“It was breathtaking,” said Mr. Jones. “It was magical and I was so grateful. My daughters are half-Chinese, and I was so grateful that they got to be here.”

Mr. Jones said that he wished for his daughters to have a connection with their Chinese heritage.

“I want them to see and be very proud of all of who they are … I want them to be stewards of their culture. If we forget our ancestors, we forget our posterity.”

In addition to being a filmmaker, Mr. Jones is also an author, activist, and human rights worker.

“Our stories, whatever our culture, they belong to us, [so] we have to restore those stories and share them. It (Shen Yun) inspires me and it gave me hope that the stories are being preserved. The heritage is being preserved and shared right here in our nation’s capital.”

“China existed before communism and China will exist after communism,” he said. “The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is tethering and will collapse soon.”

Other than a number of dance vignettes, Shen Yun’s program also includes songs performed in the traditional bel canto style. The lyrics of a song condemned atheism and the theory of evolution and urged a return to belief in the divine.

“I thought that was wonderful because what this really communicates is the incomparable dignity and beauty of the human person,” said Mr. Jones.

“There is nothing in the cosmos more wonderful than the human person, and that’s what was really communicated through the performance.”