SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun ‘Reminding People That Chinese Culture Is Not Rooted in Communism,’ Says Publisher

Apr 27, 2025

4/27/2025Updated: 4/27/2025

PITTSBURGH, Pa.—Chip Dolfi, a publisher of history books, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts on April 26.

“I thought the choreography was spectacular,” Mr. Dolfi said. “I thought the costuming was brilliant. I thought the arrangements of the music were very fulfilling,”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Since its inception, Shen Yun has expanded from one to eight equally sized companies that tour around the world simultaneously, reviving traditional Chinese culture and showcasing the beauty of “China before communism.”

As someone who publishes books about history, Mr. Dolfi felt strongly about the preservation of history and the importance of Shen Yun’s mission.

“I feel if you lose your history, you’ve lost why you’re here,“ he said. ”I think it is extraordinarily important because if people don’t know the whole story, they don’t know the real story. And if they don’t know the real story, they don’t know the whole story of how they got to where they are today.“

”If you lose culture, you lose history. You lose the history, you lose the culture. What were the influences historically on the culture that got us to where we are today? You have to have it. So the importance of the continuation of the culture is very, very important.”

Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the spiritual and moral teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Mr. Dolfi believes that what Shen Yun is doing is not only preserving traditional Chinese culture but also the traditional values that define Chinese culture.

“Let’s not forget from where we come, and let’s not forget that culture because that gave us the core values, that gave us a sense of who we are today,” Mr. Dolfi said. “And so, with [Shen Yun] perpetuating that, with [them] bringing that forward, [they’re] reminding people of the Chinese culture from 5,000 years ago so that it’s not lost.”

When the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, it abolished China’s traditional culture and beliefs and replaced them with its own atheist ideologies. Mr. Dolfi said that Shen Yun is showing people around the world what true Chinese culture is.

“What you’re reading in the paper, what you’re seeing on television is not traditional Chinese culture,” Mr. Dolfi said. “A lot of Americans and Europeans don’t know what traditional Chinese culture is. They only know what they’re dealing with today, and that’s a disservice to Chinese culture if everybody thinks that. ... What we see on television today, what we read in the papers is Chinese culture. No, this (Shen Yun) is Chinese culture. So it’s critical that [they] keep this going.”

Shen Yun’s performance depicts traditional Chinese culture’s spiritual elements, which Mr. Dolfi views as very important. Mr. Dolfi believes that people once knew that China was deeply spiritual and that they will recall that once they are reminded.

“I think it’s important because you’re reminding people that Chinese culture is not rooted in communism. It’s rooted in deity. It’s rooted in religion and beliefs, not in communism. So I think it’s a critical thing to remind not only non-Chinese but Chinese as well, because the youth in China today and some of the other influencers are against everything that the culture has been. So I think it’s important.”

For Mr. Dolfi, Shen Yun’s biggest contribution to society is “reminding us to get back to our moral base, our spiritual base, our conservative values, our values of family, our values of faith, our values of spirituality.”

Reporting by Frank Liang 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.