SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Shen Yun Revives ‘Beautiful Tradition,’ Says Business Owner

Apr 16, 2025

4/16/2025Updated: 4/17/2025

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Ahead of seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts, Jennifer Snead learned that it was a performance that could not be seen in China today.

“It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful—and what a beautiful tradition that’s been quashed by communism,” said Ms. Snead, a business owner, seeing Shen Yun at the Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on April 16.

Shen Yun, the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company, is based in New York. It was founded in 2006 by artists from around the world, including Chinese immigrants who had experienced religious persecution by the Chinese Communist Party before they left the country. Through music and dance, Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization—"China before communism.:

“It’s beautiful and it really exemplifies, I guess, what I didn’t know existed,” Ms. Snead said. “What a beautiful culture. I love the Chinese people and my heart really aches for them for what their oppression, that they’re suffering.”

Ms. Snead said the performance was “very impressive,” and she saw in the artists “pride, perfection, a lot of practice, a life dedicated to this.”

Shen Yun’s artistry and mission were also moving to Julie Fetcho, a vice president of risk management, who said this was her second time seeing Shen Yun and she felt all the more interested in supporting the group when she learned they were being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime.

In addition to their mission to revive China’s divinely inspired traditional culture through the arts, Shen Yun artists practice Falun Gong (Falun Dafa), a spiritual practice that the Chinese communist regime has labeled a top target for persecution. Falun Gong teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance, and was introduced to the public in China in the early 1990s.

“First of all, it’s a beautiful art form. It’s worth supporting. I also feel like it’s an important awareness raising effort as well,” Ms. Fetcho said. “I feel that it’s important that people understand. ... We in the United States stand for religious freedom. And the Chinese Communist Party is systematically trying to persecute religious freedom.

“This performance is such a high quality. The pageantry, the costumes, the athleticism, it’s something people should see at least once in their lifetime,” Ms. Fetcho said.

Reporting by Maggie Xie, Nancy Bao, and Catherine Yang.

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