HOUSTON—When Susybelle Gosslee, a lifelong human rights activist, saw Shen Yun Performing Arts for the first time, she did not see a simple performance of Chinese dance and music. Instead, she saw something far greater—an artistic masterpiece with profound messages about harmony, sensitivity, and compassion.

Because the Chinese Communist Party largely destroyed traditional Chinese culture over the past few decades, Shen Yun, a New York-based performing arts company, seeks to revive China’s traditional moral values and cultural traditions.

With its performance, the company uplifts audiences, bringing them on a journey through 5,000 years of Chinese history, as their website states.

Ms. Gosslee had the pleasure of watching Shen Yun with her granddaughter on Dec. 26 at the Houston Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. Now in her 70’s, Ms. Gosslee has devoted a large part of her life to human rights activism, including serving a position as vice president of advocacy for the League of Women Voters of Dallas.

Within Shen Yun, she saw the fundamentals of her human rights advocacy reflected in the performance.

“We can live in harmony together just as the music is in harmony,” Ms. Gosslee said in reference to the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra, a pioneer in seamlessly combining a grand Western symphony with distinctive and expressive Chinese classical instruments to create a unique and refreshing sound.

“It comes together in perfect beauty,” Ms. Gosslee said.

She admired Shen Yun for bringing back a culture nearly crushed by adversity and creating from it a cultural performance about human compassion, beauty, and sensitivity.

“Sensitivity for others is extremely important because that’s what makes us human,” she said. Ms. Gosslee saw this sensitivity in the dancers in the way they were able to move in perfect unison but at the same time also display their own unique creativity and abilities.

Ms. Gosslee loved Shen Yun for its rich meanings and beauty. “I was so impressed with the beauty of it, bringing in all the history of China and the beauty of the people,” she said. Walking out of the theater, she felt Shen Yun was “creating beauty to improve the world.”

“It is fabulous. I recommend it to everyone,” said Gosslee.

Reporting by NTD Television and Irene Luo

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.