SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Shares the Beauty of Chinese Culture With Houston

Mar 27, 2022

HOUSTON—China’s history has been a 5,000-year tale of dynasties coming and going until the Chinese Communist Party took power and eradicated a lot of the culture and history that made up the country’s identity. Shen Yun Performing Arts has made it its mission to revive that precious history and present it to the world.

Dale Johnson, a program manager, and his wife, Cindy, shared their support for Shen Yun in its endeavors to revive the ancient culture.

“Keep going. You’re influencing people to help spread what Chinese culture is about, and educate America about the different areas in China, and what it’s really all about to have that and share that culture,” he said.

Shen Yun is based in New York and in line with Chinese culture, what Shen Yun portrays is a China before communism. Shen Yun is unable to perform in China today.

“China before communism. China is political, we are a democratic society, we like to vote, we don’t understand it,” said Mr. Johnson.

Shen Yun dancers are trained in classical Chinese dance, but aside from their regular training, the artists are also skilled at different ethnic dances that honor the many different minorities in China.

“I learned something with regards to the different parts of China, and overall. The colors are just amazing. Very nice,” said Mr. Johnson. “We love the performance. In my mind, it’s a culture and visual journey about Chinese culture.”

Patrick and Yvonne Póo at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Wortham Center Brown Theater, Houston, on March 26, 2022. (Sally Sun/The Epoch Times) — Patrick and Yvonne Póo at the Shen Yun Performing Arts performance at Wortham Center Brown Theater, Houston, on March 26, 2022. Sally Sun/The Epoch Times

Yvonne Póo, an artist was also in the audience this evening.

She shared that seeing Shen Yun has inspired her in her future artwork.

“Absolutely. All the colors and costumes. I’m gonna use the inspiration from those colors in my work,” said Ms. Póo.

Through every dance, Shen Yun isn’t only depicting the beauty of Chinese culture, but also spreading a message of morality and hope.

“It’s deep. I like the aspect of humanity. If I take something from it, that will be it,” she said. “Compassion, all those values of humanity. [They’re] more than moral values to me, human values.”

She also shared her admiration for the artists after seeing how their hard work pays off on stage.

“I will say that their commitment and the hours of practice is inspiring to see. [They’re] putting all that effort into representing something to express themselves,” she said.

Reporting by Sally Sun and Maria Han.

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