ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—Lance Tenhoopen, CEO of an IT company, and his friend Nan Li, an engineer, arrived at the Duke Energy Center for the Arts on Jan. 16 to watch Shen Yun Performing Arts. This is already their third time attending the show, and they’re still eager for more.

“We love it. It’s a good show. Very, very well done. We go to a lot of shows here and all over the world,” Mr. Tenhoopen said.

Mr. Tenhoopen loved the spiritual messages Shen Yun presented and the very uplifting, happy endings of its story-based dances.

The mission of Shen Yun artists is to return to the world’s stage—the glory and beauty of China’s 5,000 years of divinely inspired culture.

“As an American, I like [the spirituality], and I know some of the issues. When I was in Shanghai, the CCP would knock on my door even though I had a Chinese visa,” he said.

“If you go to Beijing, there’s a lot of fear—you can’t speak without that information going back to the government in some form or fashion. In America, we don’t have that. The government wouldn’t care what we say. We have freedom of speech.”

Though Shen Yun is well-beloved by audiences around the world, it is currently forbidden by the ruling Chinese regime from performing in China. In fact, many of Shen Yun’s founding members had fled to America to escape persecution by the communist party.

He loved that the performance covered legends from the creation of the human world all the way to present-day China. He, too, was inspired by the artists’ effort to uphold traditional values such as truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

“The [spiritual] tenets go far back and promote good things and equality, but communism is getting in the way. It’s nice to know about that,” he expressed.

Mrs. Cope also thoroughly enjoyed the show.

“We love this show. It was so beautiful that it made me cry, that’s how beautiful it was. We will come back again. We’re so happy that we were able to be here.”