PERTH, Australia—As the final curtain went down on the 2014 Australian leg of Shen Yun Performing Arts’ world tour, the full-house audience at the Regal Theatre in Perth certainly showed their appreciation with much applause.
Shen Yun is New York-based and has four touring companies this year, performing in over 100 cities across four continents.
Among the audience was Mr. Tim Foster who runs his own business, he has a Chinese wife, Anne, and he said he has been to China many times. Both he and his wife, attended the May 4 Sunday matinee and spoke highly of the performance.
“The show’s fantastic,” said Mr. Foster. “It’s just exquisite with the costumes, the timing, the performance, and the stories and the choreography. The way it’s done is fantastic, thank you.”
“You can see the whole dynasties through time; the way they’ve presented it - a lot of beautiful work has gone into the development of that, I can see. And especially, the backdrop makes it very real.”
“And of course not to mention the orchestra who you cannot see, but they are beautiful with the timing.”
‘The Shen Yun Orchestra blends two of the world’s greatest musical traditions, Chinese and Western. Ancient instruments like the two-stringed erhu, the plucked pipa, and a range of Chinese percussion instruments lead the melody on top of a full Western orchestra—strings, woodwinds, and brass—creating a refreshing, new sound,” says the Shen Yun website.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5000 years of Chinese culture, by telling stories and legends with traditional cultural values, which have been almost lost. Values such as compassion and loyalty, kindness and bravery lie at the heart of traditional Chinese culture.
And as Mr. Foster said, “The culture is in the people themselves, and despite the hardships in the civilization and the dynasties and everything, the nature of the oriental people seems to always shine through. It’s in people and that’s passed on through the families.”
Mrs. Foster also expressed her enjoyment of the show. “Wonderful, I’ve never seen that before,” she said. She also explained she was pleased to hear other Western audience members saying they have seen lots of shows but Shen Yun was the best they have ever seen.
She felt that it was important for the present generation to know and appreciate Chinese ancient civilization and history. Most of her own family were killed in the 50’s by the Communist regime and her father, the only one to escape, migrated to Vietnam.
China was once known as the Divine Land, its glorious culture said to have been brought down from the heavens. But under the last 60 years of atheist communist rule, this divinely inspired culture has been almost completely destroyed.
Mrs. Foster referred to the performance The Steadfast Lotus, as played out on stage, with the hope for the future.
“I think they [the young people] study and also they understand the writing held up by the girl in the park. It’s really meaningful for the young people to understand. The world won’t be fighting like this always. It will be much more peaceful. “
“The soprano singer, she was very powerful. I’ve never heard a soprano sing that deeply and that loudly.”
Reporting by Mary Yuan and Philippa Rayment
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.
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.
