SHEN YUN

For her birthday, my friend wanted to see the Chinese dance troupe Shen Yun, so I got us seats in a box for Thursday night at the San Francisco Opera House.  For those who are unfamiliar, think Cirque du Soleil in Chinese.  Here is a link to their website.

www.shenyun.com

 

It’s a beautiful performance, at once athletic and artistic.  There are many segments, some illustrating a period in Chinese history, some based on Chinese folk tales, and two strongly anti-communist pieces highlighting the suppression of Buddhism in the China of today.  Which is why there’s no Shen Yun company touring in China!  There was also one overtly religious piece showing the Buddha resurrecting a faithful martyr.  There were also three singing performances in Chinese, with the English translation appearing on the screen behind.

The screen at the back of the stage is a very interesting innovation, and a key part of the show.  At its simplest, it removes the need for physical scenery, as the required background is just projected on the screen.  But (spoiler alert) Shen Yun goes beyond simple.  Actors transition from the stage to the screen by hopping over a low set of steps that run the width of the back of the stage.  A character can do some live action, then hop into over the steps, next appearing in animation on the screen, where he can fight dragons, do the Crouching Tiger – Hidden Dragon style flying trick, or any other maneuver not possible in the real world.  Conversely, a figure can come down off the screen by having the image disappear behind the steps, then having a live actor jump up onto the stage.  Of course, on the screen anything can be animated, like a fearsome dragon.  One effect that was used twice probably caused uncomfortable feelings for the Japanese and Indonesian people in the audience – a giant tsunami!
 
Each piece begins with a narration in English and Chinese, which did add to the length of the program.  Listening to the Chinese version, I was reminded again how maddeningly complex the Chinese language is – all those musical quavers!  I once attempted a beginners’ course, but quit when the recording tried to illustrate the three ways to say the simple word ‘ma’.  I had to run the recording at slow speed in order to hear that one pronunciation had a rising inflection, one had a falling inflection, and one rose and fell, all in the space of a two letter word.  I quietly put the recording back on the shelf, and never tried again.  And by the way, I’m saying the narrator was speaking Chinese because I didn’t know if I was hearing Mandarin or Cantonese.