SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Canadian MP Says Shen Yun Is ‘A Powerful Contribution to Humanity’

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Canadian MP Says Shen Yun Is ‘A Powerful Contribution to Humanity’
Shuvaloy Majumdar, Member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage, attends Shen Yun at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on March 30, 2024. NTD

CALGARY, Canada—Shuvaloy Majumdar, member of Parliament for Calgary Heritage since 2023, returned to see Shen Yun Performing Arts for the 2024 season at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on March 30.

“I came last year, and this time was equally beautiful,” he said. “It’s a wonderful show!”

Mr. Majumdar said he felt “a sense of renewal” after attending the performance, both last year and this year.

“It’s genuinely a spiritual encounter ... to be able to feel that through the artists that have trained so hard and perform so beautifully … It is a really special feeling.”

New York-based Shen Yun, founded in 2006, is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Through the universal language of music and dance, Shen Yun presents story-based dances depicting heavenly realms, ancient legends, and modern heroic tales spanning 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.
The performing arts company’s mission is to revive the traditional culture of China, which has been on the brink of extinction since the Chinese communist regime seized power in 1949. Shen Yun says its performances demonstrate “China before communism.”

“The preservation of Chinese history and culture is a very difficult task [especially] at a time in which many are attempting to erase that history,” Mr. Majumdar said.

“The celebration of an ancient people in modern times—especially in the format that this show is produced—is just a wonderful celebration of Chinese culture.”

“There is no short-term autocratic government that can suppress the culture so beautiful and historic as the ancient Chinese culture and the Chinese people,” he added.
Along with myths and legends from ancient times, Shen Yun presents story-based dances portraying the persecution of Falun Dafa, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a persecution campaign against the spiritual practice, which is also called Falun Gong, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.

“In this presentation, we see how resilient they are and how much that light shines through no matter how much darkness that the Communist Party of China imposes on [its] people,” Mr. Majumdar said.

“Inner beauty being expressed in divine terms is a powerful contribution to humanity,” he added. “It is one of peace, of pluralism, [and] of freedom and ... I am so happy to see [it] alive and well in these performances here.”

China was once known as the “Land of the Divine,” Shen Yun presents this culture by drawing upon the Middle Kingdom’s Buddhist and Daoist philosophies. In the past, artists looked to the divine for inspiration and cultivated virtue in order to create uplifting art.

Today, Shen Yun’s artists follow in this noble tradition, which is why audiences feel there is something different about Shen Yun, according to the company’s website.

Mr. Majumdar wanted to thank the performers and artistic director of Shen Yun and to keep welcoming them back year after year.

“Keep coming back to Calgary,” he said. “I hope that many, many more audiences get to see your beautiful work each and every year.”

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