Officials and Businessmen from China Travel to Taichung to See Shen Yun

Long before the performance was due to start on Saturday evening, March 31, a large crowd gathered at the theater trying to get tickets.
Officials and Businessmen from China Travel to Taichung to See Shen Yun
4/1/2012
Updated:
8/14/2015

TAICHUNG, Taiwan—Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company’s sixth performance in Taichung was another sold out show. There were many people from mainland China waiting to get into the theater at the Jhungshan Auditorium. It is understood that many Chinese officials, businessmen and artists from China and Hong Kong traveled to Taichung to see the New York-based Shen Yun.

Shen Yun aims to revive the millenia-old traditional Chinese culture that has all but been destroyed under six decades of communist rule, according to the company.

Long before the performance was due to start on Saturday evening, March 31, a large crowd gathered at the theater trying to get tickets. Many spoke with accents familiar to mainland China.

“The tickets are sold out?” they were heard asking, as they tried to get the event organizer to help them get into the theater.

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has become the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. It intends to bring about a renaissance of the authentic Chinese culture, long suppressed in the mainland.

Its reputation now proceeds to China, Hong Kong and Macao by word of mouth. More and more people from China and Hong Kong join tour groups to Taiwan just to watch a Shen Yun performance.

All around the theater, one could hear Mandarin with Chinese accent, Cantonese, and dialects from other provinces being spoken. A business owner of a communications company disclosed that the central and local governments in China continue to send out high ranking officials to Taiwan to watch Shen Yun for the purpose of “learning.”

A master musician commented that many people in China tried to imitate the Shen Yun Orchestra and perform with both Eastern and Western musical instruments. “None of them make it; they are all just trying to copy Shen Yun,” said the musician.

A businessman from China who came to Taiwan specially to watch Shen Yun said that he met a group of high ranking provincial officials. They came into the theater very low key and stayed for the entire performance.

After the performance, a Chinese official was visibly moved after watching the show. He said privately that they were warned by their superiors before they traveled that they would be punished after their return if they accepted media interviews and that they would never be given a visa to travel. As a result, many Chinese officials refused to be interviewed.

Another Chinese person exclaimed after seeing the show, “The essence of traditional Chinese culture can only be seen in Shen Yun!”

Reporting by Lin Hsin-Yi

Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company will perform in seven cities in Taiwan until April 8 and then continue to top venues in Australia and New Zealand.

For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

 

Read the original Chinese article