Kate Langbroek, a long-time comedian, radio and television presenter who is now working for KIIS radio, brought her retired mother, Anne Langbroek, a former employee at the National Australia Bank, to see Shen Yun on April 24.

“It was brilliant. It was beautiful. It was very uplifting,” Kate said, adding that there was something elemental in the beauty of Shen Yun.

“And the dignity,” her mother chimed in.

All the costumes worn by Shen Yun’s performers are handmade, with exquisite workmanship by skilful tailors who have spent decades researching traditional Chinese clothing.

“It was a celebration of the beauty of humanity and what humans can do. It was gorgeous in conjunction with the divine—it was great,” she said.

“They wanted to see it, and as a mother, you always say yes,” she said.

“It’s got all the flips and everything we do in gymnastics, and I didn’t know that it originated from classical Chinese dance,” she said.

“My ancestors ran [out of China] because of Communism. I’m half Chinese and I didn’t know what it was like before,” she said.

The performance was a huge journey for Ms. Chuah, bringing her back to the essence of the traditional Chinese culture.

It also reminded her of the stories that are passed down in her family, in which people of the previous generations placed high importance on moral values, she said.

“There was a lot of talk [by] my grandfather, my mother, and my grandmother, [that] in the olden times, there was the ‘handshake agreement.’ We don’t need a contract,” Ms. Chuah said.

“It’s difficult to say that it exists now. If you look at our contract law, it’s complicated because the ‘handshake agreement’ cannot be relied on these days. It’s really sad.”

“A lot of that has been lost because it’s not taught in schools anymore. We have to go back. We really need to reflect and look backwards, go through the history books and understand where it all came from,” she said.