SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Melbourne Audience Member Wants More People to See Shen Yun

Mar 07, 2026

3/7/2026Updated: 3/7/2026

MELBOURNE, Australia—The audience at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, Plenary Theatre, on March 7 was alive with excitement.

David Anthony, an employment mentor and business owner, said Shen Yun is “absolutely fantastic. [Shen Yun] left me speechless in some parts, as well.”

Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture before communism and share it with the world. China’s present communist regime has banned Shen Yun from performing in China.

Mr. Anthony had hope for Shen Yun to perform in China and said, “One year, one year. Who knows, who knows.”

As this year is the 20th anniversary of Shen Yun on the world’s stage, Mr. Anthony said, “[Shen Yun] could be bigger. It needs to be bigger—bigger stage, bigger audience. We need a bigger stage to put this on.”

He attended with his fiancé who knew very little about the persecution and suppression of people in China who believe and practice Falun Gong, a peaceful cultivation practice based on truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

“I’m just a guy in Melbourne who’s known about Falun Gong for 15, 20 years, but there are people here, like Gail, my fiancé, who’s never heard of it.”

The communist regime engages in live organ harvesting and killing Falun Gong practitioners, and this is depicted in the piece “The Steadfast Heart.”

“It’s very interesting. I’ve been explaining it to her. In some parts she was very shocked and very taken aback, especially [in the dance drama] when we went to modern-day China depicting the organ harvesting. I think it opens the eyes of many people who don’t understand what’s actually happening over there.”

Mr. Anthony was impressed with the truthful depiction of what’s actually happening in China. “Definitely, and the truth is powerful. Very powerful.” He said the truth is depicted very strongly in dance and music.

At every Shen Yun performance, a live orchestraaccompanies the action on stage. Both Eastern and Western instruments harmoniously play original music composed especially for Shen Yun.

“It’s fantastic,” Mr. Anthony said. “At one point, I was sitting there thinking, ‘Oh, hang on. That’s live music. That’s actually an orchestra, it’s not a backup tape.’ Unbelievable. You just get taken aback. You get so immersed into the dance that you forget there’s actually an orchestra here as well.”

Mr. Anthony liked the traditional values depicted in the dances and their relevance to the modern world.

He said Shen Yun would be valuable as a mentor to his clients when they had no hope. “[It would be helpful] being able to talk to my clients and tell them to center themselves. You may think you’re in the worst part of your life at the moment, so you just need to re-center yourself and look forward, and work forward rather than worry about going backwards.”

Mr. Anthony expressed his gratitude to everyone at Shen Yun, primarily the art director. “Thank you. Purely just thank you.

“It’s brought back that story that has been hidden for so long, out to people that don’t know about it.”

Reporting by Lucy Liu and Yvonne Marcotte.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.