ESCONDIDO, Calif.—San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson felt uplifted by Shen Yun Performing Arts after seeing it on March 19 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
“I’m so pleased to be here today. I just saw the performance—it was absolutely fantastic,” said Mr. Anderson, who presented Shen Yun artists with a proclamation on behalf of the San Diego County declaring Shen Yun Performance Day. “And I just want to say it’s so well earned after watching your performance. I’m so pleased to present this proclamation to you,” he said to the artists.
“I didn’t know quite what to expect, and I didn’t expect this at all,” Mr. Anderson said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was inspirational, and they are so talented, they do such a lovely job, and I don’t know how they can memorize all those moves, and to work together the way they do is just inspiring.”
“Oh, it was fantastic. It was very uplifting and they were so talented it was really quite amazing,” Mr. Anderson said.
“It was a story of good over evil. You know, we saw what the communists did to China, and we also saw how people persevered in the past and improved their lives despite communism,” he added.
Mr. Anderson felt a strong theme in the program was freedom of expression, and reminded him of the importance of this freedom which exists in the United States but not in authoritarian regimes like communist China.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that teaches the three principles of truth, compassion, and tolerance. Since 1999, the Chinese communist regime has violently persecuted followers of Falun Gong, even extending its oppression overseas.
Mr. Anderson said the program contrasted traditional culture against the communist regime’s ideology.
“You know, I think it’s important for us to be respectful of each other and to give each and every one of us some compassion and understanding, and I think that that just goes to show how important it is that there’s a higher being,” he said.
“That we aren’t just accountable to ourselves. We’re accountable to a higher being, so therefore, we have to be the best person we can be. When we’re only accountable to the government, it brings out the worst in us. When we are accountable to somebody greater than us, it brings out the best in us,” he added.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, it was so special and incredible,” he said. “Beautiful dancers, but dancing like I’ve never seen before. So it was quite amazing and uplifting and I don’t know how anybody could spend this time here and not feel super excited to tell their friends about it.”
