Mrs. Vermeulen came to the matinee at McCall Hall on April 9 to watch the classical Chinese dance and music performance with her son, retired dentist Peter Vermeulen.
Mr. Vermeulen felt strongly about Shen Yun’s mission to preserve China’s traditional culture.“I think it’s incredibly important,” he said. “I think it’s monumentally important to bring Americans the awareness of what it is they are taking for granted, and the battle that is being waged by millions upon millions of wonderful people in China against the Communist Party.”
Peter Vermeulen’s parents left Holland in the 1950s, he said, due to increased socialism in the country. The couple went on a Lindblad Tour to China right after President Nixon’s visit there in the ‘70s. Mrs. Vermeulen remembers this trip as a significant and fascinating one that ignited her interest in Chinese culture.
“My father was an engineer who came to the United States as an immigrant after World War II,” Mr. Vermeulen said. “They came here seeking opportunities and freedoms that, even after we'd won the war, that socialism was not going to provide, and that only America with its freedom and its democracy was able to offer. My father became an individual who started his own business and [had] opportunities that only America could afford to an individual such as that,” he said.
In addition, the Vermeulens are Christians and so empathize with the religious persecution suffered by millions of Chinese citizens today. Shen Yun’s programming touches upon this issue with a few dances that show people of faith being persecuted by the atheist regime.One thing that we can all agree upon, he said, is that the persecution of those of faith is wrong. “That’s something that we really understand fully the ramifications of.”
“I think it is important to understand the culture of the past and the beauty of the Chinese people, and what it is that, like I said before, that the good souls of China are fighting there, and the battle that is being waged. And we must continue that fight.”
The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.
