HAMILTON, Canada—When someone is taught an idea from birth, it can be difficult to change their mind.
“It makes your heart just pound. You absolutely can’t believe that these kids can do such wonderful dancing,” Ms. Coady said. “It’s absolutely incredible. I’m so glad my ticket was $200 and I would have paid $400. It was amazing.”
Having been a professor in China, Ms. Coady said she knows first hand the lack of privacy and the difficulty Chinese face in sharing their ideas and thoughts due to the communist party censorship and monitoring.
But, she added, “I want to tell you something that happened tonight. I have a gentleman sitting beside me and he came in a little bit late. And I was watching him, and I could feel his body twitch. And he has a long face. I looked at him and I kept looking at him. And he started having tears running down his cheeks. And when they finished, I said to him, are you okay? And he said, ‘My mother-in-law is in jail with them.’ Can you imagine what he has to go through? So that’s why this whole thing is so important.”
“He’s here in Canada, not knowing how to get [to] his mother-in-law,” Ms. Coady added.
“Thank you for bringing this because it’s been incredible. God bless you all,” she said.