Shen Yun’s ‘Real Beauty’ Counters ‘Horrible Ugliness, Violence’ That Is ‘Disfiguring the World,’ Lord Alton Says
LONDON— David Alton, Baron of Liverpool, was impressed by the powerful message Shen Yun Performing Arts delivered at the Eventim Apollo venue on April 19.
“It’s a wonderful show; it underlines the beauty of Chinese civilization and culture,” said Lord Alton. “What a tragedy that a show like this can’t be shown in China itself,” he said.
“This is on a par with the best English ballet,” he said. “It’s of a very high standard indeed.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun is the world’s premier classical Chinese dance company. Along with folk dances and solo performances, the production depicts story-based pieces that tell tales from ancient times to the modern day.
Since 2006, the company has performed at top theatres worldwide with a mission to revive China’s 5,000-year-old traditional culture. Shen Yun says its performances demonstrate “China before communism.”
‘Desire for Beauty’
“I think the show is reminding people of something that could otherwise have been so easily lost but is always in the human spirit, in the mind, and in the imagination … this desire for beauty,” said Lord Alton.
“I think [Shen Yun] communicates itself as real beauty against some of the horrible ugliness and the violence that we see disfiguring the world,” he said.
“Hearing the soprano, who sang this evening, talking about the wonder of creation … are things that people should be free to talk about and think about,” he said. “It’s something that many of us from different traditions, different backgrounds, different countries hold in common … and the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship doesn’t allow it.”
As a patron of Hong Kong Watch and vice chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Uyghurs and Hong Kong, Lord Alton said he “takes considerable interest in China.”
He was particularly moved by the story-based dance portraying the persecution of Falun Dafa, a meditation discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a persecution against the practice in 1999, and adherents have since been subjected to unprecedented imprisonment, torture, and abuse.
One dance piece this year depicts the state-orchestrated crime of forced organ harvesting from Falun Dafa prisoners of conscience, part of the CCP’s persecution campaign.
“This is a very real live issue; it’s before the British Parliament at this moment,” he said. “Forced organ harvesting … is a hideous crime.”
“I think that people will go away from this performance talking about this,” he said. “This will alert people all over the world … about the enormity of what is being done.”
Lord Alton appreciated the spiritual message in the performance that we are all held accountable for our actions.
“It was good … to be reminded that we are not alone in this world, that there is a Creator, and that we are answerable as well for our actions to the Creator,” he said. “That is a story that comes through in tonight’s performance … the struggle between good and evil,” he said.
“This is a show you shouldn’t miss; you must go to see it and then go away and think about the messages that it communicates.”
Reporting by NTD and Jennifer Schneider.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
