{"id":151195,"date":"2026-02-11T04:58:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151195\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T04:58:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T04:58:03","slug":"china-before-communism-shen-yun-displays-a-world-almost-lost-to-theatergoers-in-tampa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151195\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018China Before Communism\u2019: Shen Yun Displays a World \u2018Almost Lost\u2019 to Theatergoers in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014The billboards have been plastered in bright colors for months. The words \u201cChina before communism\u201d invite theatergoers to see the vibrant Shen Yun<\/a> Performing Arts classical Chinese dance company, and today, many who filled the Duke Energy Center for the Arts discovered what this really meant.The show opened with a mythical scene of the Chinese heavens. An entourage of gods and goddesses, played by Shen Yun\u2019s dancers<\/a>, rendezvous with the Creator of the universe, then all descend to Earth to act as the multifarious dynasties and ethnicities across China\u2019s 5,000-year history.<\/a> The audience followed their epic journey\u2014all the way to present-day China.\u201cI liked the different ethnic<\/a> dances, the folk dances,\u201d Al Furnari, a capital buyer who saw Shen Yun on Sunday, told The Epoch Times after the performance. The Mongolian dance was particularly impressive, he said. \u201cThey were fierce fighters, and [had] a lot of horses. You saw the horses in the background. That was prevalent in the culture. A lot of them were great riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York-based dance company painstakingly researches ancient motifs to portray in their costumes\u2014such as the refreshing colors worn in the Mongolian segment. Since its conception 20 years ago, Shen Yun has toured globally to revive a culture that was \u201calmost lost\u201d during the destructive purges of China\u2019s Cultural Revolution.<\/p>\n

But beyond the costumes<\/a> and colors, Shen Yun delves deeper into China\u2019s ancient spirituality. Buddhist and Daoist beliefs once pervaded Chinese history until religion, free from state control, became persecuted under the officially atheist rule of the Chinese Communist Party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people try to stop certain freedoms that I think are inherent in all of them, it\u2019s not a good thing,\u201d said Furnari, who learned of Shen Yun\u2019s pre-communist affiliation during today\u2019s show. \u201cAnd the only way to stop it from happening is to do something about it. Push back, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, many of Shen Yun\u2019s performers follow the tenets of Falun Dafa, a spiritual belief now banned in China, and audience members saw persecution<\/a> of this faith portrayed onstage. Dancers played a scene of a young Falun Dafa practitioner being abused and blinded by CCP officials.<\/p>\n

Many audience members, including Furnari, were moved by the scene of the present-day persecution of belief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the story about the oppression and the way that the interaction [unfolded] and how they dealt with it,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that was important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that Shen Yun has performed in the Tampa area for over 15 years, it has\u2014for some families\u2014become a cherished tradition to attend the show during the holidays. Last Christmas, the son of Fred Malibiran, a physician, received tickets, and today Shen Yun was a family affair. This was the Malibiran family\u2019s second year seeing Shen Yun.<\/p>\n

\"Fred<\/p>\n

Fred Malibiran and his wife, Maribel, attend Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Feb. 8, 2026. Lily Yu\/The Epoch Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth seeing, getting a different perspective prior to communism,\u201d Malibiran told The Epoch Times during the intermission. \u201cThe one with current China, where they were imprisoned and so forth; that really points out the message of [what China was like] prior to communism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, Shen Yun<\/a> also presents ancient Chinese myths, brought to life by its world-renowned dancers, a live orchestra that blends both Chinese and classical Western instruments, and stunning visual effects. Its state-of-the-art special effect allows the dancers to interact seamlessly with Shen Yun\u2019s animated backdrops for an immersive effect, transporting audience members, including Malibiran, into ancient China\u2019s mystical worlds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was part of it, actually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Summing up their sentiments, his wife, Maribel, said the experience was \u201cvery memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting by Lily Yun, Sally Sun, and Michael Wing.<\/p>\n

NTD is a media sponsor of\u00a0Shen Yun Performing Arts, covering\u00a0audience reactions\u00a0since 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.\u2014The billboards have been plastered in bright colors for months. The words \u201cChina before communism\u201d invite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-151195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}