SYDNEY—The Honorable David Clarke, MLC, came to see Shen Yun Performing Arts with his wife at the opening night at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney. He has seen Shen Yun many times before and loved this year’s performance.
“I think it was magnificent,” he said, “This is certainly the best.”
New York-based Shen Yun was formed in 2006 by overseas Chinese artists, who wished to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese art forms.
“It’s spectacular, it’s colorful, it’s absolutely tremendous, it’s professional, very beautifully presented,” Mr. Clarke said.
The full orchestra of classical Western instruments and traditional Eastern instruments playing original scores is always appreciated by audiences.
Mr. Clarke certainly appreciated this facet. “To hear the orchestra with traditional Chinese instruments was absolutely magnificent. The whole thing came together very, very well,” he said.
Principles such as benevolence and justice, propriety and wisdom, respect for the heavens, and divine retribution, all come to life, washing over the audience. Originating from Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, these ideals are the essence of traditional Chinese culture according to Shen Yun’s website.
Mr. Clarke felt these qualities in the performance. He said, “it showed that there is a spiritual side to mankind, an eternal everlasting spirit that no man made institution or dictatorship can control, because the spirit can’t be controlled by man-made repression. This, I think, is the base of what we’ve seen here tonight. It brings everything together—5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture is alive and well here in Sydney, Australia, in 2013 when we saw that magnificent performance here tonight.”
He felt that it was a very opportune time for Shen Yun to be in Sydney during Chinese New Year celebrations. “Apart from the splendor and the spectacle and the color and the professionalism and all of these things coming together, the beautiful music and presentation. The choreography was magnificent—everything was done in unison, ever person played their part, but there is an over-riding message to this—that the spirit of man is a free spirit and that nothing can suppress it, and at the end of the day, nothing is going to suppress it and good is going to triumph over evil. That’s the message that I got from this,” he said.
The Honorable David Clarke, Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council is the Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and serves as Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice in the NSW State Government.
Reporting by NTD Television and Leigh Smith.
Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, tours the world on a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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