NEW YORK—”When I watched it, I was exposed to art that feeds the spiritual side,” said poet Huang Xiang, after watching Shen Yun Performing Arts at Lincoln Center on Sunday.
Shen Yun, which received a standing ovation after the show, was established in 2006 with one mission: to revive 5,000 years of divinely inspired Chinese culture—including principles such as kindness, wisdom, sincerity, and a reverence for the heavens, says Shen Yun’s website. This culture was nearly destroyed by more than 60 years of communist rule in China.
Mr. Xiang is a celebrated Chinese artist who had poems published in 1958 in The Nationwide Selection of Poems, in China. He has written extensively about democracy and human rights, and has been published in a wide range of countries, including the United States, France, and Taiwan. He was severely persecuted and imprisoned six times from 1959 to 1995 by the communist regime in China, while his father was shot to death in jail by a secret order. He lives in the United States under asylum as a writer in residency.
For him, watching Shen Yun evoked contemplation on several subjects, including the transformation of humankind’s culture; about Eastern and Western culture merging; and how in Eastern culture “man and the heaven are connected, and how the human body is related to the universe.”
Shen Yun translated from Chinese means “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” says Shen Yun’s website. The company uses Classical Chinese dance as its principal medium of expression, enhanced by handcrafted costumes, a digital backdrop, and an orchestra that melds classical Western instruments with ancient Chinese instruments, such as the 4,000 year old erhu, or two-stringed violin.
“Classical Chinese dance is rich with expressive power,” says Shen Yun’s website. “Through expression of bearing and form, beautiful dance movements bring out the inner meaning of intrinsic thoughts and feelings, reflecting the peculiarities of human nature, the standard for human conduct, moral concepts, mental state, one’s value system, and so on.”
The performance also made Mr. Xiang contemplate the definition of art itself.
“Interpreting it artistically, on the stage the colors in the background, and the costumes, and the choreography—it’s like the act of creating art. You cannot define art as drawing a head on a piece of paper; it should be alive,” Mr. Xiang said. From brush strokes to bodily movements, poetry and living art are inherent to traditional Chinese culture, he added.
“The poetry is in the lyrics/words, in the dance movements, and the colors,” he said. “This is just a great poem for the entire Chinese civilization.”
The genuine art that Shen Yun brings alive in its performances is unable to be shown in China, which brought sadness to Mr. Xiang, who also reflected on the lack of spirituality and conformity “to the theory of the human body and the universe” in China.
“It is outside of China that Shen Yun’s artistic creators have the ability to freely express themselves and their ancient culture,” says Shen Yun’s website. “Their courage to speak up is an integral part of Shen Yun’s spirit.”
“We (Chinese people) cannot even accept our own culture,” said Mr. Xiang. “Why can this show perform in New York in front of the whole world, and cannot take the stage in Beijing to the great Chinese population?”
Reporting by NTD Television and Zack Stieber.
Shen Yun Performing Arts Touring Company will next perform at Providence Performing Arts Center in Rhode Island, Jan. 19.
They will return to New York’s Lincoln Center Apr. 18-22.
For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
