SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Can’t Recommend It Highly Enough, Says Birthday Girl of Shen Yun

May 07, 2023

SYDNEY, Australia—Gabrielle Meyer traveled over four hours from Coffs Harbour to Sydney to experience Shen Yun Performing Arts for her birthday.

Mrs. Meyer, a retired guest house owner, said after finally getting to see New York-based Shen Yun perform at the Sydney Lyric Theatre for its Sunday matinee, “It was absolutely wonderful.”

“The talent, the costumes, the choreography; brilliant, absolutely brilliant. It’s been a great pleasure. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.”

Shen Yun is on a mission to revive China’s 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture that has been almost lost in modern times under communism.

China’s great texts, rooted in the ancient Buddhist and Taoist philosophies, all told the story of great cultures being left as gifts to humankind from the heavens. However, during China’s communist revolution, the materialist ideology rooted in atheism had no room for such stories, leading to the burning and destruction of much of China’s rich cultural heritage.

Shen Yun now aims to bring back to life on stage “China before communism.”

The experience was a birthday present for Mrs. Meyer from her husband after she saw Shen Yun advertised on TV and on posters.

“I particularly wanted to see this. It just looked so wonderful,” she said. “And it really was absolutely amazing,” she confirmed after having experienced Shen Yun firsthand.

Mrs. Meyer remarked on how much work and dance practice must go into Shen Yun—the world’s premier classical Chinese dance performance.

“The hours and hours,” she said, adding, “But the costumes, too, were just so beautiful. The colours and the way the women … they just floated along the stage; it was amazing.”

“I can’t wait to see it again. Bravo.”

‘Very Enlightening’

Doctor Jamie Starkey, who was also in the Shen Yun audience on Sunday afternoon with his wife, said he was “very inspired to understand the Chinese culture and the pathway to non-communist existence.”

“I can see that now,” he said thanks to the performance.

“I didn’t quite understand how communism was such a reforming and negative force for China,” he said. “We only hear about the other human rights; not the actual fact of what they did to their own people.

“This is very enlightening.”

‘Really Moved My Heart’

Psychologist Cilia Curiel attends Shen Yun Performing Arts with her daughter at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in Sydney, Australia, on May 7, 2023. (Mary Yuan/The Epoch Times) — Psychologist Cilia Curiel attends Shen Yun Performing Arts with her daughter at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in Sydney, Australia, on May 7, 2023. Mary Yuan/The Epoch Times

Psychologist Cilia Curiel said the message showcased in Shen Yun, “China before communism,” really touched a chord with her.

“It was impressive for me seeing the story about being so oppressed by communism and the regime you have there. We can relate with the people that are being oppressed by the government, Ms. Curiel said.

“I think we have been seeing that for years; in many, many countries, not only China … a lot of countries that are moving towards those regimes and are making so much damage to the people.”

“So it’s the young people who are suffering and paying with their life, and fighting to bring a better future for the country. So that was something that really moved my heart.”

Ms. Curiel said she was particularly impressed with Shen Yun’s storytelling, where a young girl was targeted for killing for monetary gain from selling her vital organs, pointing to the Falun Gong spiritual group’s reports on the Chinese Communist Party’s ghastly state-sanctioned trade of human organs.

“That story with the young girl that was dying because they needed her body, her part, her heart, and the family’s fighting—that was fantastic,” Ms. Curiel said.

Falun Gong, a qigong mind and body self-improvement practice that quickly became popular in China in the 90s, has suffered persecution and attempts by the communist regime to eradicate its adherents—who try to live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—since 1999.

“That faith and hope that through God and the spirit of doing the right thing, everything is going to be better and we will have a better future; that was amazing,” she said of Shen Yun’s storytelling. “That’s something that regardless of where you are from or your background, you can relate.”

“They’re amazing,” she said of Shen Yun’s artists and performers. “You can see all the discipline, all the technique—they’re doing a great job. And spreading their ideas—truly fantastic. Keep working on that.”

Reporting by Julia Ye, Steve Xu, Mary Yuan, and Melanie Sun.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.