Shen Yun Is a ‘Great Display of Culture and History,’ Says Boston Theatergoer
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Tim Howard and his daughter Lexy Howard attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Wang Theatre at the Boch Center in Boston, Mass., on Dec. 30, 2023. Frank Liang/The Epoch Times
BOSTON—On Dec. 30, Tim Howard, president and CEO of RMON Networks, and his daughter Lexy Howard, a student at Northeastern University, attended Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Boch Center. Both father and daughter said that they enjoyed learning about Chinese culture through Shen Yun’s performance.
“I think it’s beautiful,” Ms. Howard said. “I think it’s a great display of culture and history.”
“I’m learning a lot about … Chinese culture and the different dances,” Mr. Howard said. “It’s really interesting to see how they’re putting it all together.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists. As the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company, Shen Yun performs an all-new program every year, sharing the beauty of traditional Chinese culture as it was before being demolished by the Chinese Communist Party with audience members around the world.
Mr. Howard and his daughter both expressed their hopes to travel to China someday and acknowledged that in the meantime, Shen Yun’s performance was a great way to learn about China’s ancient culture. Shen Yun’s performance not only has classical Chinese dance pieces, but also ethnic and folk dances.
“It’s just eye-opening … to be able to see how all over China there’s different ethnicities, and how they all come together and bring the peace of their various areas into one,” Mr. Howard said. “It’s beautiful.”
Mr. Howard said that he also appreciated the performance’s energy.
“It fills me up with happiness. As I watch every single show that they’re doing or every piece that they’re doing for the show, it just makes me feel that much more happy, it makes me feel that much more vibrant, and I’m yearning for more. I can’t wait to see more.”
Unparalleled
Michael O'Boyle watched Shen Yun at the Boch Center's Wang Theatre in Boston, Mass., on Dec. 30, 2023. Weiyong Zhu/The Epoch Times
Also in the audience was Michael O’Boyle, an orthopedic surgeon, who watched Shen Yun for the first time.
“The choreography, the athleticism is unparalleled,” he said.
Dance and music are often called universal languages that can transcend cultural barriers to touch the audience’s souls, and Mr. O’Boyle was delighted to find that he had no difficulty understanding Shen Yun’s performance.
“I’m shocked that I’ve been able to follow the story so well with just a little bit of narrative they give in the beginning,” he said. “I thought that this would be hard to follow because I was thinking there wouldn’t be any kind of language involved. They give that little narrative and then the choreography just spells out the story so beautifully.”
Although Shen Yun’s performance largely focuses on the beauty of ancient China, the program also includes story dances set in modern-day China.
“I was surprised about them talking about some of the problems we have with China right now with some of the human suffering that goes on over there,” Mr. O’Boyle said. “I was actually happy to hear that brought up, but … it wasn’t emphasized. It was mentioned, it gave me a different perspective on what the show was about, but it wasn’t overblown.”
Mr. O’Boyle added he appreciated that Shen Yun’s performance “has the messages, the storylines, that are universal from one culture to the other.”
“I thought that was wonderful,” he said.
Reporting by Weiyong Zhu, Frank Liang, and Wandi Zhu.
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