TAIPEI, Taiwan—As Shen Yun Performing Arts concluded its performances in Taipei on Feb. 26, Mr. Lee (a pseudonym), an artist from China, excitedly praised the show, saying, “Shen Yun is the blessing of China, and the blessing of Chinese.”
“Shen Yun is great! Especially the dance, it is absolutely first class!” As an art professional in composing and conducting, Mr. Lee has stage-managed hundreds of shows. In excitement, he said, “Over the past few decades, I have seen many various arts and groups in China. No matter how famous they were, none of them can compare to Shen Yun!”
Mr. Lee explained, “I came to see Shen Yun with a purpose. I wanted to learn its ideas and thoughts of performance, its standards, stage arrangement, and the whole programming.”
“From the dance itself, Shen Yun’s choreography is very good and very professional. They surpass any professional group in China. The costumes, the convergence of the program, the choreography, stage design, orchestration, and the music arrangement are all very nice.”
He continued: “On the contrary, the so-called culture in mainland China is fragmented and dismembered, like a patchwork without logic. Take the CCTV New Year Eve Gala Show as an example. It has all the sound and light effect. It’s built on money, but not culture. There is no essence. It is a packaged superficial program. It presents a chaos in the culture.”
Mr. Lee expressed delightedly, “It will be a blessing to China and Chinese if Shen Yun tours to China. It will be a great destiny to the Gods and Buddha. I wish an opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas with the musicians of Shen Yun. I also wish for a chance to assist Shen Yun. It will be such a blessing if there’s such an opportunity.”
“The Communist Party culture in the mainland demands all to fit into the Party by not recognizing, by suppressing, by choking and by not allowing survival or providing market. You will get some space for development only if you are in line with the Party in ideas, thoughts, and needs. You serve for the political purpose. Anything of tradition and orthodox, such as what’s being performed by Shen Yun, will not be recognized,” he said. “It won’t allow. It only recognizes praises to the Party.”
Mr. Lee continued, “The 60 years of Communist Party rule has completely ruined the traditional divine culture in China. The atheism has destroyed beliefs and values of the Chinese. The environment for artists is very bad. Anything traditional that you intend to do will be eradicated before it even gets started.”
“I'd also love to join Shen Yun, and to participate in the promotion of Chinese culture,” said Miss Lee, Mr. Lee’s daughter. As a pipa principal and a composer, she has more than 20 years’ experience in music performances. She praised Shen Yun, saying: “How did they arrange everything, the music, the dance, and the backdrops, in such a timely and delicate way? How could a Westerner [conductor Milen Nachev] understand and master Chinese culture and music so well?”
She emphasized that she was moved by the program Sacred Destiny. She said: “The music was very good. The symphony was the main theme to illustrate the characters, the emotions, and the scenes. The folk instruments such as the flute, suona, pipa, and erhu would emerge like elegant decorations of the main theme. The tone was rich and dynamic with a sense of hierarchy. Every detail was in place with such accuracy in their moves, the backgrounds, and the music.”
Mr. Lee shared that he graduated from the Compose department. He conducted and composed many music pieces and has been a stage manager for over hundreds of shows. He also specializes in Chinese paintings, having studied military outfits in different dynasties since 1980s. He studied their structures and characteristics in relevance to the ethnic background and folk customs for his job needs related to the choreography. He is also a direct descendant of a famous school of Chinese painting.”
Lastly, Mr. Lee expressed his earnest appreciation to Shen Yun. “I thank them for their hard work and dedication to the programs. I appreciate them for bringing the essence of Chinese traditional culture to the world. I would like to pay my tribute to Shen Yun.”
Read original Chinese article.
Reporting by Chang-Le Feng and Jenny Li.
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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