SAN JOSE, Calif.—Banker and senior project analyst Grant Williams has always loved Asian culture, so when his son gifted him tickets to Shen Yun Performing Arts’ evening performance at the Center for the Performing Arts on Dec. 26, he was thrilled.
“I loved the show. ... I just love those little short dramas,” he said. “I loved the Monkey King. I loved the daughter who wanted to study and wasn’t able to. And of course, the [story about] the emperor [who impersonates] a local official and brings out the goods for the people who are starving and [punishes] the local officials who were corrupt, that was just excellent. It was just really good.”
Although it was his first time seeing Shen Yun, Mr. Williams is already planning to return with a friend. “I think she will enjoy it,” he said. “She already said she wants to come.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, with a mission to revive China’s culture as it was before decades of communist rule all but destroyed it.
The performance is comprised of a series of short pieces that takes its audience on a journey through China’s dynasties and across its vast regions. Through classical Chinese, folk, and ethnic dances, as well as solo musical performances, Shen Yun tells tales from ancient times to the modern day.
Mr. Williams was deeply moved by the artists’ efforts to bring back traditional Chinese culture and values centered on family and respect for elders.
“I wish we did that here. We don’t. We just don’t anymore,” he said. “I spent most of my life in financial circles, so I’ve seen greed that is just heartbreaking. It’s heartbreaking to see what we’ve given up just for more that we don’t even need.”
He thought Shen Yun offers “valuable teachings” and said he hoped that more people would wake up to these messages.
“I think maybe if we saw more of this, it would be beneficial,” he said.
The stories teach “a simpler way of looking at things,” he added. “It would be so beneficial to everybody, even to the people who don’t want it would benefit from it. Their minds are just too narrowly focused to understand there’s a bigger world.”
Upon learning that although Shen Yun is well-beloved by audiences around the world, it is currently forbidden by the ruling Chinese regime from performing in China, Mr. Williams said, “It breaks my heart.”
“This is Chinese culture. How could they not allow it?” he said. “It’s just it’s crazy. But you get certain leaders and their egos are all they care about.”
“My hope would be that, one day, people recognize that they need to take responsibility for the decisions they make and not allow other people to tell them how to think.”
