DAYTON, Ohio—Lieutenant Colonel Jason Williams of the U.S. Air Force thought Shen Yun’s evening performance at the Schuster Performing Arts Center on Jan. 2, was very hopeful, entertaining, and enlightening.
“[
Shen Yun was] very celebratory and portrayed the idea that there could be a brighter future, that we could move beyond what’s going on today into something better,” said Colonel Williams.
“It was clear how hard the artists have worked and I really appreciated the performance.”
Shen Yun Performing Arts was founded by a group of leading Chinese
artists who had fled the persecution of China’s ruling communist party. In the decades since the regime’s violent takeover, Chinese traditional culture was forced to the brink of destruction.
Now in the safety of America, these
New York-based artists are determined to bring China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture back to life and share with everyone—beauty before communism.
However, due to Shen Yun’s focus on presenting the truth of events under communist rule in present-day China—the regime is
afraid to let
Shen Yun perform in China.
Colonel Williams said Shen Yun’s story-dance pieces exposing human rights violations deeply resonated with him. While he had prior knowledge of the situation, witnessing it on stage was very powerful.
“It is terrible what is happening, and it’s wild to me that the rest of the world would let it happen because they’re unwilling to jeopardize their economic relationships with China. A lot of nations turned a blind eye, thinking, ‘It’s just internal to China and not our problem.’ I think it’s a shame,” he expressed.
“[
Shen Yun] bringing it to light with this visual format was very moving as opposed to just reading or hearing news reports about it. Showing those kinds of
stories to people who might not have seen it otherwise—I think there could be an impact.”
Regarding the artists’ mission to revive
traditional culture and bring spirituality back to China, Colonel Williams said he appreciated the divinity within the show.
“Some of what we do in modern culture could be tempered by some of these more traditional and spiritual practices,” he stated.
“It is a shame that the Chinese Communist Party has discarded these large portions of their traditional history. I’m glad that somebody is preserving that cultural history.”
Reporting by Nancy Ma and Jennifer Tseng.
