“[Shen Yun] is a really good example of how you’re bringing culture into today’s environment. So it’s just spectacular,” said Jamison, who owns Jamison Advertising Group in San Diego. “It’s wonderful. ... Wonderful. I’m enjoying every bit of the costumes, the color, the music. The staging is just spectacular.”
The culture behind Shen Yun—traditional Chinese culture—holds a rich tradition of deeply spiritual beliefs and practices such as Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. To carry forward this lineage of authentic Chinese culture and display the civilization’s beliefs that have been passed down for millennia, Shen Yun depicts legends about heavenly beings and celestial realms on stage.
Jamison shared about how he welcomed and appreciated these themes in the performance.
“I love the spiritual element of everything [in Shen Yun]. I’m a Christian, and so that whole spiritual element is important to me, but to understand another culture and another path to God is a wonderful way to convey it—the combination of morality and ethics and the divine to the real-life situations of today, it’s a great combination.”
Jamison found this to be a parallel to his own way of thinking. “I think, especially what struck me the most is that we worship a Creator. A Creator that’s loving and full of life, and imbues us with something that’s beyond ourselves—the divine, the divine,” he said.
“Overall, I think the staging is just amazing. And I think it gives a depth to the entire performance, which adds so much more to it because the dancers are so much right in front of you and so alive, and so vibrant. But the depth that that brings, it makes you feel like you’re in China.
“Clearly, [Shen Yun dancers] they’re very much alive, and they very much love what they do, and it comes across in their faces, and their whole body positioning, everything. But they’re so fluid, they’re so natural. It’s just, well, you just can’t help but admire them.”
Jamison encouraged others to go see Shen Yun for themselves.
“I would say [to my friends and family] how enveloping of an experience it is, how complete it is, and that you just lose yourself in the performance, and that’s the best, to go to the theater and lose yourself in the performance. You feel transformed when you do that.”
