Civic Council President: Incredibly Profound Message

Mr. Damian Wyld, South Australian state president of the National Civic Council (NCC), was in attendance on opening night. (Leigh Smith/The Epoch Times)

ADELAIDE, Australia—The revitalization of the Chinese traditional culture through the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour was experienced as being enjoyable and moving by an appreciative audience. Mr. Damian Wyld, South Australian state president of the National Civic Council (NCC), was in attendance on opening night at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on April 6.

NCC is an organization which seeks to shape public policy on cultural, family, social, political, economic, and international issues in Australia.

Mr. Wyld felt the show to be overall excellent: “Very hard to describe because it involved a whole range of emotions. It was really a performance worthy of everyone’s attendance.”

He added that Shen Yun was “overall certainly an uplifting performance.”

It was difficult to pick a favorite performance, but Mr. Wyld mentioned the dance, The Monkey King Triumphs as being particularly memorable, saying, “It brought back a lot of memories from when I was a boy.

“It was a bright spark of humor, which really illuminated the hope that was [portrayed] throughout the evening. It ran through a whole range of emotions, as I said—the evening’s performance. But humor, hope—these are the sorts of things that we should take away.”

This particular dance is an adaptation from a segment in the 16th century novel Journey to the West. The protagonist, a Buddhist monk, is traveling to India in search of scriptures, joined by an ogre, a pig, and a miraculous monkey met en route. The dance presents a moral choice for the characters on their journey.

Mr. Wyld said, “I think the importance of the show will be told in time. It’s not something that you can take away even in one evening. This show has an incredibly profound importance of spreading this message of hope, from city to city, country to country.

“I was pleased to learn that there are actually three companies traveling simultaneously [around the world], and I’m very pleased to hear that, because I think those principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance are largely universal values, which appeal to all people of goodwill, and I hope this show can help impart those,” added Mr. Wyld.

He said he would be back for next year’s performance, adding that everyone should “definitely go out and see it.”

Shen Yun is founded by leading Chinese artists is seeking to revive China’s traditional culture and present it to audiences around the world through Chinese classical dance and music.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Performing Arts 2009 World Tour. For more information please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org