SAN FRANCISCO—Property manager Estercita Aldinger Miani was met with an interesting dilemma while watching Shen Yun’s performance at the War Memorial Opera House on Jan. 6. “The music was divine. I wanted to close my eyes to listen to the
music, but it was hard because I also wanted to see the performance. It was graceful and artistic. I don’t want to miss any of it.”
Ms. Miani thought
Shen Yun Performing Arts is exactly what the world needs right now. “It was very spiritual. [The show] is filled with the power of God and the power of love, and the power of beauty. It was filled with light,” she said.
Based in New York,
Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. The artists’ mission is to bring back China’s 5,000 years of divinely-inspired culture that had been destroyed by decades of communist rule.
Prior to the regime’s spread of atheism, the spiritual teachings of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism were indelible parts of Chinese life. Shen Yun’s goal is to share with everyone, the beauty of China before
communism.
“I don’t know a lot about China, so [Shen Yun] made me very curious about the culture and the people, and [develop] a love for its history, and dance and music. I want to keep coming back. It touched my heart very much,” she said.
Ms. Miani said the lyrics sung by Shen Yun’s
vocalists really resonated with her. “The songs were very powerful. It was saying that atheism and modernism are changing our world. They’re not very popular messages right now, especially where we live, but I think they’re needful messages. We need to hear them. To show that and say it to the world—it was very bold.”
Ms. Miani was also moved by Shen Yun’s modern-day dance piece portraying the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong, a meditation practice from the Buddhist tradition that upholds the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
“I appreciate [Shen Yun] sharing the different things that are going on in China and being very brave and bold. They have no fear in standing up to say [what they believe in] over and over again. So that touched me a lot,” she said. “It makes me feel more connected to Chinese people and understand them in a new way. It’s so special.”
“These things that happen on earth cannot destroy goodness and light because they are more powerful. You see that in the dances. Man cannot destroy goodness. [The performance] did a perfect job in portraying that through dance and music, and making you feel that hope.”
Reporting by Zhou Rong and Jennifer Tseng.
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