SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Media CEO Touched by Universal Values Presented in Shen Yun

Apr 30, 2023

SYDNEY, Australia—Jack Bulfin, CEO of ADH TV, one of Australia’s leading independent media companies, said he was touched by the efforts of Shen Yun Performing Arts, which is performing in Sydney until May 7, to revive traditional values.

“Morals and universal values are very important because they underpin civilisations and society,” Mr. Buffin said after watching New York-based Shen Yun at the Sydney Lyric Theatre on April 30.

“Without having those fundamental values, society degrades, and I think that that was one of the key themes in the Shen Yun performance.”

Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and its universal values by showcasing a range of stories from China’s 5,000-year-old history, ancient to modern, and bringing them to life through classical Chinese dance, a live orchestra, and state-of-the-art digital backdrops.

Additionally, Shen Yun aims to showcase “China before communism,” which was a time when belief in the divine and the heavens was reflected in Chinese people’s daily lives and world view.

“I think that culturally expressing that identity is really fantastic; and getting to show people [who] may not know much about Chinese history and Chinese culture is a wonderful thing,” Mr. Bulfin said.

Mr. Bulfin added that traditional institutions, such as those in ancient China, have built civilisations.

“And we are starting to go down a dangerous track of rejecting those things that have got us there and forgetting the history, or in a lot of cases, rewriting or deleting the history from memory.

“So cultural performances like this that embrace that tradition are so important,” he said.

The CEO said his most memorable piece was the depiction of events in modern-day China, particularly the persecution of practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Dafa by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Audience members are shown some true events of the persecution and how practitioners of Falun Dafa—who are taught to live by the universal principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance—are able to hold onto their faith in the face of brutal oppression.

“I thought that the final depiction in the last part was quite accurate, and I thought that it is really good to be able to show people how those values are so necessary in such a modern world,” he said of Shen Yun’s final piece “Divine Renewal of the Human World.”

Mr. Bulfin said “embracing tradition and rejecting modernity” was a message that resonated with him from the performance.

“I think that is more important now then it ever has been,” he said.

Mr. Bulfin also commended the “brilliant singing,” “incredible dancing,” and “world-class orchestra” of Shen Yun.

“It’s an unbelievable visual performance, and it’s an unbelievable auditory performance,” he said. “I’d absolutely introduce this experience to my friends.”

Reporting by NTD and Henry Jom.

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