WASHINGTON, D.C.—Policy adviser and thought leader Steve Yates was a scholar of classical Chinese culture, and on Jan. 26, he saw the nearly lost civilization come to life on stage.

“It was a very interesting performance. The dance moves were very incredible just because, obviously, there’s a lot of technique involved, so just the choreography was pretty amazing to see come together,” said Mr. Yates after seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts.

He and his wife, Michelle, attended a performance at The Kennedy Center Opera House on the evening of Jan. 26.

“That’s the China that I studied,” said Mr. Yates, who speaks Mandarin fluently, has a Chinese name, and has served in several adviser posts in national security at the federal level. Mr. Yates is a founding member of the DC International Advisory, is a senior fellow and chair of the China Policy Initiative at the America First Policy Institute, and was the former president of Radio Free Asia.

“And so, the China after communism, I always feel like is a rude interruption,” he said. “I like the sort of return to the roots, return to the past. And I also just think it’s factually correct. The Communist Party does not represent continuity with China’s past. It is an alien intrusion into an otherwise long and, I think, honorable tradition.”

“It made me recall some things that I had read in classical Chinese before,” he said. “It’s been many, many years since I studied classical Chinese, so just sort of hearing the intonations and rhythms of all of that, and that form of storytelling, is just kind of soothing to me.”

“Seeing it live was amazing. The colors, the pageantry, the theatric, just all the movements,” she said. “I got chills on a couple of different moves and a couple of different scenes.”

“I had been waiting for a couple of years, actually, to see the show. I kept saying, ‘I want to go, I want to go,’” she added. “So, it was really amazing to see. It was beautiful. I loved it.”