(Clearwisdom.net) Dr. Cyril Dabydeen is a professor at the University of Ottawa, a literary juror for the Canada's Governor's General Award for Literature, and winner of many literature awards. He is also a prolific poet and well-respected educator. He attended New Tang Dynasty Television's (NTDTV) Chinese New Year Spectacular show on January 13, 2008. He said that the show offered him an uplifting experience from the microscopic to macroscopic.
Dr. Dabydeen said in an interview that the production was colorful, splendid and spiritual. Wonderful themes were incorporated into the whole performance.
Dr. Dabydeen said that he was mesmerized by the tenor and sopranos' singing. The drumming was also wonderful, giving him an impression of returning to history.
"Sopranos transported me between 5,000 years of civilization and reality"
Dr. Dabydeen appreciated the singing performances. He noted that when the sopranos were singing and he looked at the lyrics on the screen, "It was so marvelous; it transported me back in time, in a sense of a beautiful, wonderful, quintessential Chinese culture."
"What drew me the most, as with last year too, was the sense of history, the wonderful traditions, and how society evolves, because all societies tend to change. Beyond that, underneath it all is a sense of our higher self, moral values, and spiritual values."
As a multicultural worker, Dr. Dabydeen said, "I've worked in multiculturalism for 15 years. This high quality of choreography, dance, singing, the sopranos, drumming, the orchestra -- it is of extraordinarily high quality, and for our ethnic communities, it uplifts all of us."
Dr. Dabydeen commended the show for its "tremendous contribution." He said, "Very often we think of only certain people, [for example] European Canadians, who can produce works of high, great artistic aesthetic quality, but there you have this event tonight, wonderfully produced and performed."
The part of the program about Falun Gong offered a sense of spirituality
Regarding the part of the program about Falun Gong, Dr. Dabydeen said that we can see that kind of spiritual element in a dynamic world and society as especially precious. "The sense of divinity, spirituality, and good values - those things for me were very transcendental, very inspirational."
