SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS REVIEWS

Toronto Patron Appreciates Seeing China Before Communism Through Shen Yun

Apr 06, 2025

4/6/2025Updated: 4/6/2025

TORONTO—John Fairbrother, a senior IT architect, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on April 5.

“It was fantastic, I really enjoyed it,” Mr. Fairbrother said. “I found that, especially the women, they’re very highly coordinated. It was beautiful to watch when you saw them all moving all at once. Especially the costumes, they flowed so much too. It gave it a lot of motion and a nice flow, which was really fantastic.”

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.”

“I definitely don’t quite agree with communism,” Mr. Fairbrother said. “It’s nice to see some expression of what [China] was before.”

When the Chinese Communist Party seized power in 1949, much of traditional Chinese culture—which is rooted in the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism—was abolished and destroyed. Mr. Fairbrother felt that it was “a shame [that] thousands of years of [culture was] no longer celebrated in its traditional country.”

Mr. Fairbrother complimented Shen Yun’s live orchestra, which combines traditional Chinese and Western instruments. He described the addition of the Chinese instruments as “a nice bonus.”

Mr. Fairbrother said that he also enjoyed the humour in some of the story-based dances that are part of Shen Yun’s program. Many of these story-based dances were adaptations of historical events or scenes from famous literary works.

Shen Yun’s performance captures the spiritual elements of traditional Chinese culture, something Mr. Fairbrother was able to appreciate.

“A peaceful life, a spiritual life, that’s something that does definitely appeal to me,” he said. “It’s nice that [Shen Yun is] trying to bring something out of that back and show it to people.”

Reporting by Charlie Lu 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.