Eye Surgeon Impressed by Shen Yun: ‘This Is Heaven, I’m so Grateful’
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Dr. Deric De Wit enjoyed Shen Yun's evening performance at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide, on April 6, 2023. Rachel Qu/The Epoch Times
ADELAIDE, Australia—Dr. Deric de Wit, an ophthalmologist who practices in the Barossa Valley region, South Australia, was intrigued and impressed by Shen Yun Performing Arts upon seeing it for the first time with his friends in Adelaide on April 6.
“This is heaven, I’m so grateful that I came tonight. Absolutely grateful,” he said during intermission.
De Wit said he was “absolutely impressed” by what he'd seen so far. “Just so intrigued to learn more about the Chinese culture, and seeing similarities in terms of the ethos and thoughts about divinity,” he said, adding that he “absolutely” believes the show will benefit society.
Formed in 2006 in New York, Shen Yun’s guiding mission is to reclaim and renew the divinely inspired cultural heritage of China, which has been all but lost under decades of communist rule. The company declares it is presenting “China before communism.”
Each year, Shen Yun brings together leading dancers, choreographers, singers, and musicians from around the world to create an experience that will not only be beautiful and memorable, but also enriching and uplifting.
“I heard about [Shen Yun] through my friends over here who basically picked up a flyer, then discussed it, and realised it was a banned performance [in China], which gave us a bit more impetus to see it,” De Wit said.
Classical Chinese dance is one way in which 5,000 years of Chinese culture has been preserved. A dance form built on profound traditional aesthetics, this art was continually enriched and refined over the years, becoming one of the most athletic and expressive art forms in the world today.
“I think that people are applauding because they see how much effort it takes them to be able to do all that with such precision, and such synchronicity, it was absolutely beautiful,” De Wit said of the performers.
‘A Great Cultural Experience’
Jan Koudelka (top 2nd from L) and his family enjoyed Shen Yun's evening performance at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide, on April 6, 2023. Rachel Qu/The Epoch Times
Jan Koudelka, a business development manager at a real assets investment firm based in Adelaide, was in the audience with his family on the same night. He said he would definitely recommend people who haven’t seen Shen Yun to go.
“It’s a great cultural experience. And it’s a great performance,” he said at intermission.
The diversity inherent in China’s culture stood out to him.
“I’ve really enjoyed the show so far. It’s really great. There’s so many different aspects to Chinese culture that you don’t realize, until you see these things,” he said, adding of the dances: “The variance of different dances across different cultures and ethnic tribes in China, it’s such a large country, [there’s] such a great variance in the culture and dances.”
Besides classical Chinese dance, which transcends regional differences in China and has a systematic foundation of training and technical skills, Shen Yun also presents Chinese ethnic and folk dances, which are non-systematic dance styles rooted in popular local traditions.
Chinese ethnic dance refers to dance forms passed down among the more than 50 minority ethnic groups within China. Chinese folk dances refer to popular dance styles that came from the local folk cultures of the majority Han ethnicity, such as the Yang Ge, ribbon, fan, and handkerchief dances.
Koudelka said Shen Yun can benefit society by showing and simplifying “what’s valuable, what’s important in life.”
“And it’s family, standing up for what you believe in, and realistically, just making the most of what you’ve got,” he said.
Forced Organ Harvesting in China Should ‘Definitely’ End: Business Manager
Jesse Hardy enjoyed Shen Yun's evening performance at the Festival Theatre, in Adelaide, on April 6, 2023. Steve Xu/The Epoch Times
Jesse Hardy, a business manager at a home visiting doctor service that operates in four Australian states, attended Shen Yun for the first time in Adelaide with his girlfriend on April 6.
“I really liked the costumes. They were amazing,” he said. “And the dance was beautiful ... you can see a lot of practice. A lot of hard work.”
He was impacted by Shen Yun’s depiction of the persecution of Falun Dafa in China and the Chinese Communist Party’s organ transplant abuses.
“It was difficult to see,” Hardy commented of a story-based dance that depicted a young girl persecuted to death at the hands of the CCP.
Shen Yun’s artistic team has been bringing stories related to the persecution of Falun Dafa in China. The CCP in 1999 launched a nationwide persecution against millions who practice Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong—an ancient spiritual practice based on truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. But while the persecution persists more than 20 years later, these spiritual seekers persevere in their faith.
Falun Dafa practitioners form the bulk of the prisoners of conscience targeted for forced organ harvesting by the communist regime.
“I know there is persecution in China, I’m aware of it,” Hardy said. “But to see it from that aspect where it could go a completely different way—it’s not just death, it’s using humans for organs and things like that, that is really difficult to kind of see that kind of thing.”
Hardy said that forced organ harvesting should “definitely” end. “I’m aware that it does happen, especially in China,” he said.
Reporting by Rachel Qu, Steve Xu, and Mimi Nguyen Ly.
