NEW YORK—Harbor captain Peter Guoba and his wife Sheryll enjoyed a matinee performance of Shen Yun Performing Arts at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on April 9.
Mr. Guoba said Shen Yun carried a spiritual message. “I think that the Americans don’t understand how tough it is. People have no idea what [the Chinese people] have been through. We all love the beautiful Chinese culture, but we don’t know the tough side, what people have gone through.
“Especially now,” he said. “It’s just awful. [The episode about organ harvesting] with the heart was just a heartbreaker. I said, ‘You know what? That’s what goes on every day.’ It’s just horrible. But there’s so many people [in China], nobody cares. That’s the problem. We don’t care because it’s not hitting us here. But if we keep this up, it’s going to happen here,” he said.
With his maritime experience, Mr. Guoba enjoyed the story of the fish. “Because you know what? I used to be a fishing captain, and I was always throwing fish back and [Mrs. Guoba] was always yelling at me about that.
“I felt bad for them, and I saw that was so beautiful—to put the fish back. That’s what I did. I started doing it. By the last couple of years, we used to take out 100 people at a time fishing. I stopped because I said, ‘This is horrible. We'll kill these poor fish.’ It was inspiring how it was, you know, payback. It was so nice,” he said.
Mr. Guoba was filled with warmth and goodness after the show.
Shen Yun Is a Performance You Can’t See Anywhere Else
A builder and developer in Upstate New York, Momir Gucija was impressed with all he learned about Chinese culture. “It’s a lot of history. Just a lot of history, which I was really impressed, very impressed,” he said. “A lot that we didn’t know about back in the country. We didn’t know about the rules, we didn’t know about the kingdoms.”He said he appreciated the freedom of the dancers to express Chinese culture. “The only way the people can explore is through the dancing, through the ballet.,” he said. “There’s so much meaning involved. So it’s not just a show. It’s more of a history.”
If he had to give Shen Yun a grade for the artistic level of the whole performance, Mr. Gucija said, “A+. I just love it. I think it’s just incredible.”
He said Shen Yun reached into his heart, and he felt transported to a place of the dance. As the curtain rises, the audience sees a heavenly scene appear in front of one’s eyes, and Mr. Gucija had a strong feeling when he saw it. “Emotionally, you’re almost in it. A lot of places you can go see, a lot of things you can see, but you’re not in it. This way you feel like you’re part of it, you’re actually part of that place,” he said. It’s like you travel somewhere [to a heavenly scene.]”
Mr. Gucija said he took a piece of Chinese culture with him, and more. “When I say part of the culture, and a message, but also part of the culture that we didn’t know about. We got this, so it just kind of sticks to you, you know what I mean? It’s not any other show,” he said. “It’s not any other play. This is more of a religion that you just accepted. I’m overly, overly impressed. I can’t tell you how much.”
He said that Shen Yun is very special. “I think that if you come to something like this, this is not a play. This is more like an artistic performance you don’t even see anywhere. It’s the music, it’s the coordination, it’s everything. Everything in one location,” he said.
