TAOYUAN, Taiwan—Deprived of their own culture and in quest of their true heritage, more and more Chinese people travel to Taiwan from China every year to be inspired, be moved, and be fulfilled by the authentic Chinese culture represented in a Shen Yun performance.
“I don’t know how to describe my mood now,” grinned Mr. Yang, after seeing Shen Yun’s performance with his family in Taoyuan City, Taiwan on April 16. “I just feel satisfied.”
“I tried to buy Shen Yun’s tickets online three months ago,” he explained. “At first, I couldn’t purchase any. I was really upset then.”
Most of Shen Yun’s tickets in Taiwan were sold out before the shows started, but Mr. Yang was determined to see the show and managed to obtain some tickets finally.
“It was fabulous. It’s an art that really had one’s heart and spirit vibrating with it,” said Mr. Yang, an erhu player. He often performs and plans programs in China. Erhu is a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.
He praised Shen Yun’s dance dramas for they “perfectly combined the art and dancers. It is so flawless that I have no words to describe it.”
Appreciation
Shen Yun’s performance awakens Chinese people’s innermost longing for their lost culture and helps them to recognize the false culture implanted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Mr. Yang explained why he was so touched and grateful for Shen Yun’s performance.
The dance story Monks and the Red Guards reached deep into his heart. He said that although he was still young during the Cultural Revolution, he knew what the piece represented was “exactly how the Red Guards damaged and destroyed cultural relics.”
The Cultural Revolution, launched in 1966 by the CCP, destroyed traditional Chinese culture, as well as traditional moral principles and ideals rooted in the Chinese people’s hearts.
“Traditional Chinese had its roots in China, but now it has none left in China,” Mr. Yang sighed.
He talked about his personal experience as a performer in China. The CCP “does not allow us to make any [meaningful] performances,” he said. “It bans us from producing traditional performances and fears that we will make modern ones.”
“All performances must only serve political purposes” to propagandize the CCP. “I feel upset and helpless. If you produce any meaningful performance, you get into trouble,” he said.
“That’s why I deeply appreciate Shen Yun for inheriting and reviving the traditional Chinese culture,” he said, “And why I traveled so far from China to see the performance.”
Shen Yun’s performance deepened Mr. Yang’s longing for traditional Chinese culture. He thought that even though the Chinese people are severed from the traditional culture in China, certainly all must long for their own culture. “I hope that one day Shen Yun can perform in China,” he said. “I'll recommend that friends see the performance.”
Sharp Contrast
Another Chinese audience member, Mr. Fang, was struck by the beauty of Shen Yun’s performance.
“I felt it was the real beauty of our Chinese people from the first dance piece,” he said. “It’s the natural beauty from the innermost.”
Used to the performances whose only purpose is to advertise and promote the CCP, Mr. Fang was stunned by the purity and sincerity of Shen Yun’s performance.
He said the performances in China “are produced by the Communist Party culture. Their only purpose is to eulogize the CCP. They bore and numb people’s senses.” He believed that the CCP’s producing artificial performances is actually a conspiracy to destroy traditional Chinese culture.
In the program Monks and the Red Guards, Mr. Fang thought the contrast between the monks and the red guards depicted by Shen Yun showed people the sharp contrast between “the good and evil, beauty and ugliness.”
He was particularly touched by the last dance story in which the communist party policeman snatched away a book, which guides people to cultivate and is dearly cherished by cultivators. The book, however, is sent back by a goddess who descends from heaven.
“The book in people’s heart will never be snatched,” he said, noting that the book had symbolic meaning for him.
It symbolizes “justice, freedom, kindness, and beauty,” he said. “The truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance in people’s hearts will never be snatched. It might be suppressed, but it has been rooted in people’s hearts.”
“If China turns to a true democracy in the future, the first priority for us is to revive traditional culture—to promote Shen Yun with all our strength,” Mr. Fang said.
Questing for Truth
Traveling to Taiwan for the sole purpose of seeing Shen Yun, Mr. Zhang was touched and inspired by it.
Shen Yun’s touring around the world has two significant meanings for Mr. Zhang. “One is to awaken people, and the other is to inspire them,” he said.
“Shen Yun’s performance inspires people to be good, and empowers people to be true to their souls and to embrace morality and their own conscience bravely.”
“It also arouses people’s desire to quest for the truth,” Mr. Zhang said. “A lot of factual events are blockaded in China. People need much courage and strength to search for it, and Shen Yun inspires and encourages them to hunt for it.”
He said Shen Yun showed us China, “an ancient country with 5,000 years of civilization, which was ended in 1949,” the year that the CCP usurped the reign of China.
“Only a little bit is left, which is also being eradicated,” Mr. Zhang said with a sigh.
“It’s an enormous calamity for the Chinese people,” Mr. Zhang said. “Since the CCP seized the power, it has purposely made human beings more materialistic, corrupted people’s souls, and trampled morality and faiths.”
“Why does the CCP so desperately ruin the culture? It fears being eliminated by the orthodox Chinese culture,” Mr. Zhang explained. “It has kept doing things like suppressing mankind’s culture and conscience for 60 years” since its establishment.
He believed that “once the traditional Chinese culture is revived, our good cultural and moral principles will come back.”
And it is exactly what Shen Yun is doing now: “Cleanse the foul and rectify the evil with the beautiful traditional culture,” said Mr. Zhang.
Believing the upright and the brave will ultimately defeat the evil, Mr. Zhang was particularly impressed by the dance piece “The Lady of the Moon.” When the wicked red dragon and its minions showed up, all people fled but the hero stood out to fight against it and finally shot the flying fled dragon down with a bow.
Zhang said he was encouraged, inspired, and filled with confidence by the scene. “The red dragon represented evil.”
He explained why he felt uplifted. “If you dare to fight against it, it will be defeated, even though it looks unbeatable at first.”
Finally, he praised that Shen Yun is doing the most upright and the most beautiful deed. “We should help promote it,” he said. “I hope it can go to China soon and cover the land with its glory.”
Reporting by Huang Caiwen, Long Fang, and Sunny Chao
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.
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.
