SYDNEY, Australia—When a performance not only lifts one’s spirit but also rekindles one’s connection to a lost culture, you know it’s no ordinary show.
Such was the remark from Paul Folley, general manager for the Christian not-for-profit organisation Tradition, Family, Property (TFP) Australia, after watching Shen Yun at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 4.
Describing the performance as a “spectacle of beauty,” Mr. Folley noted how every element—stagecraft, choreography, costumes, colour, music, and 3D effects—seamlessly integrated to create an experience that transcended the mundane.
“Sometimes I looked and I thought, are these human beings or are these angels? Because it’s almost supernatural what they do,” he exclaimed.
This stands in sharp contrast to modern society, which he describes as “very materialistic.”
“On earth, to some extent, we can live as a reflection of heaven. But in the modern world, that’s all gone because everything’s so ugly and brutal,” Mr. Folley explained.
“We’re living in such stressful and depressing times with all kinds of problems going on in the world.
“And I see in this show, in the dancing and the interchanging culture, a whole other mentality.”
The key to Shen Yun’s power in uplifting one’s heart, he said, lies in “this reverence for the higher.”
“There’s this sense of respect and politeness and refinement that unfortunately we don’t have very much in the world today,” he noted, “We’ve lost so many good values that we need to tap back into our traditions.”
He pointed to family values and respect for the elderly, which the West seems to have forgotten.
“You can see in Asian culture how old people are respected and taken care of. There’s none of the disregard that we have in Western culture.”
Meanwhile, he noted, in modern China, the people there have endured “so many decades of being in the desert culturally.”
Shen Yun, which translates to “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” aims to restore the glory of five millennia of Chinese civilisation.
“People without a culture, people without tradition, is a people without a soul,” Mr. Folley added.
“And I think that this beautiful performance, it brings something of the soul back to China.
“I hope one day that dictatorship will be gone. I’m sure it will because when you look at history as a whole, the amount of time that the communists have been in China is only a very small part.
“And I’m sure it won’t last very long. That day will come when China will be free to become itself again and find its soul.”
