I was deeply moved watching New Tang Dynasty TV's (NTDTV) Christmas show, "Holiday Wonders," at the Beacon Theatre on Broadway. Walking out of the theatre, I felt as if I had seen the unveiling of a new image of heaven and earth. The renaissance of Chinese culture is emerging, starting here on Broadway.
In both form and content, "Holiday Wonders" is not just a continuation and promotion of authentic Chinese culture, but also a re-creation and rebirth of it. The show's profound impact on China and even the world in the future will perhaps surpass the Renaissance that started in Italy more than 600 years ago.
For human beings, the influence of deeply rooted cultural beliefs is most profound and widespread. Take a long look at the watershed moments in human history and one will see the power of cultural beliefs in their ever-lasting capacity to affect us even in the farthest corners of world.
In the middle of the 15th century, as the Ottoman Empire overthrew the Roman Empire, a large number of artists escaped eastern Rome to come to Italy. When the Middle Ages ended, so did its politics and religion. The magic of the ancient Greek culture swept Western Europe, leading to a renaissance in which painting, sculpture, and music all began to develop anew.
China's current situation bears some similarity to the eve of the Renaissance in Europe, in that Chinese culture has actually been in a state of near death.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) embodies a fusion of politics and religion based on the evil doctrine of Marxism. With an ideological core of atheism, this regime monopolizes not only China's politics, economy, and military in the secular sphere, but also China's orthodox beliefs in spiritual civilization.
No matter how dictatorial the churches in the Middle Ages were, they still allowed God to preside above the church. For the CCP, however, "if you were a Christian, the CCP was the god of the Christian God. If you were a Buddhist, the CCP was the Master Buddha of the Master Buddha." ("Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party - Part III"). Thus, the CCP's fusion of politics and religion is more extreme.
The renaissance of Chinese culture also faces a deeper predicament than the Western culture of the Middle Ages. Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist orthodox teachings are so profound that everyday people often find it difficult to understand them. Under these circumstances, true practitioners of these beliefs become necessary links in passing down the cultures. The CCP had destroyed the ancient texts and persecuted cultivators of these orthodox faiths, thereby creating an unbridgeable gap between contemporary Chinese culture and traditional Chinese culture.
Classical Chinese culture was thrown into the abyss by the CCP.
There seemed to be no hope to revive traditional Chinese culture. NTDTV took an uncharted path by approaching the cultural revival and re-creation with an eye on China's ancient spiritual beliefs. The depth and boldness of this act, which started a few years back, has deeply moved and inspired me.
The programs in NTDTV's "Holiday Wonders" have been mostly created and performed by practitioners of Falun Gong. The ancient spiritual discipline of Falun Gong encompasses the classic spiritual traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Thus, the cultural forms derived from it resound with ancient Chinese culture. The programs represent the creation of new cultural forms that comprehensively contain the divine spirit of authentic Chinese culture.
NTDTV's show is threaded together by the key theme of revering gods. In the "Holiday Wonders" Christmas show, for example, this theme is expressed in the opening performance "The Vows of Old," in the dance "Celestial Maidens," and in "A Dunhuang Dream." "To the Rightful Place" reflects the retribution of good and evil. The three soloists (Jiang Min, Bai Xue, and Guan Guimin) each sang in order to express respect for gods, the pursuit of godhood, and reflections on the true meaning of human life. The "The Loyalty of Yue Fei" expresses loyalty and piety, both valued by the Chinese.
The Tibetan dance "Snowy Mountain, White Lotus" was perfect in music, costume, and choreography. The Mongolian and Manchu dances embody the richness of Chinese culture. The drum rhythms took place against an architectural background recalling Ming palaces, thus highlighting joyous scenes from the prosperous culture of the Great Tang.
The Western-style performances by the Valentina Koslovas Dance Conservatory, the world-class clarinetist Giora Feidman and the Empire Brass Quintet, all come from a crème de la crème of Western performing arts. Their presence in the show also reflects Chinese culture's tolerance for accommodating all advanced arts of the world.
From these NTDTV performances, I see an ancient, as well as an entirely new, culture that sparks toward the high mountains and lofty skies, revealing a marvelous future to represent these divine messages.
The Party culture that the CCP relies on for its survival is rapidly disintegrating by the emergence of this cultural renaissance that is embodied by NTDTV's Christmas show. This Chinese cultural rebirth will without a doubt bring about transformations in lifestyles and social organizations of the Chinese people, helping the Chinese to re-establish beliefs, morality, and culture to assist China in a peaceful transition in the new era.
NTDTV's cultural show has launched a renaissance of Chinese culture. Like the Renaissance of the West that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era, NTDTV's performances will, in the near future, be recorded in history as a defining moment in the history of Chinese culture, inspiring future generations to reflect and to follow.
Feeds