SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Captures All Your Senses,’ Says Navy Physician

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Shen Yun ‘Captures All Your Senses,’ Says Navy Physician
Corey and Alicia Gustafson enjoyed Shen Yun's matinee at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts on Jan. 28, 2024. Sharon Lin/The Epoch Times

MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Navy Physician Corey Gustafson and his wife, Alicia, were thoroughly impressed by Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee on Jan. 28 at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

Seeing the show for the first time, the couple was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the performance. They agreed that “there was a lot to think about.”

“It was fantastic. There was a lot to digest in there,” Mr. Gustafson said.

“I didn’t realize how much culture was going to be involved in the show. There was a philosophy and a [spiritual] component to it. Then, mixing it with the dancing and the art—it captures all your senses.”

Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded in 2006 by a group of leading Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of China’s ruling communist party.

Before the communist party’s spread of atheism, Chinese people were very spiritual and had a deep belief in the divine. For thousands of years, their values and day-to-day actions were strictly governed by the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.

However, following the regime’s violent takeover in 1949, Chinese traditional culture went through a period of destruction. The artists’ goal is to bring China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture back to life and share with everyone “beauty before communism.”
Mr. Gustafson thought Shen Yun’s message for the world is fantastic and very important.
“We’re kind of in a great time right now of a great power struggle between two cultures. I don’t think a lot of people understand—it’s not really a struggle with the Chinese people or the culture—it’s with the Chinese Communist Party. That’s the obstacle,” he expressed.
“So, seeing [Shen Yun] and understanding that there are so many people from China and they have such a long and storied history—I think it’s important to see. It’s very important for people in our country to understand that it’s 5,000 years of history. It’s amazing.”

Though Shen Yun has met with worldwide acclaim since its establishment and has quickly grown from one to eight equally-sized companies that perform simultaneously around the world, it is currently banned by the Chinese communist regime from performing in China.

This is due to Shen Yun’s focus on reviving traditional culture and presenting the truth of events under communist rule in present-day China.

Mr. Gustafson deeply resonated with the artists’ plight and said that “communism is oppressive to the mind of man and to the people. It’s brutal.”

“Tiananmen Square [Massacre] is just an example. It’s frightening to think of an existence like that. I don’t know how [the artists] persevere, honestly. It’s a tremendous amount of faith in a higher being and in a philosophy that they’re able to maintain,” he expressed.

Mr. Gustafson would like to tell Shen Yun’s founder and creator to “keep doing this. Keep getting the messages out.”

“I think it’s so important to keep that alive not only for the cultural heritage part, but those messages are timeless. There’s nothing new under the sun. Kindness, that’s one of the themes, and forbearance—Those [values have been here] since the beginning of time. That’s still the same message today,” he expressed.

“I think it’s so important that it is revived and shared with people. There’s obviously a ton of ethnic Chinese people that live in the United States, so for them to recapture that as well—I think it’s important—then use that as far as being a good citizen in the United States and further their own mission.”

Reporting by Sharon Lin and Jennifer Tseng.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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