ROSEMONT, Ill.—James Burghardt felt transported seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.
“I feel like I’m taken away, thousands of miles away,” said Mr. Burghardt, director of horticulture for a botanical garden in the Chicago area. He saw Shen Yun at the Rosemont Theatre on April 26.
“I’m excited by the energy I see on stage, the
costumes. What I was surprised by, but really moved by, was the
storytelling when it came to what’s currently happening in China. It’s not something that’s in our news necessarily in the United States, but it makes you stop and give pause as to what other people may be going through,” he said.
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier
classical Chinese dance company, but, as many audience members learn during the show, Shen Yun cannot perform in China because the Chinese communist regime still persecutes people of faith.
With a
mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, also known as “China before communism,” Shen Yun’s programs span millennia, including story-based dances that depict the Creation legend of Chinese civilization, as well as stories from the present day.
Mr. Burghardt said it was refreshing to see a side of China different from what is in the news. It was “satisfying to know, like, what are the similarities? What is different?” when it came to his own culture and the traditional Chinese culture, he explained.
“I was intrigued to see the reference on what I’m interpreting as the Chinese traditional
belief system and how there is a Creator, and trying to piece together the story that’s coming through,“ he said. ”I did find similarities. I’m now curious.”
“All of these different ideas are kind of going through my mind as I see things, as I try to interpret them or to understand them or understand the whos, the whys, I mean, just all of that. It’s just kind of a full range of emotions,” he added.
Well-read about modern-day China, Mr. Burghardt said the performance also made him think about the fall of the Soviet Union, and the future of
China.
“What is truly happening? What has changed? From a historical standpoint, I remember, you know, communism came to China in the 1940s or around 1950,” he said. “It makes me wonder what’s changed, thinking back to when Gorbachev visited the United States. ... I’m like, will that same thing happen with the leadership in China, you know, soon, or will it take another 50 years?”
“It’s making me think about a lot of things,” he said.
Reporting by Stacey Tang and Catherine Yang.
