AUCKLAND, New Zealand—A politics graduate felt tears come to her eyes during the premier of the Chinese Spectacular on Thursday.
"I don't mean to sound weird, but there was something in the air tonight, honestly," Hanna Spierer said after the show. "I have to say, it actually brought tears to my eyes."
"Yeah, it was pretty cool. I thought it was lovely, with what it taught - Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance — they had a really good message.
"It confirmed a lot of things, for me that I thought about life, in general ... I felt that these Chinese people are quite ... aware of what's going on."
Hanna now works in communication. She saw the show with her friend, Ariel Hicks, a scholar in Chinese culture and literature.
"I liked how outspoken it was ... it was very bold," said Ms Hicks. "That's what I believe anyway — that you should be allowed to believe in whatever you want, as long as you're not hurting anyone. They [Divine Performing Arts] seemed very non-violent — it was a very non-violent portrayal."
Ms Hicks said she was pleased to see the range of influences on Chinese culture well represented through the Spectacular .
"They have a very deep culture and it was interesting to see so many ethnic influences in the show ... they talked about Mongolian dancing, and they had the yurts set up and everything and they spanned many dynasties of China, and they had a very contemporary mix to it as well.
Incorporating all the mythology like Chang'e and the goddess of the moon ... they talk about Confucianism, Buddhism, and I even found the Falun Gong idea to be very Daoist, in a way—in the now and ... like the Dao is very pure and believing in truth ... without being too picky or doctrine" she said.
In reference to the story 'The Loyalty of Yue Fei', Ms Hicks said: "That was definitely about the filial piety of China — of Confucianism — taking care of the elderly. And once again in the ['The Power of Awareness'], you saw the elderly couple picking up the banner at the end ... and also you had the young child ... and even in the audience tonight, it was like: "What IS the demographics!" It's like the most, mixed ... community," Hanna chimed.
Ariel said: "Yeah, it was like, older people, younger people ... diverse ethnicities and ages."
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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