(Clearwisdom.net) Shen Yun Performing Arts aims at promoting the traditional, divinely-inspired Chinese culture. Shen Yun's performances have been praised both by Western and Eastern audiences, earning the group the reputation of being a well-respected, top flight performing arts company. For the past several years, Shen Yun Performing Arts has been touring the world, including North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Every show has received exuberant, favorable reviews from its international audience, and the DVD of Shen Yun Performing Arts has quickly made its way around mainland China. The following is a collection of impressions from people in China who have watched the Shen Yun performance on DVD.
University Student: Amazed that Shen Yun Purified His Spirit
Zhong, 21, is a fourth-year university student. He remarked that this is the first time in his 21 years that he has seen such a wonderful and superb performance as Shen Yun.
Mr. Zhong said that although he grew up in China, he has little understanding of the divinely-inspired Chinese culture. After seeing Shen Yun perform, the main thing that struck him was that the profoundness of Chinese culture seems beyond what a human being can grasp.
When asked which performance left him with the deepest impression, Mr. Zhong responded, "The soprano at the beginning [Soprano Huang Biru singing "Hesitate No Longer"]. When the song started, the lyrics and the music purified all the bad things in my mind. Even people like me, who are so complicated, can be purified. It was simply unbelievable. Also, the lyrics in Huang Biru's "May You Understand," 'A thousand years of reincarnation / Knowing not from whence we came / So many lifetimes passed in a daze / Living without a clear reason why.' I purposefully wrote down the lyrics, which made me think deeply... why do human beings live in this world, and what are we living for? Many older people told me, for a human being, no matter how much fortune you have, after you die, you are just a can of ashes. Everything will turn into nothing. But why on earth should we work hard like this? It seems that we have discarded our souls."
When talking about Falun Gong being persecuted, Mr. Zhong said, "After watching the dance, 'Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution,' although I don't know much about Falun Gong, this DVD made me feel that Falun Gong is not ordinary."
The piece "Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution" depicts how Falun Gong practitioners are severely persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party for practicing their belief in the Buddha Law of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. The dance shows that even so, the persecution cannot change their determined belief. Good will finally be rewarded with good, and evil will be punished with karmic retribution. In the dance, the practitioner who was persecuted to death for his faith transcended the evil persecution and his life was elevated forever.
Voice Student Highly Praises Shen Yun Vocalist
A student with the last name of Pan, who studies vocal music in the arts department of her school, said after watching the Shen Yun DVD, "The whole performance is the re-appearance of divine beings in this human world. That soprano named Huang Biru has a very good voice, and she has attained three-cavity resonance [which refers to head cavity resonance, oral cavity resonance, and chest cavity resonance]. Such a level can hardly be achieved by ordinary vocalists."
The Shen Yun Performing Arts most recent world tour started on December 19, 2008, with three performing arts groups and two orchestras touring North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The three companies have to-date performed two hundred and eighty-one shows for a total audience of over 800,000. With the global popularity of the Shen Yun tour, more and more people have come to love and appreciate Chinese classical dance and culture.
The Performance Is So True to Life
Liang Xin (alias), a worker for an enterprise in Sui Ning, Sichuan Province, said that her biggest impression of the performance was that she felt the truth. She explained, "I have lived to such an old age, and my son and daughter are already on their own, out in the workforce. Supposedly, a person of my age should be able to face everything with a mind as calm as still water. However, it was different in watching Shen Yun, which gave me the impression of being true, very very true. It is really beautiful."
In talking about the pieces depicting Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted, Liang Xin said, "The performance is so true to life. It is exactly something happening in our daily lives. It is so true."
"The pieces are not false or fake as those made in China," Liang Xin said. "I don't think I am able to use my own language to describe the beauty of Shen Yun."
