SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Is ‘Truth Mixed With Beauty,’ Says Hardware Design Engineer

Jan 11, 2023

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.—Audience members have said in the past that Shen Yun Performing Arts is more than just simple entertainment and that it sends important messages. Hardware design engineer Eric Harrah and his wife Elaine Harrah, a stay-at-home wife and mother, could concur. The couple attended Shen Yun at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts on Jan. 10.

“It was beautiful. I loved it. It was wonderful,” said Mr. Harrah. “There’s a lot of truth spoken to it, and truth mixed with beauty. There is a great message that really spoke to us in a lot of ways.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists, who made it their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance and music. According to the Shen Yun website, China was once known as the “Land of the Divine,” and its culture was deeply spiritual, yet this was all abolished by the atheist communist party that took power in 1949.

Mr. Harrah shared the message he got from watching Shen Yun’s performance.

“[The] divine hasn’t forgotten about us,” he said. “God hasn’t forgotten about us … I know that China has gone through a very difficult time. The whole world is going through a significantly difficult period of time, and there’s a limit to how far evil can go. It will come to an end in time. Heaven hasn’t forgotten about us.”

The whole world is going through a significantly difficult period of time, and there's a limit to how far evil can go. It will come to an end in time. Heaven hasn't forgotten about us.

— Eric Harrah

Shen Yun’s program is made up of a series of dance vignettes. The opening piece depicts divine beings who follow the Creator to descend from the heavens to the Earth and establish Chinese civilization. The image sparked hope in Mr. and Mrs. Harrah, and the idea that there was hope for the future was one of their biggest takeaways.

“There was a moment at the very beginning—especially when … the divine dancers were dancing—where I could see heaven being just this constant series of dance and music and beauty. Just forever. That really spoke to me that that’s the kind of hope [for] humanity. There’s something beautiful in us that’s waiting to come out. Once we can finally put aside all the evil ideologies that continue to want to drag our souls down, that’s the true humanity that wants to spring forth, that wants to be in eternity.”

To see beauty and artistry for the sake of beauty and artistry … is truly breathtaking. It was inspirational and very uplifting.

— Elaine Harrah

“Our society has become so corrupt and bad,” said Mrs. Harrah. “To see beauty and artistry for the sake of beauty and artistry … is truly breathtaking. It was inspirational and very uplifting.”

Mrs. Harrah appreciated Shen Yun’s adherence to traditional values. She said the performance gave her “hope that there is still beauty to be found in the world.”

“Everything has become base—our music, our art, our society, even the lack of manners,” she said. “Even the fact that they (Shen Yun) did ask for a dress code is incredible, because there’s a time and a place and you should dress appropriately for it. Those are things that we’re trying to teach our children, but they’re being lost.”

Mrs. Harrah felt encouraged by what Shen Yun was doing. “It gave me hope that there are still people who value beauty and hard work, and a sense of propriety and time and place. That made me really encouraged.”

“Some things are worth working hard for and beauty is one of those things.”

Reported by Sherry Dong 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.