SAN DIEGO－On January 17, the curtain descended on the Divine Performing Arts' Chinese New Year Spectacular at the California Center for the Arts. Located in Escondido, CA, the theater enjoyed four different showings of the production and attracted local people from all walks of life.
One audience member, a free-lance writer from China named Shi Wei, was delighted after seeing the final performance. "The show was great," he exclaimed. "I felt like a spring rain has watered my soul. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) for presenting us with such a marvelous show."
"I suffer from vertigo," Shi confessed. "When it flares up I'd faint, vomit and fall ill. Yet when my children told me they would purchase tickets I thought I'd take a chance. Now it seems we made the right decision. All five people in my family came to see the show together." In fact, Shi enjoyed the show so much he said he would tell all his friends about it.
While Shi expressed a fondness for the entire program, his favorite was the prelude, "Decent of the Celestial Kings." "The first program is my favorite. It is very touching and fantastic."
"The performance companies from China always present short sketches involving vulgar and meaningless programs with coarse dialogue. It is rare to find Americans who will watch their shows. Yet today I found out that the audiences here were overwhelming American. It reveals that this show was very appealing. "
Shi went on to explain that the performance troupes from China were directly or indirectly serving a political agenda. "Chinese people have had little chance to see true art, especially our own traditional art, ever since Mao Zedong and the Communist Party demanded that "literature and art should serve proletarian politics."
According to Shi, as most shows presented by Chinese companies only serve to glorify the CCP or cover up its autocracy, he was gratified that the New Year Spectacular was without these political overtones.
One segment of the program addressed Falun Gong, and it gave Shi an opportunity to express his compassion. "Frankly, I am not a Falun Gong practitioner," he explained. "But I respect other people's faith. I am disgusted with the persecution against Falun Gong, and I'm heartily sympathized with the practitioners' miseries. They have been deprived of their lives, families and futures merely because of their faith."
"I can't understand why it is a crime to practice Falun Gong in parks and why the practitioners have to be killed," Shi sighed.
Shi went on to say that even if someone might not believe in a faith, you can't slander it. "A belief is just a belief," he said. "It does not need to be verified if it is wrong or right."
"It is such a fantastic show!" said Shi, who notes that the CCP has gone out of its way to sabotage this production. "It makes no sense why the CCP forces people to avoid the New Year Spectacular and has disrupted the performance. They slander it, threaten the audience, send disparaging letters to public officials and intimidate sponsors through economic retaliation. What an inferior tactic. It is incredible."
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