SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun a Wonderful Way to Reconnect With Spirituality, Says Columnist

Mar 05, 2025

SANT CUGAT, Spain—Sayde Chaling Chong García, columnist for the Spanish newspaper El Debate, felt connected on many levels seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts on March 4.

New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, with a mission to show audiences China before communism.

“The show is wonderful, it’s a reconnection with my ancestors,” Mr. Garcia said. “In every way.”

Mr. Garcia is of Chinese descent, owing to his great grandfather, and has written in his column about China, the Chinese communist’s religious persecution and destruction of tradition, and Falun Gong.

He felt the 5,000 years Shen Yun brought to life through music and dance helped him connect with the things his grandfather spoke about, and the story-based dance based on true events shone a spotlight on the Chinese communist regime’s persecution of Falun Gong.

“I think it’s fundamental to denounce ... the religious persecution that’s going on in China,” Mr. Garcia said.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a peaceful spiritual discipline that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. It was introduced to the public in the 1990s, and by 1999 the Chinese communist regime banned it and targeted its practitioners for violent persecution.

The spiritual group remains a top target for persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, and Mr. Garcia added that the regime’s religious persecution extends to other groups like Christians as well.

“Very terrible situations are taking place, and I think it has to be made known, because it’s essential that in the West they stop this romanticism that they have with China, especially because of communist romanticism,” Mr. Garcia said.

In contrast to the atheist communist regime, traditional Chinese culture is divinely inspired and, therefore deeply spiritual.

This spirituality stood out to and affected Mr. Garcia.

“I thought it was wonderful. I thought it was a different way of looking at spirituality,” said Mr. Garcia, who found parallels in the stories to his own belief, Christianity.

“In these times of many social networks, of so much materialism, and it is not that we dislike material things or comforts, nor do we want to live in a cave, but I believe spirituality is essential,” he added.

“This show made me feel emotional at certain moments. The messages flash by and they are very important,” he said.

“These moments are key and they make you question things as a human. We who live here in the West, so comfortable in our lifestyle, and above all, I believe it is vital to talk about spirituality and religious freedom. I think that is the heart of this matter.”

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