NEW YORK—After seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Lincoln Center on Friday evening, Aziz Makhmudov called the experience “life changing”—a telling reminder of how far we human beings have gone astray, but also of how we can return to goodness.
After watching the dancers present tales from ancient China, Mr. Makhmudov, who will be attending law school in the fall, expressed the impact it made.
“It makes you think about where we are as people now, because from where we all came from to where the world is is just two completely different things, and it’s kind of sad to realize that,” he said. “Watching the show reminds you of who we are.”
Based in upstate New York, Shen Yun has for two decades strived to revive a culture that was “almost lost” in China’s devastating Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Mr. Makhmudov says he saw values such as the Golden Rule—to treat others as you would have them treat you—and other reminders to be considerate and kind to others.
“With everything that we are busy with, we forget that we’re all humans. We all just isolate each other and form different groups, and we think we’re all so different, but at the end of the day, we’re not,” he said. “I feel like the show really reminds us of that.”
But above all else, Shen Yun displays spirituality onstage. Religion became one of the main targets of persecution under communism in China, but the artists are reminding the audience that “China before communism” was known as the “land of the Divine.” The program itself opens with a retelling of China’s myth of creation, telling how the Creator led an entourage of deities to Earth to roll out China’s 5,000-year history.
J Mac, a security manager who was also in the audience on Friday, observed the heavenly display. He felt it echoed his own faith.
“I’m in tune with the church, so I’m seeing sights and symbolisms also in the play itself,” he said. “I was like, hey, salvation, oh, forgiveness, hey, mercy. I was seeing that in the play.”
Salvation is a big theme in Shen Yun’s production. In addition to ancient myths, a dance segment portrays China in the present day, showing the distractions of smartphones and even religious persecution. A story set in modern China relates how a practitioner of Falun Dafa, a faith that’s outlawed in China, is abused and blinded by officers of the Chinese Communist Party.
Kelly Stewart and Carlos Hernandez attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at New York's Lincoln Center on March 27, 2026. Sally Sun/The Epoch Times
“It totally pulls you in,” said Kelly Stewart, a manager of sales support. “You can totally feel what they’re trying to say, what they’re trying to portray.”
“With all the evils in the world, you can still rise above and overcome,” added Stewart’s date, Carlos Hernandez, an operations manager for a security company. “I just love seeing the way that all the performers move, and it’s like they’re flying. It was very magical.”
