“I am very enthusiastic,” said Michael Boddenberg, who is also the former Hessen state finance minister. “A great show with great choreography, and incredibly dynamic and enthusiastic and committed dancers.”
He added that the live orchestra was a “great symbiosis between Western and Chinese music, and tradition and the present day.”
“As every year, it was a very diverse and colorful event that also represented the whole diversity of Chinese and minority cultures,” said Michael Gahler. “So it was very impressive. And of course the special aspect that highlights the political persecution that unfortunately takes place in China, in a dosage that is acceptable to the audience, I would say.”
“Unfortunately, things are very different in China, so I’m glad that I live in a free country. But I also worry when I look at some countries in the world where people are oppressed because of their faith, because of their background, because of the freedom they want to achieve. So there are still a lot of messages to get across and that’s why the work (Shen Yun) is doing here is great,” Mr. Boddenberg said.
“It’s the diversity that is reflected in (China) this vast country. And that it is important to nurture this diversity and not try to standardize it, as the communist regime is trying to do in many areas, especially in the cultural sphere,” Mr. Gahler added.
Mr. Boddenberg said, “Today, the communist dictatorship prevents many things. So I think it’s all the more courageous that this is being addressed and that this message is being carried around the world. But still, I think it’s fair to say that the culture itself, the art, the dancers and their message prevail, that China has a great history and a cultural tradition that is rarely found anywhere else in the world.”
He added, “I just want to say thank you. I have a vague idea of how much work is behind it, how much hard work and also sweat and how much personal commitment. And sometimes perhaps, as they say in Germany, the inner coward has to be overcome, because the dancers have to practice day and night to be able to do all this physically. So I have great respect for this achievement and a big thank you.”
Mr. Gahler commented on the issue.
“I would like to urge our public service media and journalists in particular, to investigate in great detail where this news comes from, where the allegations come from,” Mr. Gahler said. “We are seeing this in a country like Russia, which has been producing fake news about its political opponents for many years and obviously, you have to take a very close look at what is coming out of China from the communist leadership and do a double check and triple check to see if it’s all true in this form.
“I think that what (Shen Yun artists) practice [Falun Gong] is part of freedom of belief and does not exert any undue pressure. It was allowed or even supported in China until 1999 and people joined voluntarily, and when there were obviously too many of them, it became scary for the communist rulers and since then they have been persecuted, similar to the Uyghurs, similar to the Tibetans, similar to the civil rights activists in Hong Kong, and our journalists should look at this in detail, what is actually the motivation in the background there.”
