People Will Remember a Show Like This

Mr. Hoft, a popular political blogger, felt that “anyone into broadening their horizons” would like Shen Yun.
People Will Remember a Show Like This
Jim and Joe Hoft Valerie Avore/The Epoch Times
Cat Rooney
Updated:
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/St.LouisvalerieJim.JPG" alt="Jim and Joe Hoft (Valerie Avore/The Epoch Times)" title="Jim and Joe Hoft (Valerie Avore/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1823158"/></a>
Jim and Joe Hoft (Valerie Avore/The Epoch Times)
ST. LOUIS—On a lightly snowing Friday night, February 12, the audience at The Bezemes Family Theater, Lindenwood’s J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, gave a standing ovation for Shen Yun International Performing Arts Company. Mr. Hoft, the Gateway Bundit blogger, was among the audience members. He described the production as beautiful and very well made. “The dancers were excellent, and the costumes were just fabulous.”

On another level, the performance was not what Mr. Hoft expected. “I thought it was a Chinese production coming in [to America]. And then I realized it was based out of New York.” He concluded that some parts of the show would not be shown in China, specifically the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist government. The dances Nothing Can Block the Divine Path and Astounding Conviction portray Falun Gong practitioners resisting persecution.

Mr. Hoft has a blog about politics. He said his blog is ranked eighth in the country. “I’ve read some stories on Epoch Times [website] in the past and about some of the persecution that individuals are going through in China. It sounded just horrific. When people see a show like this, they will remember it. Those were very strong segments in the performance, where they showed the persecution and the same ones that I remember,” he said.

Mr. Hoft concluded that anyone would enjoy the show. “Anyone who is into broadening their horizons, reaching out a little bit, and getting to know different cultures; because it showed so much of China that I certainly wasn’t aware of.”

With reporting by Valerie Avore.

  For more information, please visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org.
Cat Rooney
Cat Rooney
Author
Cat Rooney is a photographer based in the Midwest. She has been telling stories through digital images as a food, stock, and assignment photojournalist for Epoch Times since 2006. Her experience as a food photographer had a natural expansion into recipe developer in 2012, thus her Twitter handle @RecipeGirl007.
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