SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Brings Out the Best in Human Beings’: NSW Shadow Treasurer

Mar 16, 2024

SYDNEY, Australia—When asked to share his impression of Shen Yun, the New South Wales (NSW) Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Damien Tudehope, gave two words—“the best.”

“When you see people at their best, performing at their best, culturally at their best, that is a thing which is fantastic for us all,” he said after watching the classical Chinese dance performance at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 16.

“I think that there is a significant impact on the modern world because when you see people at their best, people want to follow them … It is something which brings out the best in human beings.

“And in many respects, that’s a message for us all, that the period that we live our lives is about doing our best.”

What the audience saw on the stage of Shen Yun is “an exuberance of human beings,” which is a breath of fresh air to the mundane, daily grinds.

“The day-to-day life that we all live sometimes is just the same and same and same again,” the shadow treasurer said. “But when you see people at their best performing in this way, then there is something wonderful which emerges from it.

“And I think probably for us all, it is uplifting.”

Mr. Tudehope said it’s a “great experience for the people of Sydney to be able to see,” yet at the same time, “a tragedy in many respects that the whole world does not participate in seeing this fantastic performance.”

Praising Shen Yun for its “breathtaking dancing, breathtaking stories,” he said what emerged from the show was the quality of the performance, which is “just something extraordinary.”

“This is culturally China at its best,” he noted.

Shen Yun Brings Back China’s Great Civilisational Achievements: Manager

John Macaulay attends the Shen Yun Performing Arts with his wife at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 16, 2024. (Melanie Sun/The Epoch Times) — John Macaulay attends the Shen Yun Performing Arts with his wife at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 16, 2024. Melanie Sun/The Epoch Times

While also commenting on the cultural aspect of Shen Yun, John Macaulay, who works as a manager in the shipping industry, looked at the issue from another perspective.

Mr. Macaulay, who had lived in China for a year, said the ability to absorb and create and appreciate traditional Chinese culture “seems to be lost in modern China, as if it’s a guilty pleasure.”

He recalled an experience of attending a folklore show in the mountainous region in China, which he described as “spectacular.” But while he was “mesmerised and spellbound for hours and hours,” he found that a lot of the Chinese audience “had been inured, or had become numb to that awe, and they couldn’t really plumb the depths of their own culture.”

“That’s not the case tonight,” Mr. Macaulay added.

“When you get exposed to a show like tonight, and you recognise the great cultural and civilisational achievements, then and only then do you begin to appreciate that the Chinese have a lot to be proud of,” he said.

Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company which was established with a mission to bring back 5,000 years of Chinese culture. For decades, the communist party has been trying to destroy this cultural heritage, which it considered a threat to its authoritarian rule.

According to the company’s website, what’s called classical Chinese dance in China today is in fact often mixed with military or modern dance styles. It is only in Shen Yun that classical Chinese dance is performed in its purest form.

Mr. Macaulay said while Chinese people should be “very proud of their pre-revolutionary history,” it’s also important to recognise that they have been living under a totalitarian regime “for too long.”

“It would be foolish to equate the Chinese people with their government, just as it would be foolish to downplay the enormous cultural achievements pre-Chinese Communist Party and before the revolution.”

Righteousness Shines On The Stage: Teacher

Salina Saluja, high school science teacher, attends the Shen Yun Performing Arts with her family at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 16, 2024. (Melanie Sun/The Epoch Times) — Salina Saluja, high school science teacher, attends the Shen Yun Performing Arts with her family at Capitol Theatre in Sydney on March 16, 2024. Melanie Sun/The Epoch Times

Unlike Mr. Macaulay, Salina Saluja, a high school science teacher, has never been to China. But, having seen the performance for the sixth year, she said Shen Yun showed her “an entirely different side of China” from the stories she had heard.

“It shows how people are still talking about righteousness, and people are still thinking about doing the right thing or standing up for a cause,” Ms. Saluja noted.

“And there is kindness there always. I’m glad that the people of China—they are thinking about those right things.”

Ms. Saluja said she was particularly touched by the scene of a boy holding up the banner saying “truthfulness-compassion-tolerance”—the principles of the spiritual practice of Falun Dafa—in the face of the persecution.

At that moment, the boy “indulged in the feelings of happiness” of his belief in the divine, which “will always take you on the right path,” she said.

“It gives us a message that if you’re doing everything you can do, everything right, God is always with you,” Ms. Saluja added.

“So you keep on doing the right things without even thinking about the consequence or how we can do it. If it is really, really hard. You just keep doing it.”

“The people who are going on the path of righteousness, God is always with them.”

Reporting by NTD and Nina Nguyen.

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