LINKÖPING, Sweden—Renée Besseling, CEO of a media company, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts in Linköping on April 6, and found the show to be all-encompassing and touching.
“I was close to tears on a few occasions, during some of the songs and dances,” she said.
“Especially the opening number was very impressive, with the colors and the people. The whole scenario immediately touched my heart. It was very unusual and very beautiful,” Ms. Besseling added.
The opening number, Descending to the World, shows how the Lord Buddha calls upon heavenly beings to descend to Earth and form an Imperial Court, which then becomes China, a divinely inspired culture.
“They showed life in China, the way it once was, and the way the Chinese would want it to be once again,” she said.
Ms. Besseling found that the performance showed a different China from the industrialized and communist-ruled China of today.
“This was a completely different China than the greed you find in mainland China today,” she said. “This was about beauty and kindness.”
The Shen Yun performance has at its core the values of ancient Chinese civilization, influenced as it is by Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. The Shen Yun website says: “Under the influence of these faiths, Chinese culture has spawned a rich and profound system of values. The concepts of ’man and nature must be in balance,‘ ’respect the heavens to know one’s destiny,’ and the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness (ren yi li zhi xin) are all products of these three religions’ teachings.”
The spiritual dimension of the performance was also something that Ms. Besseling commented on specifically.
“Especially to Westerners, this approach to life, found in religion, really shines through in Shen Yun. I loved that, because we don’t have that here anymore. I sometimes say that we have lost our souls,” she said.
The atheist attitude to life is especially prevalent in Sweden, she added, which made her appreciate the spiritual content of Shen Yun all the more. In it, she saw a hope for the Western world, she said.
But she also expressed worries about today’s China.
“Communist China frightens me a bit, she said. ”You can buy hearts and lungs, and other organs there. I think the Chinese regime has really sunk to a very low level.”
“It thinks it can attack anyone, even its own people, as in the persecution of Falun Dafa.”
The persecution of Falun Dafa, an ancient spiritual practice, was portrayed in the dance [An Unexpected Encounter], in which during a tour to China, a father and daughter are taking photos in a park. On one side stands a trio of people who practice Falun Dafa. One of them holds a banner declaring, “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance”—the tenets of their persecuted practice. Due to a misunderstanding, the father and daughter are arrested and thrown into jail. The events that follow stun the pair, allowing their destiny with Falun Dafa to blossom, according to the program booklet.
But in Shen Yun, Ms. Besseling found hope for China also. “Shen Yun shows us the beauty of China,” she said.
Reporting by SOH Radio Network and Hans Bengtsson
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
