PHILADELPHIA—Emily Ferrell, a state judge in Delaware, had visited China once with her mother. They saw major historical sites like the Forbidden City, but what stood out starkly was that communism had erased so much from a culture that was once beautiful.
On March 9, Mrs. Ferrell saw Shen Yun Performing Arts with her family, and shared that it represented on stage all the beauty that communism in China had sought to destroy.
“All the beautiful colors, it’s just so peaceful, and I like the wonderful message behind it,” she said at the Miller Theater.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization through music and dance.
Mr. Ferrell praised the way the choreography, costuming, and colors all came together to create a beautiful effect.
“It was just beautifully choreographed and creative,” he added.
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Mrs. Ferrell noticed that the traditional culture of China was a spiritual one, and said a takeaway was that communism suppresses spirituality.
“I’ve seen it first-hand,” she added and commended Shen Yun for showing not just the ancient China but how faith and hope live on in the modern day. “I think it’s very important to show the world the effects communism has on the individual person that lives it.”
She felt it was a message relevant far beyond China.
“As my son said, who’s not here, communism looks great on paper, everyone’s fed. But when it comes to the individual, the ramifications that it has on each individual, whether it be religion, free will—the ability to make decisions, all those attributes that we have in the United States and take for granted are affected by communism,” she explained.
When she visited China, she saw that “communism had erased the history of China,” and no one was “taking care of the beauty that’s deep within the country.”
Through Shen Yun, that beauty is being shared around the world.
“I think they can benefit by learning about the Chinese culture that was pre-communism and not on how we think of it today,” she said.
With reporting by Frank Liang.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
