaster said.
Reporting by Teresa Liu and Louise Rothman
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
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.
