WASHINGTON, D.C.—Adrian and Brenda Ackley saw the power of kindness expressed through the art and culture in Shen Yun Performing Arts, and how that kindness brings hope.

“I enjoyed the message. It was a very good show. I enjoyed watching other cultures express the beauty of their culture. It’s really cool,” said Mr. Ackley, who works in law enforcement, after seeing Shen Yun at the Kennedy Center on Feb. 20. “It was just very interesting. Something I’ve never seen before.”

Mrs. Ackley found the beauty of the traditional culture stood out to her as strongly as the struggles Chinese people now face.

“The struggles and the beauty. There’s kindness in each culture,” she said.

Mr. Ackley said he saw parallels to his own Christian beliefs, such as the theme of redemption.

“There were a lot of similarities between just redemption and renewal and the beauty in forgiveness,” he said.

Mr. Ackley said this came through in a few stories, including one where a character “through the love of others” finds his way.

“After seeing the nastiness of the people that he thought were for him, and then to turn around, and the people that helped him were the first people that he thought were his enemies,” Mr. Ackley said.

“That was a story of redemption. That was a story of forgiveness. That was a story of acceptance that it doesn’t matter what has happened in the past, and that your future can hold a different story,” he said.

Also in the audience were Wes and Bonnie Strickland, who enjoyed seeing a different side of China through Shen Yun.

The modern, communist China had been the only one he knew, said Mr. Strickland, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Army, and Shen Yun showed what had existed before the communist regime came to power.

Mrs. Strickland said the idea of “China before communism” was indeed what drew them to see the performance, and “we loved it.”

Seeing the performance, she thought, “Wow, wouldn’t it be great if China was still like that.”