PHILADELPHIA—Shen Yun Performing Arts elicited applause and praise from an appreciative audience at the Miller Theater on May 10.
Matthew and Kely McWilliams were amazed at the beautiful performance.
Mr. McWilliams, senior counsel for a commercial property and patent attorney for a pharmaceutical company, found much to praise. “I just think it’s visually stunning. I love the music,” he said.
“There’s so much going on. It’s just visually beautiful to watch. I love the costumes. I love the dancers. I love everything about it,” he said.
Mrs. McWilliams, president of a real estate company, said: “It’s just visually stimulating. The costumes are beautiful, the setting is beautiful. It’s a lovely performance.”
She noted Shen Yun’s mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture, which was almost destroyed by the communist regime. The McWilliams’ agreed that it is vital to bring back China’s ancient culture and history.
“I think it’s very important,” Mr. McWilliams said. “I am a great supporter of traditional culture, whether it’s Chinese culture, European culture, any culture.
“I think it’s incredibly important because it’s what we call diversity. There are so many different traditions that people can learn from and enjoy. I think it’s terrible that anyone would try to extinguish their own culture, particularly Chinese culture, or European culture, or any culture,” he said.
Shen Yun features singers who perform original lyrics in Mandarin, which are projected in English on the backscreen. His poetic song told how culture was given by God.
This resonated with Mr. McWilliams as he listened. “I think it’s incredibly important,” he said. And I think he’s absolutely right.”
“I think it’s very important. We have a family member who was born in Hong Kong, and you realize how much the Communist Party tried to extinguish traditional [culture]. It’s a lot of what drove her family out of Hong Kong,” she said.
“Her mother brought her to this country as a very young girl. She’s actually my sister-in-law. They actually spent some time in China,” Mr. McWilliams said.
Mrs. McWilliams explained that the Communist Party is “green on the outside and red in the middle” and doesn’t care for the earth as they should.
“They oppressed the people. It’s actually a terrible thing,” Mr. McWilliams said. “Environmentally, they are really not stewards of the land. It’s a terrible thing. I love the Chinese people. I work with many immigrants from North China. They are wonderful people. It’s just a shame what’s going on over there.”
“[It is] very different. I have a little bit of an understanding of ancient Chinese culture. I do a lot of reading. I’m nowhere near an expert, but I do find this fascinating. I think it’s definitely worth preserving,” he said.
“We have to preserve the old and learn from it,” Mrs. McWilliams said. “That’s the most critical thing. We see it all the time. ... It’s important to preserve and to not forget the old. You’ve got to remember the old in order to live a better life.”
Mr. McWilliams agreed: “If I could sum it up, my belief is that society, culture, is a contract between the present, the past, and the future. We occupy a moment in time, and we have been between a past, a culture, which is incumbent upon us to pass on to the future.”
