NEW YORK CITY—Seeing Shen Yun Performing Arts gave Tony Lyons, founder and president of Skyhorse Publishing, hope that culture could be preserved, and, indeed, revived.

Mr. Lyons attended Shen Yun’s last performance in New York City this season, at the Lincoln Center David H. Koch Theater on April 11. New York-based Shen Yun’s mission is to revive 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, or as it describes, “China before communism,” and the performance gave Mr. Lyons hope and inspiration.

“They should be proud of the preservation of a culture,” Mr. Lyons said.

While traditional culture is and has undergone destruction all around the world, he added, there is also a “growing desire in millions and millions of people to bring back culture, to bring back something real, something that people can believe in, something that they can look at and they can say, ‘I think that’s true, that there’s something authentic in it,” he said. “And this was really authentic.”

Mr. Lyons was pleased to see Shen Yun on the year of America’s 250th anniversary, he added, finding it fitting and inspiring as someone who is also trying to preserve culture.

“There are a lot of other people, and I try to be one of them, who are trying to preserve something and to grow something and to build on it so that we can have a country that, you know, is authentic and is improving and is heading towards something better,” he said.

Born in America

Mr. Lyons said he learned during the performance that Shen Yun is an American company, founded by Falun Gong practitioners, including those who experienced religious persecution in China.

“I would never have thought that,” he said. “I just learned today that all of these incredible dancers and these singers and these musicians, all of them are trained in New York, in upstate New York. How could that be? You know, these people seem more authentic, and probably are than anybody in China now, because in China, you know, the love and the honor of their history is just kept down. It’s forced down.”

When the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, it began violent campaigns to destroy Chinese culture and divorce the people from their past. During the Cultural Revolution, which spanned a decade, 1966-1976, books were burned, artworks smashed, and temples razed.

Mr. Lyons referenced the destruction, pointing out that one needs to travel to Japan today in order to witness some of the architectural styles that were destroyed in China.

“I think it’s beautiful that the United States and so many other countries are giving Chinese people the opportunity to preserve their culture,” he said.

Mr. Lyons said he saw some of the beauty, honor, and glory of 5,000 years of Chinese history, and felt the Chinese ought to be proud of this culture and heritage.

“Because that’s how you build a strong, powerful, interesting future for the people in your country, not by destroying everything just because you want to redo it,” he said.

Through the performance, Mr. Lyons also learned about Falun Gong, a spiritual practice centered around the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance. Also known as Falun Dafa, the practice gained widespread popularity upon its introduction to the public in China in the early 1990s, but by 1999, the Chinese communist regime launched a violent persecution aimed at ending the practice.

Shen Yun performances typically include a vignette that touches on the persecution, showing Falun Gong practitioners and others in China today who hold onto traditional values and culture even amid persecution.

Mr. Lyons said he believes the persecution is the regime’s “fear of things that are authentic.”

“It’s a fear of things that can’t be controlled. Things that have a life of their own. You know, millions of people feeling that they can make decisions for themselves, that they have personal power and that the government can’t touch them, because the material things you can take from people, but you can’t take people’s beliefs, people’s values, people’s love, people’s sincerity, people’s willingness to to share and explore together. That’s something you carry with you, no matter what anybody takes from you,” he said.

Shen Yun Performers Show Young People Hope

Mr. Lyons thought the performers of Shen Yun showed hope and a model for enriching the lives of young people who are so hopeless today.

“The level of skill, of just natural skill and talent and training and the beauty of it, and the preservation of culture—those young people, just the grace of their performance and the sincerity in it, and the seriousness of the way that they approached, it was just a unique experience that you just don’t get in any other way, in any other venue. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.

Mr. Lyons said he recently learned about Shen Yun artists and the training they receive at Fei Tian College and Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, top classical Chinese dance schools based in New York. He found their pursuit of excellence admirable and hoped these lessons could be replicated for more young people. In a culture where effort is trivialized, young people can lose hope seeing that failure and success are equally rewarded, or not rewarded, he said, and he saw in Shen Yun artists what it means to do one’s best not to compete or for material gain, but for an internal goal and standard.

“I think that every school in America would be better if they integrated some of the principles and some of the dedication and some of the skill that these kids are developing,” he said. “You should be in competition with yourself to do the very best you can do. And that’s what’s going to give you hope, and that’s what’s going to give you joy, and that’s what’s going to make it possible for you to connect with other people in this world. And that, I think, leads to a life that is worth living and that is enjoyable, and that is meaningful. This, I think, was an incredible experience, and people all around the world ought to come here and see what’s possible.”

“There’s a lot that you can control. There’s a lot that you can have an impact on, and you can improve your life. And that’s the message that I think Shen Yun shows people and will show people all around the world. That with effort, there’s so much more that you can do than you can possibly imagine,” he said.

Reporting by NTD and Catherine Yang.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.