ADELAIDE, Australia—Louise and Alex Dobie's desire to see the traditional side of Chinese culture brought them to the Chinese Spectacular in Adelaide on Tuesday.
"We hear a lot about the Chinese, but we don't often see the traditional side and what happened many years ago," Mr Dobie said.
His favourite performances were the "drums and the water dance".
"Yes, the 'Water Sleeves', that was magnificent. Mainly the colour of it. And the drums, and the tradition of it, the synchronicity of it, and the discipline," he said.
Mrs Dobie was impressed with everything.
"I think it was absolutely amazing, the costumes, the dance, the music—phenomenal. And I think it is great as it is bringing an awareness regarding Falun Gong—which I am sure a lot of people aren't aware of. I think it has an interesting style that it is presented in, and we are probably not used to, but I am very much enjoying it."
She said the drums were "very impressive".
"The music, the costumes and just how graceful it was, just depicted what I imagined—although I didn't entirely know what I imagined the traditional Chinese dance to be—it's really good, really lovely."
Ms Dobie said her favourite performance was "the lotus one" [The Risen Lotus Flower]. This performance depicts a scene of a Falun Gong practitioner being persecuted by the Chinese regime because of her persevering belief in the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.
Both Mr and Mrs Dobie have connections with new immigrants and refugees from China as volunteers for Immigration South Australia.
"We meet immigrants that come into the country from China and all over the world, and when we try to discuss some of these things with them, it's 'no go'," Mr Dobie said. Mrs Dobie added, "Yes, they have family back there and they are terrified."
The Dobies were given tickets to the show. "We were fortunate in that we are volunteers with Meals on Wheels and they very kindly gave us some tickets."
Both said they would encourage other people to see the show.
"Oh come and see it, come and see it," said Mrs Dobie. "It's fabulous, it is really, really good. They do the explanation, it's just lovely. Actually, I just emailed my daughter before the show to say we were so excited to be going… Well, I'll certainly be recommending it to her."
Mr Dobie agreed: "Yes, yes, come and see it. It's magnificent!"
For information about upcoming Divine Performing Arts shows, please visit:
www.BestChineseShows.com.
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Chinese Spectacular. For our complete coverage please visit:
http://en.epochtimes.com/features/dpa2008/
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