WASHINGTON—Mr. Benjamin, a frequent traveler to China and a consultant to Chinese businesses in China, said Shen Yun Performing Arts was a moving experience.
“I loved it. I thought it was beautiful. The colors were beautiful; the stories were beautiful,” said Mr. Benjamin. Shen Yun, he said, is sophisticated yet straightforward.
Mr. Benjamin added that he could imagine his 80-year-old mother and his eight-year-old daughter both enjoying Shen Yun. He saw the performance Friday, Jan. 24, at the Kennedy Center Opera House.
What Mr. Benjamin found most moving about Shen Yun were the contemporary stories of China. He said the struggle between traditional culture and the current regime brought to life on stage “was very encouraging.”
“It’s not something that I’m used to seeing in dealing with my clients in China. It was a very deep religious culture and tradition in China,” he said. “In the United States we cherish religious freedom. To see that displayed from a Chinese perspective was very encouraging.”
According to Shen Yun’s website, the group is working to breathe life into the 5,000 years of divine culture once cherished in China. To do so, Shen Yun uses dance to bring stories from Chinese history and literature to life. Contemporary stories depicting the heroism and persecution under China’s current communist regime are also performed.
“Because I’ve been to China many times, people ask me what China is like,“ Mr. Benjamin said. ”This gives me something that I can point them to and say, ‘You should go see Shen Yun.’ And they would understand about the culture of China that you don’t get in the press.
“[Shen Yun] rises organically out of the culture of China.”
Mr. Benjamin added that he hopes Shen Yun can “show to Western culture the beauty of the Chinese culture.”
Reporting by NTD and Nicholas Zifcak
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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.
