SACRAMENTO, Calif.—To celebrate his wife’s birthday, comedian Steve Barkley purchased tickets for Shen Yun’s evening show at the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center on Feb. 4.

“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Barkley exclaimed. “Absolutely blown away by the colors, the music, the dancing. [Shen Yun] is a musical and visual masterpiece. It’s just stupendous.”

The spread of atheism quickly eradicated Chinese people’s belief in the divine. The cherished virtues and values learned from the teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism disappeared overnight.

“It’s very important to me. I love the spirituality. It was very uplifting,” he said. “The message of love, forgiveness, coming together, enlightenment, and pushing away atheism—we need to get back to our roots.”

“We’re losing our spirituality to petty things. People aren’t looking inside anymore. Everything is on the outside, everything is surface. There is no spiritual growth and no physical growth.”

Referring to Shen Yun’s mission, Mr. Barkley lamented that though tradition is very important, people are currently trading it for modernity.

“We’re forgetting where we came from. If we forget our roots we won’t exist anymore. A tree can’t exist without its roots.”

Due to Shen Yun’s focus on reviving traditional culture and presenting the truth of events under communist rule in present-day China, it is currently forbidden by the regime to perform in China.

To Mr. Barkley, this is heart-wrenching. “I hope that eventually the Chinese people can rise up and overthrow this horrible communist government that suppresses the people,” he said, “then [traditional culture] can return once again to China.”