“It was beautiful. I loved it. It was wonderful,” said Mr. Harrah. “There’s a lot of truth spoken to it, and truth mixed with beauty. There is a great message that really spoke to us in a lot of ways.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists, who made it their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance and music. According to the Shen Yun website, China was once known as the “Land of the Divine,” and its culture was deeply spiritual, yet this was all abolished by the atheist communist party that took power in 1949.
Mr. Harrah shared the message he got from watching Shen Yun’s performance.
“[The] divine hasn’t forgotten about us,” he said. “God hasn’t forgotten about us … I know that China has gone through a very difficult time. The whole world is going through a significantly difficult period of time, and there’s a limit to how far evil can go. It will come to an end in time. Heaven hasn’t forgotten about us.”
“There was a moment at the very beginning—especially when … the divine dancers were dancing—where I could see heaven being just this constant series of dance and music and beauty. Just forever. That really spoke to me that that’s the kind of hope [for] humanity. There’s something beautiful in us that’s waiting to come out. Once we can finally put aside all the evil ideologies that continue to want to drag our souls down, that’s the true humanity that wants to spring forth, that wants to be in eternity.”
“Our society has become so corrupt and bad,” said Mrs. Harrah. “To see beauty and artistry for the sake of beauty and artistry … is truly breathtaking. It was inspirational and very uplifting.”
“Everything has become base—our music, our art, our society, even the lack of manners,” she said. “Even the fact that they (Shen Yun) did ask for a dress code is incredible, because there’s a time and a place and you should dress appropriately for it. Those are things that we’re trying to teach our children, but they’re being lost.”
“Some things are worth working hard for and beauty is one of those things.”
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
