SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Reminds San Francisco Audience of History

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Shen Yun Reminds San Francisco Audience of History
San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, on Jan. 9, 2022. Zhou Rong/The Epoch Times

SAN FRANCISCO—It takes courage to speak the truth, and it takes persistence to convince someone of the truth. Since 2006, Shen Yun Performing Arts has been using dance and music to raise awareness of atrocities being committed in communist China.

James Grant works in patent law and shared that seeing Shen Yun made him think.

“It made me think, because I live in San Francisco, you really don’t hear this kind of dialogue about this historic, cultural past and present-day situation. [San Francisco] is all business drive, so no one says anything about the influence of communism in China,” he said on Jan. 4.

Shen Yun is based in New York, and its mission is to revive China’s 5,000 years of culture—a China without communism.

“I think it’s very important because someone has to do it and you’re like a catalyst, but in such a very unusual way because it’s a very rich culture,” Mr. Grant said.

This rich culture was nearly destroyed when the Communist Party of China took over. Since then, free speech and many basic human rights have been compromised.

“I would say what I really learned was the situation in present-day modern China is probably more difficult than we know. That’s what I learned today,” Mr. Grant said.

“It’s one world, and we’re all one people. Maybe slightly different, but we should have more freedom to express our ideas and wishes for ourselves, our children, and everyone,” he added.

Shen Yun’s artists are trained in classical Chinese dance, and contrary to what many believe, classical Chinese dance and ballet are not related.
“I came here to see Chinese dance because I’m interested in San Francisco ballet, but I wanted to see the comparisons. I think what’s most interesting is it’s also linked with the contrast between historic and present-day China,” Mr. Grant said.

Bearing, Form, and Technique

According to the Shen Yun website, classical Chinese dance has three main components; bearing, form, and technique.
Shen Yun’s orchestra boasts of finding a balance between the east and west with traditional Chinese instruments as permanent members of the orchestra.

“I love the music, and the orchestra did a very nice job creating these unusual sounds, which is different from European music,” Mr. Grant said.

With its own resident composers, Shen Yun puts on an all-new production every year.

“The sound of the music is also quite melodic. I saw the Beijing opera because I was in Beijing, but the music was very different from what I hear today,” he said.

He added that Shen Yun’s music “makes you feel relaxed.”

Reporting by Lily Yu and Maria Han.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
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