He liked how Chinese culture was represented in the performance. “It’s wonderful! Beautiful representation of Chinese culture, Chinese heritage, and not the current Chinese government.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture.Mr. Zuehlke saw differences between traditional culture and the present regime: “a combination of strength, courage, caring, intellectual pursuits, and religion.”
He also saw the importance of holding on to traditional culture “I think there’s a great loss in current culture for understanding history and being able to get a chance to actually watch history and understand more about what happened before us teaches us an awful lot,” he said.He also appreciated the music throughout the performance. “I think it’s fantastic!” Mr. Zuehlke said. “I think it’s wonderful. It brings a lot of emotion out of you. You get a chance to experience highs and lows, and to get a chance to experience rhythm. I think it brings joy to people’s faces.”
“History is a fantastic teacher. I think the storylines are great; [they] share a lot about what’s going on before us and teach lessons. I think that’s a good thing,” he said.
Mr. Zuehlke said it is good that people know about what’s going on in China today. “Extremely important. Extremely important. But I don’t think it’s just China, it’s all over the world ... and they’re looking more at power and profit and less at enlightenment, I guess we'll call it.”
Shen Yun told stories of the divine in Chinese culture and its relevance today. Mr. Zuehlke agreed: “It’s extraordinarily relevant. Without hope, without a belief in God or a greater being, there is no life but today, and how do you get through bad times when you don’t have hope?”He said he hopes Shen Yun awakens people.
Mr. Zuehlke said Shen Yun covers many topics. “I think it’s a wonderful combination of a broad number of subjects.”“I hope it is! I mean I have hope. I believe, so hopefully people will understand there’s more than just us. Even in difficult times, in spite of difficult things that have happened to us on earth, we still hopefully will get our reward in heaven.”
He had positive things to say to Shen Yun’s performers. “I would love to find out from them just how difficult it is to train. I was an Olympic athlete, so I know how hard it is to train, but also what do they do in their spare time to bring them their hope that they’re trying to portray in us.”
