BRATISLAVA, Slovakia—Drawing a full house and a standing ovation, the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular's portrayal of traditional Chinese culture captivated the audience at Bratislava's Slovak National Theatre on Sunday night.
Peter Osusky, a medical doctor and Vice-Rector of Comenius University in Bratislava, said that although he had seen Chinese paintings and calligraphy in museums, he had never seen a show such as the Spectacular.
"I would say the show is marvelous, I like it very much. I'm someone who is closely connected with, I would say, traditional European culture, but for me this is something new."
Divine Performing Arts is distinguished by its conscious effort to present the authentic Chinese culture free from the influence of China's communist regime, which has abused and impoverished the arts for decades.
Osusky commented on this, and how the regime replaced China's true culture with its "forced culture that was not, I would say, real culture."
"The show was a wonderful message about something that was, during the decades of a criminal regime, nearly destroyed, but is now somehow rising. And it's nice that so many people are, willing to present something that is really worth being presented and that was generally suppressed.
"So for me this is something that is rising like the lotus flower from bad water. So that's why I am happy to be here."
Referring to the two acts in the Spectacular that depict the persecution of Falun Gong in China, Osusky said that Truth, Compassion and Tolerance, the principles of Falun Gong, can be of benefit to all humanity.
"Truth, Compassion and Tolerance would be good for all mankind. It's good for Christians, its good for Jews. It's good for everybody and even the Muslims speak about Mohamed as the Compassionate. So if each man in the world would keep to these three sentences, or these three things, I think the world would be OK for Catholics, for Protestants like me, for Jews and for all the people who are sticking to it."
Falun Gong is a meditation practice and spiritual discipline which has been brutally suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party for almost nine years.
"I am a protestant, but I see that all of the three things (Truth, Compassion, Tolerance) that are mentioned there are really worth protecting and we need to fight for them, because if the world would accept these, like the Ten Commandments, it would be a good world to live in."
Osusky said that just as people are impressed by the new Olympic stadium built for the 2008 Beijing Games, people should pay equal attention to the illicit harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners' organs to supply China's lucrative organ transplant market.
"We should also be much more deeply alarmed by the butcher activities targeting the Falun Gong, which is the communists killing people…and selling their organs," said Osusky.
"I am a doctor of medicine, and to think about the fact that young and innocent people are the target of butchers who are taking organs from them for sale is something that is, in the beginning of the 21st century…. I would say this is a terrible crime."
A member of the Slovak Olympic Committee, Osusky said he doesn't approve of the Games having been awarded to China.
"I am partly ashamed that the Olympic ideal, which should be clean and nice, is being used to serve such a regime because when the Olympic Committee in 1931 decided to give the Olympic Games to Berlin, the Weimar Republic was a standard European democracy.
"Well, when the gentlemen and ladies in the International Olympic Committee a few years ago decided to give the Games to Beijing, the Tianenmen blood was fresh and the world knew what was happening there. So, especially as a member of the Slovak Olympic Committee, I am ashamed by the fact that the Games should be celebrated in a country that is treating the fundamentals of democracy in the manner that it is."
After Bratislava, the Spectacular will carry on to Prague. A total of 35 shows will be seen in 14 European countries.
Additional reporting by New Tang Dynasty TV, an Epoch Times media partner.
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit: DivinePerformingArts.org/sy/ .
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular. For our complete Spectacular coverage go to http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008//a/i
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