SeaAndSky
Senior Registered
This is a review on the Chinese themed dance experience "Shen Yun". You may well have seen it promoted as well, as the group that sponsors these performances has eight separate companies on tour and offer heavily advertised performances almost everywhere on an annual basis. I have seen advertisements for these performances for many years and finally received some tickets as a gift from my son. It was a bit of a surprise in several ways:
1. I had vaguely assumed that this was some type of cultural outreach by Communist China, or some group allowed to tour by Communist China. It is not, and is actually quite the opposite.
2. The group behind these performances is actually the Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa). I did not find this out until sometime well into the performances, though my suspicions started building fairly early. Those of us who were alive way back in the 90s and early 2000s will probably remember them as a religious sect that boomed in China during that period, leading the Chinese leadership to seek to stamp them out in the most brutal ways possible. As far as anyone I was listening to could tell at the time, their main crime was being popular and attracting a lot of followers in a country where this status was arrogated to itself by the Communist Party. Otherwise, they seem to emphasize their own particular styles of Qi Gong, good morals, and their own very distinctive theology. I thought they had been destroyed, but a good number of them apparently escaped the country and seem to have flourished in the West where they now operate a large (400 plus acre enclave) in New York, with these performances being part of their outreach.
3. The performances were just as good as I had hoped with fantastic dancing, including a series of story-telling dances (rather like ballet) along with some fairly unique special effects (or at least unique from my perspective--though I admittedly live a rather provincial life). However, you will also need to be ready for some fairly unsubtle propagandizing, mostly related to how bad the Communists are and the their religious beliefs. On the latter, I am no expert though the presentations reminded me of a mix of Mormonism and Buddhism--which would be one of the most unlikely combinations I could imagine. However, I tend to be fascinated by anything new in the field of religion, and have a low opinion of communist regimes--so no problem.
4. With the foregoing provisos and warnings, I would heartily recommend the show. It is beautifully done, and the dancers are incredibly skilled and professional. If you do see it, or have seen it in the past (and even if you have not), I would love to get your thoughts.
Best,
S&S
PS--They apparently believe in reincarnation--so there is a bit of a tie-in to the board.
1. I had vaguely assumed that this was some type of cultural outreach by Communist China, or some group allowed to tour by Communist China. It is not, and is actually quite the opposite.
2. The group behind these performances is actually the Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa). I did not find this out until sometime well into the performances, though my suspicions started building fairly early. Those of us who were alive way back in the 90s and early 2000s will probably remember them as a religious sect that boomed in China during that period, leading the Chinese leadership to seek to stamp them out in the most brutal ways possible. As far as anyone I was listening to could tell at the time, their main crime was being popular and attracting a lot of followers in a country where this status was arrogated to itself by the Communist Party. Otherwise, they seem to emphasize their own particular styles of Qi Gong, good morals, and their own very distinctive theology. I thought they had been destroyed, but a good number of them apparently escaped the country and seem to have flourished in the West where they now operate a large (400 plus acre enclave) in New York, with these performances being part of their outreach.
3. The performances were just as good as I had hoped with fantastic dancing, including a series of story-telling dances (rather like ballet) along with some fairly unique special effects (or at least unique from my perspective--though I admittedly live a rather provincial life). However, you will also need to be ready for some fairly unsubtle propagandizing, mostly related to how bad the Communists are and the their religious beliefs. On the latter, I am no expert though the presentations reminded me of a mix of Mormonism and Buddhism--which would be one of the most unlikely combinations I could imagine. However, I tend to be fascinated by anything new in the field of religion, and have a low opinion of communist regimes--so no problem.
4. With the foregoing provisos and warnings, I would heartily recommend the show. It is beautifully done, and the dancers are incredibly skilled and professional. If you do see it, or have seen it in the past (and even if you have not), I would love to get your thoughts.
Best,
S&S
PS--They apparently believe in reincarnation--so there is a bit of a tie-in to the board.

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