“It’s beautiful so far. It’s been fantastic,” said Mr. Holt. “You never know if kids are going to stay awake and watch it, but they love it. They love being exposed to a different culture, and so they’re having a wonderful time.”
Although Mr. Holt did not know very much about pre- and post-communist China, he was able to identify some of the differences between the two respective societies.
“So my impression of what I’m seeing [in Shen Yun] is pre-communism where people were free to express ideas, express different thoughts about religion, life, philosophy, just more open.”
Mr. Holt also praised the artistry of traditional Chinese culture, acknowledging the influence Chinese culture has had on other cultures around the world.
“The dance, the colors, a lot of the movements that we see that maybe we don’t realize actually has a foundation in China, and if we could be more exposed to it, maybe we would see that we have more similarities than we realize, and maybe less differences.”
According to Shen Yun’s website, the ancient Chinese believed that their culture was a gift from the Heavens, and Shen Yun’s opening piece depicts divine beings following the Creator down to Earth to establish Chinese civilization. Mr. Holt once again saw similarities between Chinese culture and other cultures.
“I think that each culture has a very rich, unique sort of creation mythology that I think we should all be exposed to. I think it shows that a lot of our belief systems are very similar, even though we maybe grow up thousands and thousands of miles away. We have a lot of similarities in our own creation myths, which I think we should look to that to say, how do two or three different cultures that grow up thousands of years apart and thousands of miles away have very similar creation myths should tell us something about ourselves.”Reporting by Stacey Tang 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.
