KANSAS CITY, Mo.—“It touched my heart,” said Mayor Tom Brown after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (Muriel Kauffman Theater) on March 29.
Tom Brown is mayor of McPherson, Kansas, a city about three hours from Kansas City, Mo.
Shen Yun’s mission is to revitalize traditional Chinese culture through the performing arts, including Chinese classical dance, orchestral music, beautiful pageantry, and artistic scenery.
Shen Yun’s program consists of 20 or so mini-dramas that depict scenes from China’s history, mythology, folklore, and literature.
“It’s very good. I had spent five years in China teaching at the University of Finance and Economics, so it is good to see classical Chinese culture dance and singing. I liked it very much,” Mayor Brown explained.
He explained a bit more that “there is a tranquility in the music. So much today is too active, and the classical Chinese entertainment is soothing.”
The performance was very moving for the mayor. “I remember all of the students and teachers while teaching, and also traveling to all the provinces, so it makes me want to go back,” he said.
Although Shen Yun has four touring companies that tour the globe simultaneously in 20 countries and over 100 cities, it has yet to perform in Mainland China. Since the communist regime seized control in 1949, many of China’s traditions and customs have been suppressed, the website explains.
Mayor Brown hopes that in the future the case will be to “bring this show back to China.”
“Yes, yes,” he said he would definitely recommend this show to his city. “When this show was in St. Petersburg, Florida, I have family there, and I recommended it, and they went... We have seen it as a family in two parts of the United States,” he said.
Reporting by Sunny Chen and Andrew Darin
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
