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Mr. Kirschner, CEO of an international moving company, and Ms. Branson, a registered nurse, adopted their 7-year-old daughter, Sophia, from Hunan Province, China. They brought her to see New-York based Shen Yun and deeply appreciated the depth of Chinese history and culture Shen Yun presented to their little girl.
“We want to teach her about her culture. The dancing was fabulous. It gives you lots of history about the culture of China. … It is incredible,” Mr. Kirschner said.
“She sat with us through that performance without getting antsy!” Ms. Branson added.
Mr. Kirschner was touched by Shen Yun’s story-based dances that aim to present the traditional culture of China, traditionally thought to be semidivine.
“The music, the dancing, the movements … were so fluid and smooth. It was just amazing,” he said. “It was excellent!”
The dances depict traditional Chinese values such as faith, courage, and righteousness and show how much of this spiritual culture is suppressed in China today under its authoritarian regime.
“The conditions in China, the lack of free speech, I thought that came across very well in the plays,” Mr. Kirschner remarked.
“I like how it came across that some things are not accepted in China and … may be forbidden. We, as Americans in the western side of the world, don’t know how to appreciate freedom. It was very good,” Ms. Branson added.
The show depicts stories from the many dynasties and ethnic groups in China, spanning its 5,000-year history through contemporary times.
Sophia was able to get a sense of her cultural roots from Shen Yun. Her home province, Hunan, was first recorded in 350 B.C. and is known for its skilled craftsmen, who created handmade silks, carved jade, and sold their artistic goods all over the world.
During the Cultural Revolution in China, the traditional culture, including art and religion, was attacked to make way for communism and has been under the threat of extinction ever since.
Reporting by Peng Su and Justina Wheale.
New York-based Shen Yun has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. Shen Yun Performing Arts New York Company performed in Indianapolis on March 4 and 5. For more information, visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org
