Shen Yun Performing Arts made stops in Chicago, Illinois, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Grand Forks, North Dakota in April.
Its artists have a mission: to revive 5,000 years of Chinese culture and values from before communism.
“I just thought it was uplifting overall, just holding on to your traditions and relishing the traditions that you have and celebrating them,” said Chris Bauer, enterprise architect at Collins Aerospace.
“It’s a horrible thing when culture is suppressed, and attempts to destroy it. So it’s a noble, noble cause to revive it and keep it going. And hopefully, it’ll be restored in China some day,” said Mark Jepperson, retired senior pharmaceutical representative.
“Chinese culture is something we don’t know very much about. We hear a lot about the economy of China, and the military of China, but we don’t hear very much about the culture of China. And it’s beautiful. And I think it’s very diverse. And as I said, there’s a lot of regions and a lot of different cultural areas of China. And that shone through in the performance,” said William March, owner and CEO of ChromeLLC.
Along with stories of myths and legends from ancient times, Shen Yun also depicts true stories from modern China. In particular, the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of faith groups like Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, through the practice of forced organ harvesting.
“The story with the communist police pressing the Dafa practitioners kind of hit an emotional note. I have heard about some of the repression. Truly watching it and seeing that emotional connection there with the story between the girl being killed for her beliefs was truly tragic,” said Jonathan Edwards, senior scrum master.
“The message that was heartbreaking was when they talked about the persecution of Falun Gong and the organ harvesting. And I think it is unbelievable that in the world today, we allow such atrocities to happen. And that message needs to be heard by a wider audience to see that it stops,” added Mr. March.
Audience members also saw messages of love, kindness, and hope displayed through each performance.
“It’s a very great message of spreading love and kindness throughout the world. And truly cherishing something greater than what is what we experienced corporeally here on Earth,” said Mr. Edwards.
“I think we all need that little glimpse of hope. So I think it was really awesome to see even evil turn good and the dark turning into light. So I thought that was a great message,” said Abby Hafenbredl, account development manager at Lean Solutions Group.
Shen Yun will next perform at the OCCC Visual and Performing Arts Center Theater in Oklahoma City on April 20 and April 21.
NTD News, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
