SAN FRANCISCO—Seeing Shen Yun perform at the SHN Orpheum Theatre on Wednesday was a moving experience for university dean Jim O'Connor.
“Because I have such a love for China, it is very emotional,” said Mr. O'Connor after watching the performance.
Mr. O'Connor is the Dean of the College of Education and Health Sciences of the Touro University California. He says he has a great affection for China, and started visiting the country in the 1980s.
Based in New York, Shen Yun Performing Arts has the mission to revive 5,000 years of classical Chinese culture, much of which has been lost under communist rule.
Mr. O'Connor said that he enjoyed how the performance gave an insight into the different historical times of China’s history.
Adding that he thought that “everything has been great” of the performance, Mr. O'Connor said he will tell his colleagues to go and see the performance.
Also in the audience was Alexander Greenway who works as a writer.
“I think the show is marvelous. I’ve never seen any cultural dance from China; It’s my first exposure to it and I think it’s absolutely fantastic,” Mr. Greenway said after watching the performance.
“I’ve seen the whole progression of history and mythology,” Mr. Greenway said. “I thought it showed the spread of how the mythology incorporated itself into the art.”
Mr. Greenway said that he is planning to tell his friends that Shen Yun is something “completely unique, and they’ve never seen anything like it.”
“It’s got the grandeur and scope of something like Cirque du Soleil, but it’s actually, in a way it’s better, because it’s founded in something you don’t know anything about, it’s founded in a view of history and a perspective that you can’t get in any other way.”
Reporting by SOH Radio Network, Jennifer Liang, and Jasper Fakkert
New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company is performing in San Francisco, at the SHN Orpheum Theatre, March 20-24. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
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