Jimmy Watt worked at radio stations in Clemson and Greenville before joining WYFF News 4 in May 2001 as a traffic reporter. He also worked as a public information officer for the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office. Now he has accepted the job of news director at 94.1 The Lake WSNW in Seneca.
“The performance [was] wonderful. The talent is extremely talented. Obviously, the dancing is incredible,” said Watt. “I think just learning more about the culture, just overall, is what appeals to me in regards to what I’m seeing tonight. Learning more about the Chinese culture, about performing arts in China it’s just an amazing performance.”
Watt was talking about Shen Yun. He attended the performance at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium on Jan. 2.
“I’m not familiar with the Chinese culture, so this is something that’s kind of opened my eyes, it sure has,” Watt added. “It’s wide ranging. It’s colorful, it’s artful, obviously. The culture may be different even though it’s part of the same culture.”
China has a culture built on beliefs from Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, and this tradition was recorded continuously over 5,000 years, until communism came. After decades of purge through the communist’s cultural revolution, there is renewed interest in China’s roots.
“First, I think that it’s a god, a deity of some type,” said Dennis Mooney, senior vice president at ADB Companies. “And I think again that the far east does that so elegantly. And then I think the happiness that you see not only physically in the way the actors and actresses presented themselves, but the colors and their clothes and things of that just made everything happy. I think it shows that you can have a spiritual enlightenment with people you may not understand, but you share a common entity whether it be a deity, or just how you should act in life. And I think that was one of the things the show brought out is doing the right thing.”
“And the deity or the gods, or the god, just that symbol of peace for all mankind, anything like that was just, I mean it’s amazing,” said Mooney.
NTD News, Spartanburg, South Carolina
