SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Painter: Shen Yun Awakens People to Revere Divinity

Mar 22, 2014
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Painter: Shen Yun Awakens People to Revere Divinity
Painter Fan Hongzhi and his wife watched Shen Yun at the Taoyuan County Performing Arts Center for the first time on March 23, 2014. (Zheng Xinci/Epoch Times)

TAOYUAN, Taiwan—Painter Fan Hongzhi, almost 70, said he heard of Shen Yun first from a foreigner, and then from someone else again when he held an exhibition in Hsinchu city. He was full of praise for Shen Yun after watching the show for the first time with his wife at the Taoyuan County Performing Arts Center on the afternoon of March 23. He found one important feature of Shen Yun that was missing in other shows, “that is, human reverence for divinity.”

Mr. Fan said, “It is human reverence for divinity. I think it’s very good. Particularly the program about the persecution of a mother and her daughter [that] awakens our reverence for divinity. That is what modern people need.”

“Shen Yun is educational, for the reason I just mentioned, a reverence for divinity,” he added. He thought the reverence for divinity was originally included in our traditional culture, but has been gradually forgotten in our pursuit of material comforts.”

Deeply impressed with the spiritual elements of Shen Yun, Mr. Fan said, “I feel very touched. Stories, like the one on Ze Zha, are familiar for us, traditional stories. I think such a presentation is very good. Besides, it is created in New York. It’s no easy task.”

Shen Yun Is Like a Sophisticated Painting

On the evening of March 23, the president of Rong Guang Arts and Culture Society, Zhang Zi Qiang was deeply impressed by Shen Yun’s performance. He said, “It is a visual feast. You will regret not watching it!”

He also added, “Shen Yun demonstrates the aesthetics of body movements. I am an ink wash painter.”

“An ink wash painting explores the realms of imagination and thought. The landscape in ink means different things to different people. Shen Yun, like an ink wash painting, creates many spheres of imagination. It is sophisticated and thought-provoking. It is different from ordinary dance.”

Zhang Zi Qiang expressed with a laugh, “I have heard of the reputation of Shen Yun a very long time ago. Everyone was full of praise for it. I feel that you must have a certain degree of culture and sophistication to appreciate a performance like Shen Yun. Therefore, I wanted to watch it myself to develop my sophistication.”

As an ink wash painter, Zhang Zi Qiang observed Shen Yun’s digital backdrop very closely during the performance and said, “The background picture and the performance provided different layers of visual satisfaction. The picture provided stillness and calm, and the performance embodied movement. I noticed that the backdrops were very beautiful.

“And I also noticed something special. Most people might be fixated on the performance on stage, but I noticed that the moon in the background would gradually dim and the stars would gradually appear.”

His feelings from the overall performance, Zhang Zi Qiang said, “The staging and sound are all very well done. It creates a deeply impacting visual experience.”

Shen Yun Commendable and Remarkable

On March 23 was Taoyuan County Councilor Lin Lilin watched Shen Yun for the first time. She felt pleasant and peaceful and described Shen Yun as “remarkable” and “worth watching.”

She considers Shen Yun a commendable group with diverse elements of arts, saying Shen Yun performers “feature good body language, lively and vivid facial expressions, synchronized movements.”

On the recommendation of her friends, Ms. Lin attended the Shen Yun show for the first time. She said it was really remarkable. “From the live orchestral performance to the manifestation of 5,000 years of culture through dance, it’s remarkable.”

After watching the performance, Ms Lin felt uplifted and sincerely recommended it to those who had not watched it. “(Shen Yun is) a show worth watching, allowing us to calm down and to appreciate their performance in a relaxed mood.”

Reporting by Zheng Xinci and Amy Lien, Su Xiqiao and Richard, and Chen Yurou

Read the original Chinese articles: [1] [2] [3]

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.

The 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