SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Leaves Business Owner Feeling ‘Very Exhilarated and Hopeful’

Mar 09, 2026

3/9/2026Updated: 3/9/2026

MELBOURNE, Australia—Business owner Jammal Sadiqzai and his wife, Tina, walked into Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee at the Plenary Theatre on March 8, not quite knowing what to expect. They left the theatre feeling renewed with hope for the future.

“We both feel very exhilarated and hopeful,” Mr. Sadiqzai said. Shen Yun “taught us about harmony and human decency.”

The moment that touched him most was the story-dance raising awareness about the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution of Falun Dafa, a peaceful meditation practice whose followers strive to live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

“It was lovely,” he said. “It told us the struggles of the [meditation belief] and the oppression that’s inflicted on them, and how they’ve remained positive and strong through adversity.”

Mrs. Sadiqzai also found the performance deeply moving. “It was a beautiful show,” she stated. “It just showed love, compassion, and unity—something that we don’t have at the moment in the world.”

Shen Yun is the world’s top classical Chinese dance and music company. Presenting a brand-new set of programs each year, the company has been delighting audiences around the world since 2006.

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.

In the decades after the communist regime seized power, Chinese culture was forced to the brink of extinction. The New York-based artists are working to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture and showcase to the world the beauty of China before communism.

Mr. Sadiqzai appreciated that Shen Yun artists are sharing their beliefs and values through performing arts.

“I think anything expressed in dance and music is a positive art form,” he said. “It is beautiful, and it brings a positive response all the time.”

“If everybody could just express things through harmony and love like [it’s] shown here, it would be beautiful. It would be wonderful.”

For Mr. Sadiqzai, the performance conveyed a powerful message: although we may be of different faiths and ethnicities, humanity ultimately shares the same hopes and dreams.

“We learned a lot today,” he commented. “It showed that people from all cultures—even Chinese culture, that’s very foreign to Western society—are all the same. We all want to love our children, love our society, and we value peace, love, and harmony.”

He was also very impressed by Shen Yun’s music, which blended Western musical traditions with traditional Chinese melodies and instruments.

“It’s very beautiful,” he said, “very meaningful, and transcends all cultures, beliefs.”

Upon learning that Shen Yun is celebrating its 20th anniversary and has grown from one to eight equally-sized companies since its founding, Mr. Sadiqzai said he’s happy to see the company expanding so rapidly.

“They’re doing right because a lot more people want to see it,” he shared. “There are a lot more hopeful people and a lot more optimistic people than what we all think.”

As for what he would say to the artists themselves, Mr. Sadiqzai didn’t hesitate.

“I absolutely want to hug [the artists.] I’d give them a kiss and say, ‘Whatever they’re doing, keep doing it.’”

Reporting by Lucy Liu 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.