STOCKHOLM, Sweden—An enthusiastic audience greeted Shen Yun Performing Arts at its first performance in the Swedish capital this year, with spontaneous calls and applause. This was also the first encounter with Shen Yun for conservative MP Cecilia Magnusson, member of the Committee on Cultural Affairs.
“This was an amazing performance,” said Ms. Magnusson afterward. She expressed fascination in the New York-based company’s mission to preserve and spread traditional Chinese culture.
“This is an enormously important cultural heritage being preserved and maintained. I was impressed by the movements, the costumes, and the coordination,” Ms. Magnusson said.
The Shen Yun website explains the origin of the company:
“In 2006, a group of leading classical Chinese artists came together in New York with one wish: to revive the true, divinely inspired culture of China and share it with the world.”
Ms. Magnusson believes that there is something profoundly human in Shen Yun’s stories about courage and honesty, something present in many cultures. She also appreciated the cultural values interwoven in the performance, including the need to have faith, to revere gods and higher beings, and that good is rewarded and evil is punished.
“Good and evil, and striving for good—this is very important, no matter if you are rich or poor,” she said. “Goodness is something lasting. It is definitely a very important message to convey.”
She said that these values shone through in both the action on stage—classical and ethnic and folk dance—and and the music.
“The thing that impressed me the most was the two-stringed instrument. It really went straight to my heart,” Ms. Magnusson said, referring to the erhu, an ancient Chinese violin.
The Shen Yun Orchestra is unique, as it features both classical Western and traditional Chinese instruments.
Ms. Magnusson went to the Shen Yun performance with her friend, Gerd Knutsdotter, former executive secretary in the state administration. Ms. Knutsdotter was particularly impressed with the vocal soloists, who performed Chinese language songs in Bel Canto style.
“They had lovely voices,” she said. “I really want to say that, because I have been doing a lot of singing myself.”
Reporting by Ming Ya and Hans Bengtsson
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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