BENDIGO, Australia — Visual artist and photographer Jocelyn Rawlins said she was left almost speechless by Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Ulumbarra Theatre on Saturday afternoon as it transported its audience to the Celestial Empire.
I’m almost speechless because I’ve never seen anything like it in my life and I have a visual arts background, said the retired secondary school Italian teacher and creative director, who is trained in teaching fine art.
I was deeply moved by the colours, by the choreography, and by the music, and the storyline, Ms. Rawlins said. I just found the whole experience extremely, deeply moving.
Shen Yun’s artists are trained in New York and came together with a shared mission to revive 5,000 years of traditional Chinese culture.
Ms. Rawlins expressed appreciation for this wish, saying their efforts to bring Chinese culture to the world in a really positive light was a beautiful message.
But in modern China, these divinely inspired sources of its culture — Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism — have been attacked and the culture almost destroyed.
Seeking a revival, Shen Yun’s artists have returned to the noble tradition of artists looking to the divine in order to create art that uplifts the soul. They look to the spiritual self-improvement practice known as Falun Dafa, which teaches following the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, for inspiration.
However, in 1999, the Chinese Communist Party decided to ban Falun Dafa for its popularity, which led to the torture and murder of many Falun Dafa practitioners. The persecution of people who follow Falun Dafa’s guiding values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance was one of the stories told by Shen Yun’s performers — one that Ms. Rawlins said was very emotional.
I was very touched by the story of the young girl who was taken away to jail and had her heart removed, she said of the human rights atrocities depicted to be happening in China. That’s a sobering thought and one has to reflect on what’s going on in the world today and how much of this is fiction and how much is reality. And I think there is a lot to be thought about.
Along with this serious message about the state of morality in modern China, Ms. Rawlins said she was also taking home from the performance the spiritual, the kindness, [and] the compassion.
It was beautiful. Just beautiful.
I’ve driven an hour and a half to get here, and I would have driven three hours if necessary. Wouldn’t have missed it for anything and I’ll see it again, she added.
She encouraged those who have not experienced Shen Yun to get themselves to the theatre for Shen Yun’s 2024 tour.
