SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘A Wake-Up Call for People in the United States,’ Says Lawyer

Apr 06, 2023

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—On April 5, lawyer Mark Hodges attended Shen Yun’s evening show at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts.

During intermission, he said enthusiastically that “the overall experience has been wonderful!”

“The choreography was exceptional, and the dances were very tight and explosive. The imagery was phenomenal—how it was integrated into the graphics and the backdrop—it’s very, very well done!” Mr. Hodges expressed.

Shen Yun was established in 2006 by leading Chinese artists who had fled the persecution of China’s communist regime.

Based in New York, the company’s mission is to revive China’s 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture that had been destroyed by decades of communist rule.

While Mr. Hodges loved all the pieces, he was especially moved by Shen Yun’s story-dance depicting the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong—a peaceful meditation whose followers uphold the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

“[The dance] was terrific, but it also [showed] the reality of today—a secular world. It was very dramatic, traumatic, and impactful,” he said.

“It’s a wake-up call for people in the United States. When you let the leftists come in—the central government will completely undermine the values of the founders of America. These [values] can easily slip away—this happened in China.”

Referring to the traditions Shen Yun is reviving and sharing with the world, Mr. Hodges said these should be universal values, and he doesn’t understand how they could have been given up.

“China is extremely diverse. With the different dialects and different regions and all the people—there are lots of different ways of looking at life. These virtues and values are shared universally across Chinese culture and the people,” he expressed.

“Then the communists came in and took over—I don’t know how [the people] gave [these values] up. Maybe it happened because it was an inside job. It’s like what’s going on in the U.S.—a little lemon will ruin the whole loaf.”

Christian Wip and Maryna Pillock enjoyed Shen Yun’s evening performance at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts on April 5, 2023. (Nancy Ma/The Epoch Times) — Christian Wip and Maryna Pillock enjoyed Shen Yun’s evening performance at the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts on April 5, 2023. Nancy Ma/The Epoch Times

Also in the audience were company director Christian Wip and his girlfriend, Maryna Pillock.

It was the couple’s first-time attending Shen Yun, and they agreed that the performance was very enjoyable and they learned a lot.

Mr. Wip’s biggest takeaway from the show was that “we need to maintain Chinese culture—it went back thousands of years—we shouldn’t forget about that in this modern age.”

“The [vocalists] especially, were trying to send that message. It came across.”

He will definitely be recommending the show to everybody.

“It was good to see the history from thousands of years ago and the dances from across different parts of China,” he added. “The incredible hard work that the performers put in on stage was really good. It was inspiring to see.”

Reporting by Yawen Huang, Nancy Ma, and Jennifer Tseng.

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