Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York-based company, took the stage at Swansea Building Society Arena in Wales to present “China before communism.”

Audience members watching the performance on March 25 and 26 said the performance was “breathtaking.”

“Absolutely stunning, breathtaking, an insight into the different cultural movements and dance [of China],” artist Neil Machin said.

“It’s been a fantastic performance, really exciting, quite diverse, lots of different things for us to see. It’s been brilliant,” manager Alex Machin said.

Due to the Chinese Communist Party’s decades-long effort to systematically destroy this culture, few people in China are truly able to express and celebrate this authentic Chinese culture.

“It’s 100% where we come from. Within Swansea and myself personally, we believe that culture is a human right,” Head of Cultural Services at Swansea Council Tracy McNulty said.

“Your right to your cultural heritage, your right to your language, to your expression, your stories, the narrative that you grew up with, the stories that you share from generation to generation, and your traditions; that’s your human right to have access to those traditions and those stories and your sense of place in the world is really important,” she said.

“I think these days, we have to go back. We have to look at the way things were, and embrace the culture that we came from,” manager Brian Edwards said. “We do the same thing in Wales. It’s disappeared a little bit, but we’re trying to promote Welsh culture and stuff like that.

“I think they should do that in China. It’s absolutely wonderful and it’s great to see it,” he said.

“Really nice traditional stories, with a message in them about being good and helping people, supporting people. So that was really nice. I enjoyed that,” scientist consultant Peter Evans said.

“I think it gave it a depth really, rather than just surface dancing. There was a message, a spiritual message and then a cultural message. So you had those different levels.”

“I really believe that if people were to watch that, they would see a rich heritage; they will see a community, a society steeped in belief,” McNulty said.

She added, “To the artists, I would say, wow, your technical capabilities are outstanding. Your classicism, your ability to both work as a team and be individual artists was phenomenal. I was blown away. I was so impressed, so impressed. Absolutely world class.”