WELLINGTON, New Zealand—Paora Te Pue was overcome with elation and emotion when he watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the St James Theatre on Feb. 16.
“It was just outstanding, it was just incredible. Words cannot describe a performance that I’ve seen tonight. I will recommend for the world to come and see this. It’s worth it, the storytelling was amazing—and I would love to come back again to see it!”
At the very core of New York-based Shen Yun’s performances is traditional Chinese culture, where principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom are portrayed. Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture.
“I feel blessed, I feel that there is more to life than just negativity —with a show that I’ve experienced [it] has shown [a] lot of love ... [a] lot of suffering, and there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Mr. Te Pue felt a strong message of freedom of speech and compassion came through in the performance. “I think the message is about freedom of speech, being who you are, being a human being, but the way the world sees people like Shen Yun, it’s quite heart wrenching how people can be so horrible and evil.”
Mr. Te Pue was referring the piece “Trial by Fire.” This story is about people who practice a spiritual discipline called Falun Dafa, whose practitioners follow the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Thus the virtues of traditional Chinese culture are kept alive in this practice, but Falun Dafa is persecuted in communist China. The police carry out orders to arrest and break the will of anyone who does this practice.
“God created us in different ways, but not in the way human beings treat each other. It’s kind of disturbing in a lot of ways, said Mr. Te Pue.
The spiritual aspect of the performance resonated with Mr. Te Pue, having lost family members recently. He took great comfort in how heaven was portrayed in the performance.
He said, “I wonder if that’s what home’s like, I wonder if that’s what God is like, that it is full of gold, full of light, that our loved ones have gone to heaven and that they are safe, and they are free of today’s world of negativity and heartache.”
The performance uplifted Mr. Te Pue immensely. “It was amazing, it was so inspiring, it was heart-felt, it was real, really real, and I can’t believe that a beautiful production come[s] together in a place like Wellington to show their diversity to New Zealand and to the world. What an amazing, amazing production.”
Mr. Te Pue concluded by expressing thanks to Shen Yun. “You guys are so beautiful. I don’t know how where you get the time and energy to make a production as perfect as it was and I wish you all the best and make the world love you as much as I love you.”
Ata Rixon, Mr. Te Pue’s sister who also attended the performance, agreed with everything he said. “It was just beautiful. If I didn’t have work tomorrow morning, I would come back tomorrow night.”
Ms. Rixon wanted to say to the performers: “Job well done, job well done, very well done.”
With reporting from NTD Television
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.
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.
