SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun, ‘An Artistic, Aesthetic, and Intellectual Delight,’ Says a Professor at the Sorbonne

Jan 26, 2026

1/26/2026Updated: 1/26/2026

PARIS, France—On Sunday, Jan. 25, Shen Yun Performing Arts once again played to a sold-out crowd at the Palais des Congrès. Judith Sarfati Lanter was in the audience with her family, accompanied by her brother and nine children, the oldest of whom was 12 years old. The whole group thoroughly enjoyed discovering the show.

Even though sitting still for two hours in a theater is a bit demanding for a group of nine cousins, “the children were very receptive, we were very happy, really,” notes Judith Sarfati Lanter, a teacher-researcher at the Sorbonne, in the comparative literature research center.

“They were very attentive. I think they really enjoyed all the colors and the quality of the dances,” said Mrs. Sarfati Lanter happily.

Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. The orchestra accompanying the show manages to blend Western and Chinese classical instruments in perfect synchronization with the dancers.

“Personally, I loved the fact that there was live music, that we could see the orchestra, and all the musical explorations. I found it truly extraordinary,” said the teacher.

“I know nothing about Chinese music and its traditions, so I found it to be a truly wonderful discovery. It was extremely rich; it really opened up a whole new world,” she continues.

“I also found it really interesting from a historical, cultural, and intellectual point of view. Not to mention, of course, the artistic quality of the show, which is exceptional, truly extraordinary.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun and its artists have made it their mission to revive the nearly lost 5,000-year-old culture that has been systematically destroyed by the Chinese Communist Party over the past few decades.

Some of the company’s dances depict the brutal persecution that practitioners of Falun Gong, a peaceful meditative practice, have endured in China for more than two decades. The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly attempted to interfere with Shen Yun’s activities since its inception in 2006, with more than 130 cases of interference documented worldwide.

This aspect was rather unexpected for Mrs. Sarfati Lanter. “I found it extraordinary to be able to express things clearly about the situation of Shen Yun, New York, but also in relation to contemporary China, particularly in the scenes where representatives of communist China intervene.”

“These are scenes that I found extremely powerful and that I did not expect at all,” says the researcher.

The fact that Shen Yun uses artistic performance and aesthetic enjoyment to convey its messages and revive Chinese civilization is “truly very precious,” according to Mrs. Sarfati Lanter.

“It’s a story that is very little known, whether it’s Chinese traditions or the whole spiritual environment, these are things that are very foreign to us. So I think it’s a very good way to convey this culture and these messages,” she says.

A word that comes up very often in the teacher-researcher’s comments about the show is “pleasure.”

“It was a tremendous pleasure to see their talent and dedication,” she acknowledges. “I think everyone realizes that they gave us a great deal of pleasure. Pleasure on all levels. Truly artistic, aesthetically pleasing, and also intellectually stimulating.”

In summary, for Mrs. Sarfati Lanter, it is a “show of extraordinary quality.”

Reporting by Nathalie Dieul and translated by Sonia Rouleau from the French language Epoch Times.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.