SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Australian Lawmaker ‘Emotional’ After Seeing Shen Yun Portray China’s Current Reality

May 13, 2022

ADELAIDE, Australia—Theatregoers said they were moved upon seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts’ portrayal of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong in China. In the audience was Erin Thompson, an elected official who described the story depicted as “very emotional.”

Thompson was recently elected as the Member of Parliament for the seat of Davenport in South Australia. She is formerly the mayor of the City of Onkaparinga, located on the southern fringe of Adelaide.

“It’s been an absolutely incredible experience so far, I’m here with my work colleague and our two daughters, and they’re absolutely loving it,” Ms. Thompson said during the intermission at the Adelaide Festival Centre on May 13. “It’s quite overwhelming and emotional, and it’s just an absolutely beautiful performance.”

New York-based Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, seeks to present “China before Communism” in its 2022 global tour. The company presents classical Chinese dance, ethnic and folk dances, as well as story-based dances that reflect authentic ancient and modern-day China.

In the 2022 repertoire, Shen Yun presents two story-based dances that depict the CCP’s persecution of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

“It is very emotional,” Ms. Thompson said of a dance piece titled “Insanity During the End of Days.”

Based on true events in China, the dance piece tells of how the CCP has killed Falun Gong practitioners for their organs to supply China’s transplant industry. The performance also conveys the courage of people of faith amid the brutal persecution. Organ harvesting crimes under the communist regime have been documented since 2006.

“There are Chinese performers here who are also probably putting themselves on the line a little bit to be performing in this space,” Ms. Thompson reflected, adding, “it’s sad and emotional that they aren’t able to embrace this part of their culture at home in China.”

She said that Shen Yun’s performance is “a beautiful way to really start to understand the depths of the culture” and also “the challenges that Chinese people have been through.”

“It’s very new to me,” she continued. “I think there’s plenty of Australians and other people all around the world that aren’t aware of this part of the Chinese culture, so it’s really important that we know what’s going on.”

Ms. Thompson said she would be encouraging everyone she knows to come see Shen Yun, and also encourage them to “do their research and learn about this part of Chinese culture that most of us don’t know a lot about, it’s really important that we make the effort to learn more about this.”

‘Just Perfection’: Music Conductor

Jamie Webster with her daughter Zora after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Adelaide Festival Centre in Adelaide, Australia, on May 13, 2022. (NTD)

Jamie Webster, a music conductor and ethnomusicologist, came back to watch Shen Yun for the second time with her daughter Zora.

“Just perfection! Just so well brought together in unified execution of all the movements,” she said on May 13. “But also, combinations of all the arts, technology, and colour, costume and artistry, dance and music [were] beautifully brought together.”

Ms. Webster, who is classically-trained and conducts choral ensembles in Portland, Oregon, and South Australia, was wonderfully surprised by the soprano singer.

“What a crystalline voice she has, that was just lovely,” she said. “I don’t know everything about Chinese classical singing. So I don’t know where the line is between Western classical and Chinese classical, but that was just breathtaking.”

Shen Yun’s singers use a traditional, classical singing technique known as bel canto, which is believed to produce the most beautiful and pure tone of voice. According to the company, the true bel canto technique for singing in the upper register has been lost but is being brought back to the modern stage by Shen Yun artists.

Ms. Webster believes all great art has to say something and provoke the audience to think and be aware of the world.

“Every piece had such courage, artistic courage and visionary courage, and also a courageous message about it as well,” she said.

‘A Really Good Mission’

Rupinderdeep Kaur (R) with her family seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Adelaide Festival Centre in Adelaide, Australia, on May 13, 2022. (Rebecca Zhu/The Epoch Times)

Rupinderdeep Kaur, the President of India Australia Strategic Alliance and lecturer at the University of South Australia, said it was “amazing” to see all the different types of cultures from China’s different regions.

“We could relate because ... We belong to a place where and we have got different languages, different costumes. Where you cross the border [and] the language changes, the costume changes,” she said. “We could see that in China as well.”

Ms. Kaur became aware of how spiritually rich traditional Chinese culture is through Shen Yun and said the company’s mission—to revive genuine traditional culture from China’s 5,000 year old civilisation—is “a really good mission.”

Reporting by NTD, Rebecca Zhu, and Gabrielle Stephenson.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.