SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Company Vice President Sees Good Morality in Shen Yun

Jan 27, 2024
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Company Vice President Sees Good Morality in Shen Yun
Mary and Chris Treib attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Jan. 27, 2024. (Frank Liang/The Epoch Times)

PITTSBURGH—Chris Treib, vice president of a company, and Mary Treib, an elementary school teacher, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 27.

Mr. and Mrs. Treib had seen Shen Yun’s trailers prior to going to the theater. Mr. Treib said that while they had known what to expect, it was still “wonderful to be in the same room in the presence of the dancers and the music.”

“I like the energy, feeling the history, [and] getting to know the culture,” said Mr. Treib. He said what stood out to him was “the artistry, the detail of every move, and the integration of the screen.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and quickly became the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Its mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and show audiences around the world the beauty of China before communism.

Mr. and Mrs. Treib both agreed that Shen Yun’s mission was important.

Mr. Treib said that Shen Yun “dispels the common belief of the Chinese Communist Party being everywhere in China” and shows that “not all Chinese people are reflected by [communist] culture and ... they all have a deep spiritual heritage.”

“It’s good to see the beautiful culture ... [it] is not just about communism that many people think of right now,” Mrs. Treib added. “There is a beautiful culture that needs to be preserved.”

Mr. Treib shared his thoughts about the connection he saw between culture and identity.

“You can’t erase your history,” said Mr. Treib. “If you lose your history, you lose your identity.”

“I think it’s absolutely important to know who we are. The world that we live in is lost in its identity. It doesn’t know—really the purpose or why we’re here. I think without our history, we lose all that. We get lost in the confusion.”

According to the Shen Yun website, the foundations of traditional Chinese culture lie in the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Yet when the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, they abolished traditional Chinese beliefs and forcibly implemented their own atheist ideology. Mr. Treib said that he saw parallels between Christianity and East Asian spirituality.

“Both reject atheism, both reject evolution. Those are probably the two biggest lies that have destroyed our culture.”

Mr. Treib added that he loved that Shen Yun’s performance incorporated the spiritual elements of traditional Chinese culture.

“It’s a way for people to think about where they came from, what their purpose is, and why they do the things they do,” he said. “I think every culture looks for good morality, and we saw that in the stories here.”

Reporting by Frank Liang and Wandi Zhu.

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

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