ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Anthony Segoria, an electrical engineer for Qualcomm in circuit design, attended this year’s Shen Yun at the Escondido Center for the Performing Arts Saturday evening with his son, wife, grandparents, and friends. He says he attended with 12 people altogether.
Segoria’s colleagues, who are Chinese, recommended the performance. “It’s good to see the culture, and the dancing is phenomenal—it’s spectacular. It’s a different type of dance. So it’s new to me,” he said.
He also said the
music in the performance was amazing.
Shen Yun’s live orchestra incorporates ancient Chinese instruments into an otherwise
classical Western orchestra. Accompanying the dancers, the unique ensemble performs original compositions featuring ancient Chinese melodies and the grandeur of the Western classical form.
He sees parallels between Chinese and American culture.
“The
singing about Christian values, having a heaven,” Mr. Segoria relates.
Shen Yun was first launched by followers of the Chinese spiritual practice Falun Dafa in 2006 and has since toured around the world in an effort to “
revive 5,000 years of civilization” nearly destroyed by the Chinese communist regime’s Cultural Revolution. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, but has been persecuted by the communist regime in China since 1999.
Instead, Mr. Segoria acknowledges that we are
spiritual beings. “Something you can’t capture with technology, and you can’t capture with software,” he said. “There’s a spirit in the person that can’t be duplicated.”
He thought Shen Yun was a great platform to bring the message. “The dancing is phenomenal, and the culture and the dress are so different. It’s great to see another culture—a very large culture.”
Mr. Segoria said he would definitely be talking about the performance with his colleagues at work.
“I’m going to tell them that it was a very, very good show,” he said. “Very, very talented people on the stage. Very, very talented, great acting.”
Reporting by Jane Yang and Kimberly Hayek.
