OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.—Alan Hoffhines, a distribution manager, watched Shen Yun Performing Arts with his wife, Kathy Hoffhines, at the Civic Center Music Hall on Jan. 21. The couple enjoyed the performance and were appreciative of the opportunity to learn about Chinese culture through the universal languages of dance and music.
“I’m really enjoying it,” said Mrs. Hoffhines. “I enjoyed the way the dancers tell the story with such an emotion. We don’t speak Chinese, but we know what’s going on.”
Based in New York, Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by leading Chinese artists, who made it their mission to revive traditional Chinese culture through classical Chinese dance and music. According to Shen Yun’s website, China was once known as “the Land of the Divine,” and the Chinese people believed that their culture came from the gods. Traditional Chinese culture was founded on the spiritual teachings of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, which were abolished when the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949….