EUGENE, Ore.—Anne Conlee-Brower, an artist, had seen Shen Yun Performing Arts before, falling in love with the ancient myths and legends brought to life from China’s 5,000-year civilization. On Jan. 26, she attended another performance of
Shen Yun at the Hult Center with a a friend, finding the new production as beautiful as ever.
Retired now, Ms. Conlee-Brower had worked extensively in theater and as a percussionist, and as a fiber artist whose work was shown in galleries across the Northwest.
“It is right at the top of one of the most spectacular shows I’ve ever seen,” she said.
“Having always worked in fiber arts, I love, love the costuming, the colors, the way the colors move with the style of the
costuming,” Ms. Conlee-Brower added.
New York-based Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese
dance company, often praised by those in the art world for the beauty and artistry of its production.
Formed in 2006, the artists of Shen Yun had decided to use the performing arts to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, taking as their mission to share with the world “China before communism.”
Ms. Conlee-Brower said this moved her when she learned about it upon seeing her first Shen Yun performance eight years ago.
“That was really impactful to me,” she said. “It’s a crime that it can’t be shown in China. That’s really sad to me.”
Traditional Chinese culture is a divinely inspired culture, and the atheist
Chinese communist regime has continually tried to uproot this traditional culture over its 75-year rule, such as with the Cultural Revolution.
Ms. Conlee-Brower felt that while the communist regime stood for violence and narrowness,
Shen Yun presented the opposite: hope and caring.
“It’s that gentle stand against the narrowness of whether it’s communism ... dictatorships ... the narrowness of almost bullying,” she said.
“To see the gentleness and the caring through the storytelling ... that equates to hope,” she said. “We can’t give up. We can’t give up. There’s still beauty in the world. You can’t give in to or be crushed by the greed.”
She felt
Shen Yun “reinforces we have to keep hopeful.”
“We have to keep looking at beauty in the world. We have to keep looking at tolerance. We have to keep looking at compassion in the world,” she said.
She added she was supportive of Shen Yun’s
mission and believed traditional culture had to be kept alive, and that people can learn beauty from history with a heart of acceptance and tolerance.
“Each time I see it, I gain a little bit more understanding,” she said.
Reporting by Lily Yu and Catherine Yang.
