“I would come back every year, it was amazing!”

“I would come back every year, it was amazing!” – Barbra Gilson

Posted by Jason Wegener on Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Barbra Gill and her husband, Lee, attending the performance in Dallas, Texas.

Welcome to the SOH Radio network, a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. My name is Jason Wegener and in this program we’ll be looking at the latest performance by the Shen Yun Touring Company in Dallas on Friday the 5^th of February.

We spoke with some of the audience after the show to find out what they thought of their Shen Yun experience.

First up we’ll hear from Barbra Gilson from Gill Digital Services.

Barbara: I would say this was one of the most tremendous performances, my first time here, and I would come back every year, it was amazing.

Reporter: Your first?

Barbara: Yes, the first time.

Reporter: What part you like the most?

Barbara: Actually there’s not any one part that I could say I like the best, I love them all, I mean every single part of the presentation was just thought out and was so beautiful, we enjoy, we really enjoy, yes, yes, wonderful people, and I’m looking forward to now after the reception to see the people, yes, thank you. This is what the Mayor of Frisco, Maher Maso had to say about the show.

Reporter: What’s the most interesting part of the show?

Maso: Well, my favourite part, because I was so in tune in watching it, I don’t remember the name of that piece, but the general where he had to hold his temper that story was my favourite!

Reporter: What do you think of the message of the show?

Maso: Is was very good, like I mention earlier, it was a historical perspective about many different things in China, but what was really important what really came across was they put the history in perspective to today’s environment so I really did enjoy it and had a lot of meaning so.

Reporter: What about the spiritual message, this show tries a lot to bring back spirituality into Chinese culture?

Maso: Clearly several of the different segments were spiritual nature and of course they mean a lot, and that’s not something that you usually see with Chinese history clearly, so that’s good that we’re able to see that here today.

Reporter: Beside the message what about the costumes, the colours?

Maso: Very colourful, and as I was mention earlier you really didn’t focus on one thing, you know the one with the angles, the cloud, you don’t feel like you were sitting in your seat, you felt like you’re a part of it, you feel like you’re with them so it was very well done.

Reporter: Have you notice anything different about the show, you haven’t seen in others?

Maso: Well, this is not the kind of show that I usually come see, so yeah clearly and because being the mayor, my schedule is really busy sometimes, so it’s very relaxing to come see this, but yes, it’s different because this is really try to convey the history the different culture and the vast history because obviously here in the state and my city we only 100 year old, in our city is only 100 year old. So this really put it in perspective and also touch on Folklore and the different types of stories were told in the past, I find it very interesting.

Reporter: This show in HK it was cancelled, I don’t know if you heard about that?

Maso: No I did not.

Reporter: The Chinese government interferes with us, is there any word that you can say to, I guess tell others more about the show?

Maso: Well that’s something I didn’t hear about that but unfortunate to me, art and history is very important you may not always agree with history but it is what it is, it is real so I would always say don’t hide from your history, you study it you learn it and you improve yourself in the future, without doing that we doom to repeat the mistakes of the past, so you know, it’s there was a very artistic side to it clearly, there’s a historical side to it and very spiritual side to it, and that was a nice mix, it didn’t focus on one thing.

Finally we hear from Michael Erfe, President of Tarrant County, Asian American, Chamber of Commerce and he had this to say.

Erfe: It was very profound and I understand it’s a little bit like their belief system goes back to ancient China which you don’t really see in modern Chinese culture right now, so because I have been there a couple of times, so it was a very different perspective and a different ideology I seen before so it was very interesting.

Reporter: What do you think the Chinese communist party did to the people?

Erfe: Oh I thought that was very fascinating actually because one part of the show was a gentleman who unfold the banner for Falun Dafa, and actually that happen to me once when I was in outside of the forbidden city the square, Tiananmen square, yes, I was there on the student group, there was actually a lady there that unfold the banner and then 10, 15 seconds people jump on her policemen and disguise policemen and they arrested her and threw her into a van so I thought that really hit home with me, I saw it in person, and I can see that it does really happen every day, and people are abused just for their belief, so seeing it in real life was very moving, and seeing on stage just kind of hit home again, this does happening, when I saw it was about almost 10 years ago, and so I know still happen today. And that’s amazing that very little progress has been made, so it’s sad but it’s the reality.

Reporter: So you think this show traveling all over the world to show the Chinese culture, what do you think about that?

Erfe: Oh, I thought, I think it’s a great mission, I think it’s a fantastic mission because it combines the Chinese culture and it really brings in Chinese minority which I think it’s fantastic because often time on TV people get one idea of what China is and who the Chinese people is, and here really shows the diversity and the colours of different type of people in China, so I think that’s fantastic, I also like the fact that it goes back behind the communist party and behind modern China, because right now everyone is focus on Chinese economic power and how they’re becoming world super power but really people don’t understand and even I don’t understand, this is a great way to learn about Chinese culture because it’s not just the last 50 years, it’s really 5000 years, so I think that’s great great way and a great mission for this dance troupe.

Don’t miss your opportunity to see this amazing performance. Go to the website: www.shenyunperformingarts.org for more information on their up and coming performances.

Thank you for joining this special coverage of the Shen Yun Performing Arts tour; I’m Jason Wegener for the SOH Radio Network.