MISSISSAUGA, Canada—Indian musician Sri Priya Sundararajan believes that “culture is roots and it’s also beauty.” 

“It’s important to preserve it. Otherwise the whole world will begin to look the same.”

It’s an understanding she shares with Shen Yun Performing Arts, the world’s premiere classical Chinese dance company. On Sunday, Ms. Sundararajan took in Shen Yun’s final 2014 performance in Mississauga and praised it for sharing true traditional Chinese culture.

“I’m very happy that Shen Yun was able to share this wonderful, beautiful, ancient culture with us today,” she said.

Shen Yun was founded on a mission to revive 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture, a heritage largely destroyed in China after 60 years of communist rule. 

Ms. Sundararajan, who is also a senior Si process engineer at One Chip Photonics, laments the loss of traditional culture.

“I think in the modern age people are really running after money and promotions and salaries, but at the same time you need something to balance you. And I think culture is what balances you.”

She said Shen Yun could provide that balance.

“It has a very powerful message that might is not right and it’s very important to preserve the culture of the people because that’s the beauty of the world, it’s in the diversity,” she said. 

As a musician, Ms. Sundararajan is sensitive to how music affects the emotions of the listener. In Indian music, there are certain tonalities or colours of music known as ragas that evoke certain moods and she found herself listening to Shen Yun’s orchestra for these ragas. 

She said the orchestra played ragas “that make one feel happy and are uplifting to the spirit.” 

Shen Yun’s orchestra harmoniously blends a western philharmonic orchestra with traditional Chinese instruments in its all-original compositions. 

In Shen Yun’s words: “The ensemble at once expresses both the grandeur of a Western orchestra and the distinct sensibilities of China’s 5,000-year-old civilization.”

Reporting by NTD Television and Pam McLennan

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun’s World Company will perform in Toronto from Jan. 23-26. 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.