TORONTO—Shen Yun Performing Arts wowed the audience at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts with its summer performance, rescheduled after a Chinese security hoax in March.

Edward Chin, a former hedge fund manager and organizer of the World Hong Kong forum, returned to Canada in 2021 from Hong Kong after China’s communist regime enacted its national security law in the city the year before.

On June 27, Mr. Chin arrived to celebrate the traditional culture presented by New York-based Shen Yun. “I think it’s magnificent,” Mr. Chin said. “I saw the show 12 years ago in Taipei. This time, there are episodes on Falun Gong practitioners. I think that gives a very powerful message. I particularly like the stories on what happened to Falun Gong because it is close enough for me.”

Falun Gong practitioners follow a spiritual practice guided by the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. Shen Yun presented a powerful dance story, “The Steadfast Heart,” about organ harvesting by the communist regime.

According to the program, “This contemporary story reflects the reality faced by countless people in China today. Falun Dafa practitioners could once be found in parks across China. But in 1999, the communist regime, fearing the practice’s popularity, launched a brutal campaign to wipe it out.”

Shen Yun features a live orchestra that blends Chinese music with Western instruments. A solo performance by the two-stringed Chinese instrument erhu impressed Mr. Chin. “I [liked] the one with the erhu and the piano. This is the first time I saw that they can have a duet like that.

“I think it’s good because some people think only the violin and piano work together, but nobody would expect [the erhu] could resonate well with the piano.”

Referring to the bomb hoax believed to be linked to the Chinese regime in the spring, Mr. Chin said, “I hope the show can go on. Of course, we know that for a democratic country like Canada, even though it’s not perfect, we shouldn’t have bomb threats like these to scare people away. That definitely makes [China’s] ruling party look very barbaric, right? It doesn’t look good on them.”

For now, “People in the Far East can go to Taiwan to watch it because I think that’s one place where people can enjoy watching it,” he said.