CHICAGO—Film producer and human rights activist Jason Jones attended Shen Yun Performing Arts on May 2 at the Civic Opera House. Having seen Shen Yun multiple times over the years, he loved it just as much as the first time.
“I love the show so much. I’ve seen it so many times. The first time I saw it, I brought my daughters here simply because my wife is Chinese, and my daughters are dancers, and I wanted them to experience their culture,” he shared.
“When I saw the show the first time, I saw it as more than a dance show. But it’s actually the rescue of a civilization. It means so much to me. So, today, I brought my brother-in-law and my sister, [and] some of my friends who are Yazidi.”
The New York-based Shen Yun was founded by elite Chinese artists who had fled persecution by the Communist Party.
For 5,000 years, China’s civilization flourished under the shared belief that the divine will bless those who uphold traditional moral values. Tragically, within just a few decades of the communist party’s violent takeover, these beliefs were erased and replaced with atheism.
The artists’ mission is to return to the world’s stage the glory and beauty of China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.
Mr. Jones especially enjoyed the piece “Peacock Paradise,” in which celestial maidens dance gracefully among the clouds. After seeing the performance in San Antonio, he knew he wanted to share it with friends.
“For the Yazidi, the peacock is their symbol of God and of their people. So, when I saw the show in San Antonio, my friend who is a survivor of ISIS … I called her, I said, ‘Sister, I have to take you to see Shen Yun,’” Mr. Jones said.
“The smile on her face was during the peacock performance was the biggest smile I’ve ever seen in my life.”
A devout Christian, he appreciated that Shen Yun not only portrays the beauty of faith and the divine, but also raises awareness of the Chinese Communist Party’s ongoing persecution of people of faith.
Shen Yun “celebrates the beauty of Chinese civilization, but it does not run from the crimes of the CCP. It also shows those. So, to me, this is joy, beauty, while at the same time showing what’s happening today in China,” Mr. Jones expressed.
“As Christians in our faith, we say that when one part of the body of Christ suffers, we suffer. When one part of the body of Christ celebrates, we celebrate. So today, I can see that Falun Dafa practitioners who may be suffering in China can also celebrate through the celebration of Shen Yun.”
“We also suffer because we know that they suffer, too. This was something I took away different today from before.”
Although Shen Yun has received widespread acclaim since its founding in 2006, it remains banned from performing in China under the communist regime.
Mr. Jones believes the performance is very inspirational right now, in the world of developing AI.
“More and more live performance is important—written by human beings, performed by human beings, in front of human beings. Although I make motion pictures, I really do want to get more involved in theater … working with actors, in front of crowds, because the young people, they have been divorced from contact with human beings,” he stated.
“They cannot tell the difference between what is a story from a person and what is a story from a machine. So, Shen Yun [has] stories from ancestors transmitted for centuries, family to family, people to people. The hard work of these dancers, celebrating their performances in front of a live audience. This is the best.”
