PORTLAND, Ore.—Rex Wallace was in attendance for Shen Yun Performing Arts at Portland’s Keller Auditorium on Jan. 17.

“It was incredible. Visually stunning and culturally rich,” said Mr. Wallace, director of Medicare Star Ratings at Cambia Health Solutions. “A great show.”

It was Mr. Wallace’s first time seeing New York-based Shen Yun, and the uniqueness of the performance was not lost upon him.

He felt that especially significant was Shen Yun’s portrayal of Chinese traditional culture here in the United States, rather than in its homeland of China.

For 60 years, traditional culture has been suppressed to the point of near extinction under communist rule in China. However, since 2006, Shen Yun has been traveling the globe, resurrecting this lost treasure of divine culture.

“The show was great,” Mr. Wallace added, “because it taught you that the things they’re showing in these performing arts here in Portland, they can’t show in China.”

The performance held special meaning for Mr. Wallace, notably the human rights issues in China, because his daughter is from there.

“There were some tragic stories in the show where a mother died and a daughter was crying for her. So it taught me a lot,” he said, referring to the depicted persecution of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, in the piece titled The Steadfast Lotus.

“So it taught me a lot about the 5,000 years, and the history, and life in China,” he added.

Mr. Wallace also noted a unique feeling of warmth and benevolence that flowed through him during the performance.

“It made me very compassionate about the country and the people there—even more so than I already was,” he said. “There was injustice, and it made you really feel compassion about that.”

Reporting by Chen Si and Michael Fitzgerald.

New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts has four touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world. For more information, visit Shen Yun Performing Arts.

The Epoch Times considers Shen Yun Performing Arts the significant cultural event of our time. We have proudly covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.