OTTAWA—Matriarch Mildred Peckford gifted her clan with tickets to Shen Yun Performing Arts and gave her daughters and their husbands, who have all spent time in China, what they described as a much-appreciated evening of Chinese culture, free of communist overtones.
“I thought it was great. The colours and the backdrops, everything was just beautiful,” said Mildred Peckford, standing with her two adult daughters on her right and their husbands on her left.
Daughter Sheila Peckford, co-owner of project management company JDI and Associates with her husband, said she was thrilled to finally have the chance to see Shen Yun.
“I’ve been waiting years to come and see it. Finally got to see it and it’s absolutely fabulous,” said the younger Mrs. Peckford.
“They were just beautiful, it really depicts the culture and the rest of it. Shows some of the really idyllic parts of China. We’ve all been to China. You know, it’s not as idyllic as that,” she said.
Sheila said she enjoyed the traditional Chinese values and culture represented in Shen Yun.
“I think this show really, really, really brings out the spirituality of the people. The spirit, the culture.”
New York-based Shen Yun takes reviving China’s 5,000 year cultural heritage as its guiding mission. With its program steeped in traditional Chinese values like benevolence, honour, propriety, and reverence for the divine, Shen Yun aims to restore a culture nearly destroyed by 60 years of communist rule, particularly during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution.
It was an element of the show the two couples both noticed from their travels to China, and appreciated.
“It was kind of really nice to see the ...,” as Mrs. Peckford paused for the words, her sister Judy Dean filled in, “the non-registered, non-documented, non-regimented.”
Mrs Dean, a retired college instructor, said she thoroughly enjoyed the show.
“I thought it was wonderful. Music’s great. The colours, the dancing... I'd go again to see it.”
Sheila Peckford’s husband, Ash Babber, said he was particularly impressed by what was not in the show.
“I think one of the things is that it didn’t have the Chinese government imprint.”
He said it would have been lopsided had it been a Chinese government production.
“You cannot imagine, the government, when they had the Cultural Revolution as they call it, that they could actually think the whole country could live without any kind of spirituality.
“I don’t know how that thinking came along, that they thought that they could have almost divorced themselves from spirituality when it’s such an integral part of just about every society, and being human, is to have that spiritual connection with your creator, whoever he/she is,” said Mr. Babber.
Mr. Babber was in Beijing in 1989 as the students began to gather in Tiananmen Square but left before the tragedy of the massacre.
Mrs. Dean’s husband, Gary Dean, a retired power engineer, echoed those comments.
“That was one thing I noticed, there was no Chinese communist flag as we know it today. That was the thing I noticed. ... And this group is made up of Chinese culture outside of China. So like it said, you won’t see a show like this in China,” said Mr. Dean.
Gary said he appreciated how colourful the show was, especially compared with communist China, particularly before the economy was opened up.
“We grew up with communist China with dull, same regimented style,” said Mr. Dean, contrasting that style with the colours on stage that night.
Shen Yun has three companies touring the world. The Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will perform at the National Arts Centre on Dec. 19–23. For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
