SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Theatergoer Impressed by Discipline of Shen Yun’s Performers

Apr 28, 2023

UNIVERSITY PARK, Illinois—Will Asfour, a consultant, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University on Apr. 27.

“It’s cool to learn history, culture, and arts and dances,” said Mr. Asfour. “I think it’s good for people to reverse their takes and things like that … I’m enjoying it a lot.”

Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 and is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance and music company. Now with eight equally sized companies touring the world simultaneously, Shen Yun’s mission is to revive traditional Chinese culture and to give its audiences a glimpse of pre-communist China.

Mr. Asfour said that he enjoyed the passion of the Himalayan ethnic dance and that he appreciated that the performance also touched on some modern-day issues, such as “how you can’t really express certain things in China to this day without getting persecuted.”

Shen Yun’s program includes story-based dances, some of which are set in modern-day China and depict the Chinese government’s persecution of followers of faith.

Mr. Asfour said that his impression of traditional China was that “there’s a lot of rich culture traditions.”

“A lot of things we use today come from that region of the world, and I think it’s important to learn,” he said. “It’s also good to show different countries and different people, different cultures [in a] positive light ... I love Chinese history and culture—so I just want to learn more about it.”

Mr. Asfour also praised the performers’ discipline, which he felt was “a good positive message.”

“The discipline it takes to perform these dances—you know how rigorous it is and … everyone lights up watching.”

“You could tell it takes a lot of discipline and practice and will,” Mr. Asfour added. “[They can stay] perfectly still and [be] exactly on time with the music.”

Shen Yun’s name means “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” and the show contains spiritual elements that come from the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which make up the foundations of China culture. Mr. Asfour shared his opinion that it is important for people to learn about spirituality.

“I think it (Shen Yun) has a focus on a higher power [or] spiritual being,“ he said. It just feels [like] God likes this.”

“I think it’s very important for like everyone to be in touch with your spiritual side,” said Mr. Asfour.

“I think a lot of people have spiritual voids that they need to fill, whether it’s through faith or through meditation or discipline or practice, but I think it’s important to learn about it.”

Reporting by Stacey Tang 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.