LINKOPING,Sweden—Ingemar and Christina Berglund travelled about an hour and a half by car from Örebro to Linköping to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary with a dinner out and taking in the Shen Yun Chinese Spectacular.
The Berlunds agreed that the show defines the difference between the female and male very clearly. The women are women and the men are warriors.
"The most fascinating thing is the way they move the hands and arms," Ingemar said.
"You notice it when you look at a single individual and not when you look at the whole group. It's totally fantastic!"
Christina thinks that the Tibetan and Mongolian dances were even more feminine then the Chinese ones, and that the dances were more sensual. "I think," Christina said, "that in our modern dance the male and the female are almost the same; they melt together, which is a contrast to this."
Ingemar, now retired, had been a math and physics teacher and also a headmaster at schools in the city and in the neigbourhoods of Örebro. Christina is a primary school teacher with pupils that are interested in dance. "To see the creative thinking [here tonight]," she said, "that is what you try to get the kids to [do] in school."
Although the Berlunds spend one or two weekends every year enriching themselves culturally as they travel to other countries – such as Paris, Barcelona, Florence, Brazil, Amsterdam and London – neither of them had seen or heard anything like this before. Their plan was to see and learn more through this experience.
Christina explained that she had read the book Wild Swans and that she taught a lot about the real conditions during, for example, the cultural revolution in China. "It was fascinating to get to know how it was then."
Both the Berlunds know that there is economic growth in China today, but that this is coupled with the lack of democracy at the same time. Ingemar had seen a television program about how people became rich in China because they were favourites of those in power of the communist party.
"One example," Ingemar shared, "was about a man who built a castle with its surroundings on a place where they had demolished two villages. It was such an extreme construction that it's difficult to believe. This is an example where no democracy can be found."
Both of the Berlunds hope for a better future for the Chinese people.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Shen Yun Chinese Spectacular shows. For more information, please see www.bestchineseshows.com .
For our complete coverage please visit http.en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/.
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