SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

City Councillor Sees ‘Australian Values’ in Shen Yun

Feb 16, 2025

2/16/2025Updated: 2/16/2025

MELBOURNE, Australia—Blair Barker, councillor for Melbourne’s City of Whitehorse, found touching themes presented by Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Feb. 15, which resonated with him as an Australian.

Established in New York in 2006, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company.

According to Shen Yun’s website, for 5,000 years, divine culture flourished in the land of China. Shen Yun’s artists have taken inspiration from this rich history of Buddhist, Taoist, and other cultural traditions, including contemporary stories about people who practice the spiritual faith Falun Dafa today, to present to audiences around the world “China before communism.”

“When I think about truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance,” Mr. Barker said of the guiding principles of the Falun Dafa faith, “you see that in the celebrating [of values], compassion rewards others throughout the show. So I thought that was really touching.”

“Despite some of the characters being treated poorly by others,” Mr. Barker said of the stories based on true events of religious persecution in China against Falun Gong, “There was a redemption and a forgiveness there. I thought that was really touching.”

“You know, truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance; they’re Australian values too,” Mr. Barker added. “So I think the practicing of that freedom is really important to Australian democracy.”

Mr. Barker was able to enjoy Shen Yun with his wife Emma. Both of them found the spiritual themes presented in Shen Yun very moving.

“My wife and I loved it,” he said. “I thought it was one of the best performances I’ve seen in many, many years. It was high energy, it was interesting.”

“I think it’s important for all of us to have a belief in a higher power and that we owe one another, as human beings and whoever our Creator might be, the best service of ourselves,” he added.

“I’m a Christian myself, so I have a belief in a higher-order Creator as well,” he said.

Mr. Barker expressed his appreciation for the Chinese people and Chinese culture. They’re “absolutely amazing,” he said.

“I think many of us as Australians probably struggle with one-party Leninist dictatorships,” he said of modern China’s challenges. “We’re used to a democracy, and where people can practice their faith, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly—these are rights that we hold to be inalienable in Australia,” he said. “And I think people celebrating that … whether it’s Christians like myself gathering for our faith, that’s an important part of our society.”

“Come and see [Shen Yun] because it’s absolutely fantastic,” he said.

Reporting by NTD, Beatrice Lee, 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.