SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Gives You Hope for the Future,’ Say Pittsburgh Patrons

Apr 27, 2025

4/27/2025Updated: 4/27/2025

PITTSBURGH—Sam Reed, a CFO, and Donna Reed, a dental assistant, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts’ matinee performance at The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts on April 27.

“It’s just beautiful colors, beautiful costumes,“ Mr. Reed said. ”The music is fantastic.”

“I just admire the dedication of the dancers and the costuming and how the silks just flow,” Mrs. Reed said. “They’re all so incredible. Just the dedication is amazing.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception, Shen Yun has expanded from one to eight equally sized companies that tour around the world simultaneously, reviving traditional Chinese culture and showcasing the beauty of “China before communism.”

Mr. Reed was impressed by the dancers’ athleticism and “how they jump around, and flip, and the gracefulness of their movements.”

“They’re just fantastic,” he said.

Meanwhile, “just the fact that there are young people who are so dedicated” was what stood out to Mrs. Reed the most.

“In today’s world, you just don’t see that a whole lot—young people being dedicated,” she said. “It just gives you hope for the future. I can’t say enough good about the show.”

Shen Yun performs with a live orchestra that is unique because it combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments. Mr. Reed said he loved the music “because it’s so different [from] Western music.”

“I just love it,” Mr. Reed said. “It’s much different than anything I can hear on the radio, or that we normally would listen to.”

Mr. Reed pointed to Chinese culture’s suppression and “what’s been going on in China the last 100 years” as the reason why he has never heard Chinese music like what Shen Yun performed anywhere else. In fact, since the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, much of traditional Chinese culture was destroyed and abolished. Shen Yun depicts the true essence of Chinese culture, and for this reason, cannot perform in China.

“It’s just a shame what’s happened there,” Mr. Reed said. “You saw communism rise and fall in Europe, and it hasn’t fallen in China yet. It just oppresses people. You suppress the genius of the common man. People aspire to make their lives better, to provide for their families, and they just don’t have those opportunities.”

Mr. and Mrs. Reed both expressed their belief in the importance of Shen Yun’s mission to revive traditional culture.

“I can’t imagine our nation without our history and culture,” Mr. Reed said. “How do you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re at?”

“I just love their traditions,” Mrs. Reed said. “It’s just nice to see other people’s ways and traditions and learn other people’s traditions. ... It’s good to expand your mind to the way other people live and believe in and things like that.”

Mrs. Reed expressed her appreciation for all the people involved in producing Shen Yun as well.

“When you are blessed with a talent, you go with it,” Mrs. Reed said.

“And they are all blessed with many talents. I mean, even down to the people who do the costuming. ... The technicians who do the screen behind it, the lighting. It’s a whole production.”

The couple have now seen Shen Yun for two years in a row, and Mrs. Reed said that not only do they “constantly recommend it to people,” but also that they will “keep coming every year.”

Reporting by Frank Liang and Wandi Zhu.

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