Jean-Pierre Durandeau is Head of Product for software company Framework and is originally from Liles, France. He attended Now York-based Shen Yun at London’s Eventim Apollo on Jan. 25, 2020.

Durandeau took a lot away from these themes, he said.

“Basically when you reference to divinity and all these kinds of things, this is the part I call ’spiritual' because let’s say it really speaks to the religious part of our mind, yes,” he said, acknowledging that the pursuit of the sacred may be rooted in everyone.

“So from that point of view, this speaks to me as it should speak to anybody who has any kind of reasonable religious feeling inside, irrespectively of whether it’s Christian, or ... From that point of view, that’s clear for me, that’s [a] universal message,” Durandeau said, referring to Shen Yun’s inclusion of scenes with the Creator and other heavenly beings.

Durandeau went on to share his thoughts about Shen Yun’s mission to restore traditional Chinese culture for the good of the world.

“I think, let’s say, when you have a country with such a long history, with such a rich philosophy and history of ideas and creations, I think it’s very valuable not to lose this culture, or to lose these traditions, but on the contrary, to be sure that it is kept alive and it is being transmitted from one generation to the next.

“I think one of the things that we are losing here in Europe is basically our traditions, our own culture; we do not transmit that to the others. It’s the same kind of problem so, from that point of view, this effort for me is absolutely crucial for everybody, not only for Chinese people or for people from Chinese descent, but also for the world itself because we cannot afford to lose traditions, culture, philosophy, ideas which have made a huge nation, a great nation.”

To Shen Yun’s dancers and artists, Durandeau wished them “Happy New Year. All the best. I think it’s the year of the rat. I’m a tiger by the way!”