PASADENA, Calif.—After attending the afternoon’s Divine Performing Arts show in Pasadena on Jan. 2, Mr. Zhao Jia Bao addressed the VIP reception, heralding the show as a “brilliant, wonderful performance.”
“I value it very highly,” he said.
Mr. Zhao is deputy consul of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. When he was younger, he worked as a stage director at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall—where all major arts groups performed—and in four years he saw over a thousand shows.
Mr. Zhao described DPA’s 2009 Chinese New Year Spectacular as the largest live stage cultural arts production in the world, and felt it succeeded in making “cultural renewal as a major part of its vision and reason of being” by bringing the “enchantment, mystique, and grandeur of Chinese culture to audiences all over the world—uniquely using traditional Chinese music and dance to convey narratives rooted in universal themes, history and common human experience.”
The DPA production speaks of China’s 5,000 years of culture and draws “inspiration from ancient Chinese folklore, as well as Buddhist and Taoist traditions,” and it was clear to Mr. Zhao why “audiences from all over the world are able to connect to the deep sentiment invoked in these performances.”
“I myself am deeply moved by the things of compassion, virtue and courage seen in the production,” Mr. Zhao said. He felt that DPA’s “phenomenal work brings great pride to the global Chinese community,” and hopes that the traditional values brought out in the show “will continue to be a source of guidance for the community in the future.”
He resonated with the dances with cultural connotation the best, saying “Monk Ji Gong Abducts the Bride” and “Mulan Joins the Battle” were favorites because they “are both lively stories in our history.”
“DPA puts them on the stage, and I think when the audience sees them, as long as they know about the background behind the story, they will smile knowingly. … What moves me the most is that, from last year to now ... I see that the audiences are mostly Americans from the mainstream, and there aren’t as many Chinese as I imagined. What does this represent? It shows that with DPA’s performance, our 5,000 years of Chinese culture has attracted a large number of Americans. This is an excellent achievement.”
Mr. Zhao described the dancers’ actions as very synergistic and admired the results of long-term training. “The dancers’ skills are exquisite.”
“From the music perspective, this show is unique, because most performances use music tapes for the dances, but DPA has a live orchestra, so you can feel that you are actually in the scene; the feeling is very true.”
Mr. Zhao gave everyone behind the scenes in Divine Performing Arts the “highest respect.”
Reporting by Sound of Hope Radio.
For more information, please see DivinePerformingArts.org
“I value it very highly,” he said.
Mr. Zhao is deputy consul of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles. When he was younger, he worked as a stage director at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall—where all major arts groups performed—and in four years he saw over a thousand shows.
Mr. Zhao described DPA’s 2009 Chinese New Year Spectacular as the largest live stage cultural arts production in the world, and felt it succeeded in making “cultural renewal as a major part of its vision and reason of being” by bringing the “enchantment, mystique, and grandeur of Chinese culture to audiences all over the world—uniquely using traditional Chinese music and dance to convey narratives rooted in universal themes, history and common human experience.”
The DPA production speaks of China’s 5,000 years of culture and draws “inspiration from ancient Chinese folklore, as well as Buddhist and Taoist traditions,” and it was clear to Mr. Zhao why “audiences from all over the world are able to connect to the deep sentiment invoked in these performances.”
“I myself am deeply moved by the things of compassion, virtue and courage seen in the production,” Mr. Zhao said. He felt that DPA’s “phenomenal work brings great pride to the global Chinese community,” and hopes that the traditional values brought out in the show “will continue to be a source of guidance for the community in the future.”
He resonated with the dances with cultural connotation the best, saying “Monk Ji Gong Abducts the Bride” and “Mulan Joins the Battle” were favorites because they “are both lively stories in our history.”
“DPA puts them on the stage, and I think when the audience sees them, as long as they know about the background behind the story, they will smile knowingly. … What moves me the most is that, from last year to now ... I see that the audiences are mostly Americans from the mainstream, and there aren’t as many Chinese as I imagined. What does this represent? It shows that with DPA’s performance, our 5,000 years of Chinese culture has attracted a large number of Americans. This is an excellent achievement.”
Mr. Zhao described the dancers’ actions as very synergistic and admired the results of long-term training. “The dancers’ skills are exquisite.”
“From the music perspective, this show is unique, because most performances use music tapes for the dances, but DPA has a live orchestra, so you can feel that you are actually in the scene; the feeling is very true.”
Mr. Zhao gave everyone behind the scenes in Divine Performing Arts the “highest respect.”
Reporting by Sound of Hope Radio.
For more information, please see DivinePerformingArts.org
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